The Siege of Jerusalem, 1099
Jerusalem
1099
The events of the first crusade were extremely influential in terms of how Ashkenazi Jews viewed martyrdom. In particular, when it comes to martyrdom in synagogues, the story of Yitzchak the Hassid in Mainz was widely disseminated and has already been covered on this blog. However, another major synagogue massacre occurred once the crusaders arrived in the Holy Land.
The Crusaders reached Jerusalem on June 7, 1099. They put the city under siege and set about looking for wood to build ladders and siege engines. They eventually disassembled a ship in the port of Jaffa for the planks. On July 14 the assault began and the city was breached.
Once inside Jerusalem, the Crusaders brutally massacred the city's inhabitants, in a manner that exceeded even the bloody norms of the time. Jews had fought alongside the Muslim soldiers who defended the city. The city's Muslim population was slaughtered on the Temple Mount, while the Jews retreated to the synagogue and prepared to die.
They did not have to wait long. The Crusaders set fire to the synagogue with the Jews inside, burning them alive and thus wiping out most of the city's Jewish population. (Ibn al-Qalanisi, Damascus Chronicle, 48) Some survivors were ransomed or fled, as records from the Cairo Geniza demonstrate. The event, however, was not memorialized to the same extent as the massacres in Europe.
1099
The events of the first crusade were extremely influential in terms of how Ashkenazi Jews viewed martyrdom. In particular, when it comes to martyrdom in synagogues, the story of Yitzchak the Hassid in Mainz was widely disseminated and has already been covered on this blog. However, another major synagogue massacre occurred once the crusaders arrived in the Holy Land.
The Crusaders reached Jerusalem on June 7, 1099. They put the city under siege and set about looking for wood to build ladders and siege engines. They eventually disassembled a ship in the port of Jaffa for the planks. On July 14 the assault began and the city was breached.
Once inside Jerusalem, the Crusaders brutally massacred the city's inhabitants, in a manner that exceeded even the bloody norms of the time. Jews had fought alongside the Muslim soldiers who defended the city. The city's Muslim population was slaughtered on the Temple Mount, while the Jews retreated to the synagogue and prepared to die.
They did not have to wait long. The Crusaders set fire to the synagogue with the Jews inside, burning them alive and thus wiping out most of the city's Jewish population. (Ibn al-Qalanisi, Damascus Chronicle, 48) Some survivors were ransomed or fled, as records from the Cairo Geniza demonstrate. The event, however, was not memorialized to the same extent as the massacres in Europe.
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