Jerusalem 1244: The Khwarezmian Sack That Ended Ayyubid Rule

In 1244, Jerusalem suffered one of its most devastating sieges, a catastrophe that reshaped the city and the wider Crusader states. This episode explores the Khwarezmian sack of Jerusalem, a brutal event often overshadowed by Saladin's conquest in 1187. We follow the fall of the Khwarezmian Empire to the Mongols, the flight of tens of thousands of nomadic warriors under Jalal al-Din Mingburnu, and their eventual service as mercenaries for the Ayyubid sultan as-Salih Ayyub. Lucas and Luna unpack the siege itself: how Khwarezmian cavalry breached the walls, the massacre of Christians in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the city's near-total depopulation. They also examine the aftermath—the Battle of La Forbie that same year, where the Khwarezmians and Ayyubids crushed a Frankish-Ayyubid coalition, effectively ending Crusader control over Jerusalem for good. Through this lens, they reveal how shifting steppe alliances and Mongol expansion reverberated through the Levant, leaving Jerusalem a ghost town for decades.

#KhwarezmianSack #Jerusalem1244 #AyyubidDynasty #CrusaderStates #JalalalDinMingburnu #AsSahilAyyub #BattleOfLaForbie #MongolExpansion #KhwarezmianEmpire #SiegeOfJerusalem #ChurchOfTheHolySepulchre #Damascus #Cairo #LevantHistory #MedievalMiddleEast #FexingoHistory #HistoryOfJerusalem #History #JerusalemHistory #AncientIsrael

Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo