Abstract
With the exception of the Haram al-Sharif area, which included the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem was ceded to the Crusaders by the Ayyubid Sultan al-Malik al-Qāmil in the Treaty of Yāfā in 1229. Pursuant to the treaty, the Crusaders could not carry out reconstruction activities in Jerusalem, whose walls had been completely destroyed. For this reason, the Papacy and Europe, which wanted to militarily support Jerusalem, whose defense had become a problem over time, continued the Crusades from 1239 onwards, when the treaty expired. On the other hand, the Ayyubids did not want to engage in a struggle with the Crusaders as long as they did not take any action against them. However, the Crusaders, reinforced by the arrival of Thibaut, King of Navarra and Count of Champagne, broke the existing peace by plundering a caravan on the Ayyubid frontiers. This event and the Crusaders’ construction activities in Jerusalem drew the attention of al-Adil II, the Sultan of Egypt, and al-Malik al-Nāṣir Dāwūd, the ruler of Kerek, to Jerusalem. Conquering Jerusalem in December 1239, al-Nāṣir expelled the Christians from the city. Although it was the first conquest after the Treaty of Yāfā and was likened to the conquest of Salādin Ayyūbī, this event did not attract the attention of the scholarly world. This situation must be related to the fact that Jerusalem, which had fallen under the control of the Crusaders in early 1244, was conquered by the Khwarezmians in the same year and With the death of many Christians during the struggles. Although there were more Christians in the city at the time of al-Nāṣir’s conquest than when the Khwarezmians entered the city, their safety was ensured by al-Nāṣir and they were taken out of the city in safety. When the Khwarezmians entered Jerusalem, unlike the Ayyubids, they did not tolerate the Christians. This caused the Western world to focus on the activities of the Khwarezmians in Jerusalem rather than the conquest of al-Nāṣir. In this article, the reconquest of Jerusalem in 1239, the surrender of the holy sites to the Crusaders in 1244, and the reconquest of the city by the Khwarezmians in the same year are discussed in the light of changing alliances and the Crusades.
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