Saladin destroys the army of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem near Tiberias, causing most Crusader strongholds to fall.
Date given in the Julian calendar.
After a short siege, Saladin takes Jerusalem, ending 88 years of Crusader rule and prompting the Third Crusade.
Richard the Lionheart and other European monarchs retake Acre but not Jerusalem; the Treaty of Jaffa with Saladin ends the campaign.
Launched after the fall of Edessa and led by Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany, the crusade ends in failure before Damascus.
Mamluk slave-soldiers overthrow the Ayyubids and seize power in Egypt, ruling Egypt and Syria for over two and a half centuries.
Hulagu's Mongol army takes and devastates Baghdad, killing Caliph al-Musta'sim and ending the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad.
Egyptian Mamluk forces defeat the Mongols in Palestine, halting the Mongol advance toward Egypt.