Battle of Gaza / La Forbie

Background

After the Khwarazmians took Jerusalem, the Franks maintained their alliance with al-Salih Isma'il of Damascus, al-Mansur Ibrahim of Homs and al-Nasir Dawud of Kerak. Opposing this alliance were the army of the Egyptian sultan al-Salih Ayyub and the Khwarazmian cavalry. Among the Egyptian commanders was Rukn al-Din Baybars, identified in some sources with the later sultan Baybars.

Course of events

The allied army met the Egyptian army northeast of Gaza. Al-Mansur of Homs advised staying on the defensive, but the Frankish leaders, trusting in their numerical superiority, chose to attack.

In the battle that began on 17 October, the Khwarazmian cavalry scattered the Damascene units in the centre. The next day the Franks and the forces of Homs were surrounded. Most of the Templar, Hospitaller and Teutonic knights were killed. Count Walter of Brienne of Jaffa was captured; Patriarch Robert of Jerusalem and Philip of Montfort, lord of Tyre, managed to escape.

Outcome and significance

La Forbie was the worst military disaster suffered by the Latin East since Hattin. The army the Franks could put in the field was effectively destroyed, and soon Ascalon and Tiberias were also lost. Walter of Brienne was killed in captivity in Egypt.

The defeat opened the way for al-Salih Ayyub to take Damascus in 1245 and reunited the Ayyubid lands under an Egypt-centred government. In the West it gave momentum to Louis IX's crusade.

Sources and debates

Letters sent from Acre to the West and Matthew Paris's chronicle report the Latin side's losses; Joinville also tells of Walter of Brienne's fate. Ibn Wasil and al-Maqrizi give the Egyptian side. The numbers of dead and captured differ between sources; the identity of the Baybars at the battle is disputed.