THE SIEGE OF ACRE
SALADIN, RICHARD THE LIONHEART AND THE BATTLE THAT DECIDED THE THIRD CRUSADE
JOHN D HOSLER Yale University Press, 272pp, £25, Oldie price £20 inc p&p
At 653 days, the siege of Acre was the longest siege of the Middle Ages and consisted of 75 known engagements, including 26 skirmishes, eight set piece battles, ten naval actions, two fighting marches, 12 major assaults against the besieged city and 16 sorties by the Muslim garrison against the besieging Crusader army. There is also a profusion of sources, both Frankish and Muslim. ‘In this pleasingly concise book, John D Hosler, a medievalist teaching at the US Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, skilfully weaves this material into a concentrated, detailed, day-by-day, blow-by-blow narrative,’ wrote Christopher Tyerman in the
Literary Review. ‘His descriptions are at close quarters, vivid, human and humane. Hosler has a firm grasp on the physical experience and a clear understanding of the local terrain, the desperation of battle, the agonies resulting from repeated depletions of food supplies and the squalor of and camaraderie in the besiegers’ trenches. Individual vignettes are sharply polished – one such describes Emir Husām accidentally spilling “Greek fire” (a highly combustible mixture of crude oil and naphtha) onto his testicles.’ The Spectator’s reviewer, Sean Mcglynn, concurred: ‘Hosler, who shows a keen understanding of medieval warfare, relates the chaos of combat in gripping detail – the battles, artillery barrages, mining, ramming, attempts at escalade and numerous naval encounters.’ The siege culminated in a massacre by the Franks of at least 2,700 Muslim prisoners, but, as Hosler persuasively argues, while Richard ‘has earned the opprobrium of historians for this ruthless act… Saladin must take his share of the blame’.