Saladin's Secret Weapon: The Siege Engines of 1187

Before the Horns of Hattin, Saladin's engineers were the unsung heroes. This episode digs into the siege warfare that cracked Crusader castles and cities — the mangonels, trebuchets, and counterweight artillery that made the Ayyubid army unstoppable. We follow the 1187 campaign from the fall of Tiberias to the gates of Jerusalem, where Saladin's engineers breached walls that had defied his father. Along the way, we meet the men who built and aimed these machines — the 'engineers of the mangonel' — and hear how a single massive trebuchet, nicknamed 'the Victorious', changed the course of a siege. From the stone quarries of Syria to the timber yards of Egypt, we trace the logistics, the mathematics, and the sheer brute force that turned medieval fortification into a science of wreckage. If you've ever wondered how a 12th-century army actually brought down a wall, this is the episode for you. #Saladin #SiegeWarfare #Trebuchet #Mangonel #Hattin #Ayyubid #Crusades #MedievalHistory #Jerusalem1187 #Tiberias #SiegeEngine #MilitaryHistory #BahaAdDin #ImadAdDin #Franks #MiddleEast #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo