Crusaders Storm Jerusalem and Massacre Its Population
Fulcher of Chartres describes wading in blood inside the Temple Mount
Quick facts
- Location
- Jerusalem
- Crusader leader
- Godfrey of Bouillon
- Casualty estimates
- Christian sources claim 10,000-70,000; the Muslim source Ibn al-Arabi gives about 3,000 of a population of 30,000
- Aftermath
- Godfrey of Bouillon made ruler of Jerusalem; founding of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
What happened
After a five-week siege, crusader forces under Godfrey of Bouillon breached Jerusalem's walls using siege towers built from timber brought by Genoese ships. Once inside, the crusaders killed most of the city's Muslim and Jewish inhabitants. Fulcher of Chartres, a chaplain who took part in the assault, wrote that in the temple of Solomon alone almost ten thousand were killed, and that "our feet were colored to our ankles with the blood of the slain," adding that neither women nor children were spared. Modern historians treat the highest medieval death tolls, some sources claim up to 70,000, as exaggerated; a contemporary Muslim source, Ibn al-Arabi, put the number closer to 3,000 out of a population of roughly 30,000. Godfrey of Bouillon was made the city's ruler, taking the title Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre rather than king.
Why it matters
The massacre became infamous on both sides of the religious divide and was remembered by Muslim chroniclers for generations, feeding into the ideological framing Saladin later used when he retook the city in 1187 and, notably, did not repeat the slaughter.
How we know
Fulcher of Chartres's account is a firsthand narrative by a participant in the siege, published in the Internet Medieval Sourcebook. Casualty figures are debated: Christian chroniclers gave inflated numbers for propaganda purposes, while modern historians rely on the more measured contemporary Muslim source Ibn al-Arabi for a lower, more plausible estimate.
Sources
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham University. Fulk of Chartres: The Capture of Jerusalem, 1099 · Primary source (author-declared)sourcebooks.fordham.edu · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- World History Encyclopedia. First Crusade · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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Part of a timelineThe Crusades27 events · Two centuries of holy war for Jerusalem, fought and remembered very differently by Christians and MuslimsView all →