1187–1291

The Third Crusade, Saladin's Capture of Jerusalem, and the Fall of Acre

Sultan Saladin had united Egypt and Syria. In 1187, after Frankish provocations, he destroyed the Christian army at the Sea of Galilee. After a twelve-day siege he took Jerusalem. He treated the captives mercifully, unlike the massacre of 1099.

In response came the "kings' crusade" of Frederick Barbarossa (who drowned in Cilicia), Philip II of France, and Richard the Lionheart. In 1189–1192 it retook Acre but failed to recover Jerusalem. Richard concluded a peace treaty with Saladin. It allowed Christian pilgrimage while the city remained under Muslim rule.

The Crusader states lingered for another century. In 1291, after a forty-three-day siege, their last stronghold, Acre, fell with a massacre of its inhabitants. Tyre, Sidon, and Beirut followed soon after. This ended the Latin presence in Palestine for good.