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Articles

A Ridge Too Far: The Siege of Saone/Sahyun in 1188 and Contemporary Trebuchet TechnologyFootnote

Michael S. FultonZinman Institute of Archaeology, University of [email protected]
Pages 33-53 | Published online: 17 Feb 2023

  • Paul Deschamps, Les Châteaux des Croisés en Terre-Sainte, 3 vols. (Paris, 1934–73), 3:127–31; Matthew of Edessa, Patmowt’iwn, trans. Ara Edmond Dostourian, The Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa (Lanham, 1993), 32; Ibn ‘Abd al-Zahir, al-Rawd al-Zahir fi sirat al-Malik al-Zahir, trans. Abdul Aziz al-Khowayter, “A Critical Edition of an Unknown Arabic Source for the Life of al-Malik al-Zahir Baibars, with Introduction, Translation, and Notes,” 3 vols. (unpublished PhD thesis, S.O.A.S., 1960), 2:708–9; A. W. Lawrence, “A Skeletal History of Byzantine Fortification,” The Annual of the British School at Athens 78 (1983): 171–227, at 218–19; Gabriel Saadé, “Histoire du Château de Saladin,” Studi medievali 3/9 (1968): 980–1016, at 983–87. For the Frankish lordship of Saone, see Saadé, “Histoire du Château de Saladin,” 987–91; Deschamps, Les Châteaux des Croisés, 3:227–28; Benjamin Michaudel, “Étude historique de Qal’at Salah al-Din (Sahyun – Château de Saône)” [autumn 2002], in <www.castellorient.fr> (www.castellorient.fr/71–Sahyoun/pdf/Etude historique de Qal___’at Salah al-Din.pdf – last accessed 15 Feb. 2017), 6–9.
  • For studies and descriptions of Saone, see E. G. Rey, Étude sur les monuments de l’architecture militaire des croisés en Syrie et dans l’île de Chypre (Paris, 1871), 105–13; Max Van Berchem and Edmond Fatio, Voyages en Syrie, 2 vols. (Cairo, 1914–15), 1:267–83, 2: pls. 59–62; T. E. Lawrence, Crusader Castles, ed. Denys Pringle (Oxford, 1988), 42–49; Wolfgang Müller-Wiener, Burgen der Kreuzritter (Munich, 1966), trans. J. Maxwell Brownjohn, Castles of the Crusaders (London, 1966), 44–45; Deschamps, Les Châteaux des Croisés, 3:217–47; T. S. R. Boase, “Military Architecture in the Crusader States in Palestine,” in Setton, Crusades, 4:145–49; Hugh Kennedy, Crusader Castles (Cambridge, 1994), 84–95; Jean Mesqui, “Saône / Sahyoun / Qalaat Salah ad-Din: Rapport préliminaire de la mission effectuée du 15 au 20 mai 2002” [15/2/2004], in <www.castellorient.fr> (www.castellorient.fr/71–Sahyoun/pdf/rapport preliminaire.pdf – last accessed 15 Feb. 2017); Benjamin Michaudel, “Le château de Saône / Qal’at Salah al-Din,” (unpublished paper, 2007) [made available on academia.edu]; Jean Mesqui, “Die Burg Saône (Sahyun, Qal’at Salah ad-Din),” in Burgen und Städte der Kreuzzugszeit, ed. Mathias Piana (Petersburg, 2008), 356–66.
  • ‘Imad al-Din and Baha’ al-Din joined Saladin’s service in 1175 and 1188 respectively: D. S. Richards, “A Consideration of Two Sources for the Life of Saladin,” Journal of Semitic Studies 25/1 (1980): 46–65, at 48, 50. Ibn al-Athir appears to have accompanied the army after visiting Jerusalem, following its liberation in 1187. Although his presence is less certain, at certain points he speaks in the first person when describing events of Saladin’s Syrian campaign and appears to contribute original information about the siege of Bourzey: Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil fi’l-ta’rikh, trans. D. S. Richards, The Chronicle of Ibn al-Athir for the Crusading Period from al-Kamil fi’l-ta’rikh, 3 vols. (Aldershot, 2008), 2:350. See also Saadé, “Histoire du Château de Saladin,” 996.
  • Baha’ al-Din Yusuf ibn Shaddad, al-Nawadir al-Sultaniyya wa’l-Mahasin al-Yusufiyya, trans. D. S. Richards, The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin (Aldershot, 2001), 84–85. For the Arabic, see Bahā’ al-Dīn Ibn Shaddād, al-Nawādir al-sulṭāniyya wa’l maḥāsin al-yūsufiyya: sīrat Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn, ed. Jamāl al-Dīn al-Shayyāl, 2nd ed. (Cairo, 1994), 146–74.
  • Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil, trans. Richards, 2:347–48. For the Arabic, see Ibn al-Athīr, al-Kāmil fī al-ta’rīkh, ed. Muḥammad al-Daqqāq, 11 vols. (Beirut, 2003), 10:469–70.
  • ‘Imad al-Din al-Isfahani, al-Fath al-Qussi fi’l-Fath al-Qudsi, trans. Henri Massé, Conquête de la Syrie et de la Palestine par Saladin (Paris, 1972), 131–33; Abu Shama, Kitab al-Raudatain, ed. and trans. as Livre des deux Jardins, RHC Or, 4:365–67. This is not a perfect melding of the two accounts but it conveys all pertinent parts of each description. For the Arabic, see ‘Imād al-Dīn al-Iṣfahānī, al-Fatḥ al-qussī fī al-fatḥ al-qudsī, ed. Suhayl Zakkār, in al-Mawsū‘a al-shāmiyya fī ta’rīkh al-ḥurūb al-ṣalībiyya, 40 vols. (Damascus, 1995), 13:5942–44; Abū Shāma, Kitāb al-rawḍatain fī akhbār al-dawlatain al-nūriyya wa’l ṣalāḥiyya, ed. Ibrāḥīm Shams al-Dīn, 5 vols. (Beirut, 2002), 4:16–17.
  • Rey, Étude sur les monuments, 112–13.
  • Van Berchem and Fatio, Voyages en Syrie, 1:274–77.
  • Saadé, “Histoire du Château de Saladin,” 999–1002.
  • Deschamps, Les Châteaux des Croisés, 3:228–30; Kennedy, Crusader Castles, 95–96.
  • This theory is best articulated in Michaudel, “Étude historique,” 15–16. See also Mesqui, “Saône,” 14, 18; Michaudel, “Le château de Saône,” 3.
  • For the most influential, see Paul E. Chevedden, “The Invention of the Counterweight Trebuchet: A Study in Cultural Diffusion,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 54 (2000): 71–116; idem, “The Artillery of King James I the Conqueror,” in Iberia and the Mediterranean World of the Middle Ages: Essays in Honor of Robert I. Burns S.J., ed. Paul E. Chevedden, Donald J. Kagay and Paul G. Padilla, vol. 2 (Leiden, 1996), 47–94. See also Carroll Gillmor, “The Introduction of the Traction Trebuchet into the Latin West,” Viator 12 (1981): 1–8; Donald R. Hill, “Trebuchets,” Viator 4 (1973): 99–114.
  • Rey, Étude sur les monuments, 110; Saadé, “Histoire du Château de Saladin,” 998–99 and pl. 4.
  • See Michael S. Fulton, Artillery in the Era of the Crusades: Siege Warfare and the Development of Trebuchet Technology (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming), based on idem, “Artillery in and around the Latin East” (unpublished PhD thesis, Cardiff University, 2015).
  • For the siege of 1287, see Abu al-Fida’, al-Mukhtasar fi Akhbar al-Bashar, ed. and trans. as Résumé des Histoire des Croisades tiré des Annales d’Abou’l-Feda, RHC Or, 1:162; trans. P. M. Holt, The Memoirs of a Syrian Prince: Abu’l-Fida’, Sultan of Hamah (672–732/1273–1331) (Wiesbaden, 1983), 13; Templar of Tyre, Gestes des Chiprois 461–62, ed. Laura Minervini, Cronaca del Templare di Tiro (1243–1314) (Naples, 2000), 186; trans. Paul Crawford, The “Templar of Tyre”: Part III of the Deeds of the Cypriots (Aldershot, 2003), 94–95. For examples of such projectiles, see Bashford Dean, “The Exploration of a Crusaders’ Fortress (Montfort) in Palestine,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 22/9 (Sep. 1927): 5–46, at 23, 38; Kate Raphael and Yotam Tepper, “The Archaeological Evidence from the Mamluk Siege of Arsuf,” Mamluk Studies Review 9/1 (2005): 85–100; Laure Barthet, “La prise de la barbacane de Montségur (Ariège) en février 1244: une introduction a l’archéologie de la poliorcétique,” in Artillerie et fortification, 1200–1600, ed. Nicolas Prouteau, Emmanuel de Crouy-Chanel and Nicolas Faucherre (Rennes, 2011), 41–48. For an introduction to the development of artillery in the Levant during the period of the crusades, see Michael S. Fulton, “Development of Prefabricated Artillery during the Crusades,” Journal of Medieval Military History 13 (2015): 51–72.
  • The siege lasted as long as four months before they were bought off: WT 21.18, 24, pp. 986–87, 994–96; trans. Emily Babcock and A. C. Krey, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea, 2 vols. (New York, 1976), 2:425–26, 434–35; Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil, trans. Richards, 2:254–56; Abu Shama, Kitab al-Raudatain, RHC Or, 4:191–93. For the defences of Harim, see Sauro Gelichi, “The Citadel of Harim,” in Muslim Military Architecture in Greater Syria: From the Coming of Islam to the Ottoman Period, ed. Hugh Kennedy (Leiden, 2006), 184–200; Gelichi, “Die Burg Harim,” in Burgen und Städte der Kreuzzugszeit, ed. Mathias Piana (Petersburg, 2008), 211–20.
  • WT 21.24, p. 995; trans. Babcock and Krey, 2:434–35. For Nur al-Din’s siege of Harim, see WT 19.9, pp. 874–75; trans. Babcock and Krey, 2:306–08; Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil, trans. Richards, 2:146–48; Anonymous Syriac Chronicle, trans. Arthur S. Tritton with notes by H. A. R. Gibb, “The First and Second Crusade from an Anonymous Syriac Chronicle,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 65 (1933): 69–101, 273–305, at 303–04.
  • If the release angle (α, expressed in radians) and release velocity (V) are known, or hypothetically determined, the maximum elevation (Remax) of a projectile during flight can be determined by incorporating the rate of acceleration due to gravity (g): Remax=(v·COSα)2/2g The elevation (Re) of a projectile at any horizontal distance (Rh) during its flight can also be determined: Re= = Rh v·COSα/v·SINα-½g(Rh2/V·SINα2) or Re = Rh · TANα-g(Rh)2/2(V·COSα)2 The latter equations have been used to generate the graphs depicting the hypothetical trajectories at Harim and Bourzey. For a closer examination of the mathematics, see Mark Denny, “Siege Engine Dynamics” European Journal of Physics 26 (2005): 561–77.
  • A translation of the relevant section of al-Tarsusi’s treatise can be found in Paul E. Chevedden, Zvi Schiller, Samuel R. Gilbert and Donald J. Kagay, “The Traction Trebuchet: A Triumph of Four Civilizations,” Viator 31 (2000), 433–86, at 460–61. Images in the mid-thirteenth century Morgan Bible were also consulted: Morgan Bible, New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M.638, fols. 23v, 43v.
  • W. T. S. Tarver, “The Traction Trebuchet: A Reconstruction of an Early Medieval Siege Engine,” Technology and Culture 36/1 (Jan., 1995): 136–67.
  • Al-Tarsusi, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Hunt. 264, fols. 134v–135r; Villard of Honnecourt, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS fr. 19093, fol. 30r.
  • Jean Mesqui and Benjamin Michaudel, “Bourzey – Hisn Burzaih / Burzuih / Qal’at Mirze: rapport de la mission effectuée du 27/05/2001 au 02/06/2001” [19/06/03], in <www.castellorient.fr> (www.castellorient.fr/5–Bourzey/pdf/BOURZEYdfcorrige3.pdf – last accessed 15 Feb. 2017), 11. The Franco-Syrian expedition concluded that the elevation disparity between the point at which they suspected that Saladin planted his engines and the foundations of the walls which they assailed was about 60 m. See also Benjamin Michaudel, “Burzaih,” in Burgen und Städte der Kreuzzugszeit, ed. Mathias Piana (Petersburg, 2008), 178–87.
  • Baha’ al-Din, al-Nawadir, trans. Richards, 86; ‘Imad al-Din, al-Fath, trans. Massé, 136; Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil, trans. Richards, 2:350. See also Abu al-Fida, al-Mukhtasar, RHC Or, 1:59.
  • For the siege of Shughr-Bakas, see Baha’ al-Din, al-Nawadir, trans. Richards, 85; ‘Imad al-Din, al-Fath, trans. Massé, 133–35; Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil, trans. Richards, 2:348–49. For the castle of Shughr-Bakas, see Deschamps, Les Châteaux des Croisés, 3:349–50; Boase, “Military Architecture,” 162. See also Abu al-Fida, al-Mukhtasar, RHC Or, 1:59.
  • For these sieges, see Baha’ al-Din, al-Nawadir, trans. Richards, 82–83; ‘Imad al-Din, al-Fath, trans. Massé, 124–31; Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil, trans. Richards, 2:345–47; Abu al-Fida’, al-Mukhtasar, RHC Or, 1:59; Itinerarium peregrinorum et gesta Regis Ricardi 1.13, ed. William Stubbs, RS 38, vol. 1 (London, 1864), 26–27; trans. Helen Nicholson, Chronicle of the Third Crusade: A Translation of the Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi (Aldershot, 1997), 43; letter from Hermenger to Leopold of Austria, in Ansbert, Historia de expeditione Friderici imperatoris, ed. Anton Chroust, in Quellen zur Geschichte des Kreuzzuges Kaiser Friedrichs I, MGH SRG N.S. 5 (Berlin, 1928), 4; trans. Malcolm Barber and Keith Bate, Letters from the East: Crusaders, Pilgrims and Settlers in the 12th–13th Centuries (Farnham, 2010), no. 48, p. 86.
  • Ibn ‘Abd al-Zahir, al-Rawd, trans. al-Khowayter, 2:749–51; John E. Morris, The Welsh Wars of Edward I: A Contribution to Medieval History, Based on Original Documents (Oxford, 1901), 212–13, 216–17; Anne Solomon, The Last Siege of Dryslwyn Castle (Carmarthen, 1982), 36–37.
  • ‘Imad al-Din, al-Fath, trans. Massé, 104–7; Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil, trans. Richards, 2:333; Baha’ al-Din, al-Nawadir, trans. Richards, 88, 91; Abu Shama, Kitab al-Raudatain, RHC Or, 4:381–82; al-Maqrizi, al-Suluk, trans. R. J. C. Broadhurst, A History of the Ayyubid Sultans of Egypt (Boston, 1980), 87–88; Itinerarium 1.15, ed. Stubbs, 29–30; trans. Nicholson, 45–46; Eracles Continuation of William of Tyre 26.9, ed. as L’Estoire de Eracles Empereur et la Conqueste de la Terre d’Outremer, RHC Oc, 2:104–5 (lower text), 188.
  • See Nicolas Faucherre, with Christian Corvisier, Phillippe Dangles and Benjamin Michaudel, “La forteresse de Shawbak (Crac de Montréal), une des premières forteresses franques sous son corset mamelouk,” in La fortification au temps de croisades, ed. Nicolas Faucherre, Jean Mesqui and Nicolas Prouteau (Rennes, 2004), 62–64.
  • WT 22.29, 31, pp. 1055–57, 1059–60; trans. Babcock and Krey, 2:498–501, 503–04; Baha’ al-Din, al-Nawadir, trans. Richards, 62, 64–65; Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil, trans. Richards, 2:297–98, 299–300; Abu Shama, Kitab al-Raudatain, RHC Or, 4:248, 254–55; letter from Baldwin IV to the Frankish delegation in Europe, in Ralph of Diceto, Ymagines historiarum, ed. William Stubbs, Opera Historica: The Historical Works of Ralph of Diceto, Dean of London, RS 68, vol. 2 (London, 1876), 27–28.
  • Baha’ al-Din, al-Nawadir, trans. Richards, 110–11, 122, 124–25, 147, 148–50, 156; ‘Imad al-Din, al-Fath, trans. Massé, 217–19, 245, 293–94, 295–97, 306–8, 310–11, 314–15; Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil, trans. Richards, 2:373, 378, 387; Itinerarium 1.36, 54, 2.28, 3.4, 7, ed. Stubbs, 84–85, 105, 181, 214, 218–20; trans. Nicholson, 90–91, 109, 177–78, 204, 208–09; Ambroise, Estoire de la Guerre Sainte ll. 1341–45, 3191–222, 3529–34, 4749–800, ed. Gaston Paris, L’Estoire de la Guerre Sainte (Paris, 1897), 36, 86, 95, 127–28; trans. Marianne Ailes, with Malcolm Barber, The History of the Holy War: Ambroise’s Estoire de la Guerre Sainte (Woodbridge, 2003), 50, 77–78, 82, 98–99; Roger of Howden, Chronica, ed. William Stubbs, RS 51, 4 vols. (London, 1868–71), 3:22, 111, 113, 116–17; trans. Henry T. Riley, The Annals of Roger de Hoveden: Comprising the History of England and of Other Countries of Europe, from A.D. 732 to A.D. 1201, 2 vols. (London, 1853), 2:128, 205, 207, 210–11; Bar Hebraeus, Makhtebhanuth Zabhne, trans. Ernest A. Wallis Budge, The Chronography of Gregory Abu’l Faraj, vol. 2 (London, 1932, reprinted Amsterdam, 1976), 334.
  • See Deschamps, Les Châteaux des Croisés, 3:230. Cf. Mesqui, “Saône,” 14.
  • Baha’ al-Din, al-Nawadir, trans. Richards, 86; ‘Imad al-Din, al-Fath, trans. Massé, 136–39; Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil, trans. Richards, 2:350–52. Cf. the account of Ibn Wasil, trans. in Mesqui and Michaudel, “Bourzey,” 8. Ibn al-Athir describes the gradient beyond the outer eastern walls as climbable but too steep to fight from.
  • See n. 3 above.
  • Richards, “A Consideration of Two Sources,” 58–61.
  • This is not the only point in his narrative history where Baha’ al-Din praises the role of al-Zahir Ghazi; see ibid., 57.

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