Saladin and the Forgotten Battle of Montgisard 1177

Before Hattin, before Jerusalem, there was Montgisard — a crushing defeat that nearly ended Saladin's career. In 1177, a teenage leper king named Baldwin IV led a small Frankish army against Saladin's much larger force near Ramla. Using the element of surprise and the broken terrain of the coastal plain, the Franj cavalry smashed into Saladin's camp while his troops were strung out on the march. Saladin himself barely escaped, fleeing on a pack camel through the sand dunes. This episode unpacks the battle in detail: the strategic blunder that left Saladin vulnerable, the role of the Templars under Odo de Saint-Amand, the political fallout in Cairo and Damascus, and how this defeat shaped Saladin's later tactics. We also explore the contested numbers — Christian chroniclers claim 30,000 Muslims dead, while Muslim sources admit only heavy losses. And we consider the human cost: the Franj survivors who walked barefoot to Jerusalem in thanksgiving, and the Kurds and Turks who drowned in the salt marshes. A story of hubris, resilience, and the tipping points of history. #BattleOfMontgisard #BaldwinIV #Saladin #Templars #Crusades #1177 #OdoDeSaintAmand #Ramla #Ayyubid #Frankish #LeperKing #CavalryCharge #MedievalWarfare #History #FexingoHistory #MiddleEastHistory #CrusaderStates #MilitaryHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo