Ashraf Khalil prudently decided to wait for good weather in the spring. During this respite the barons sent Lord Philip Mainboeuf and a Templar, Bartholomew Pizan, to placate him but he would not receive them. Nor did these envoys return. If they languished in shackles for years or got their throats cut is not known.
Early in March this host of unbelievers moved north from Egypt, passing by Acre to Damascus where Ashraf Khalil lodged his concubines and assembled his armies. The chronicle of Abul Mahasin declares that soldiers came from throughout Islam, such was their zeal to participate in the annihilation of Christianity.
On the fifth day of April this multitude came to Acre. Soldiers pitched their tents side by side, yet they covered the plain as far as Samaria. Certain accounts place the sultan’s army at six hundred thousand men arranged in three companies so that one hundred thousand might besiege the city while an equal number waited to relieve them. Two hundred thousand stood before the gates, the rest supplying what was needed. They brought with them numerous catapults to stroke and break apart the walls, more than ever had been gathered. One very large called Victorious. Another called Furious. They brought mangonels called Black Oxen.
Inside were no more than eight hundred mounted knights and sergeants with some fourteen thousand men afoot, considering those Italian dregs whose slaughter of peasants and merchants infuriated Sultan Qalawun.
For eight days Ashraf Khalil loitered in his vermilion tent, which they call dehliz, set on a pleasant hill with gardens and vines that belonged to the Templars. One entrance of his tent opened toward Acre, meaning he would go that way. For eight days Ashraf Khalil contemplated the city. When all had settled in his mind he directed his cavalry to advance, each animal carrying a log across its neck. So his cavalry rode to the edge of the moat and delivered logs to protect miners burrowing at the walls. He directed mangonels to throw pots of explosive liquid. Now with fire and stones they assaulted Acre while the morning stiffened with arrows. A Christian knight preparing to hurl his lance found it notched by Muslim arrows before it left his hand.
Documents relate that one moonlit evening Grand Master William and Otto de Grandson, who commanded the English, led three hundred knights to burn a catapult. They got among the tents, but the man who should have thrown fire at the catapult was alarmed and threw it short and tent ropes entangled the horses. Eighteen Franks were lost, including one who fell into a cesspool. Those who got back boasted that they had killed many Saracens in the moonlight and displayed shields, trumpets, and kettledrums for proof. God’s enemies also boasted. Prince Abul Feda, who commanded the Victorious, told how the Franks abandoned their dead when they retreated. Next morning, said he, my cousin al-Malik al-Muzaffar, who was lord of Hama, strung Frankish heads around the necks of captured horses to make wreaths for the sultan.
William de Beaujeu led another sortie through the gate of Saint Anthony some nights later, before moonrise. But the Turks had been expecting this. All at once torches blazed throughout the Muslim camp and by torchlight many Franks were slain.
King Henry arrived from Cyprus, forty vessels bringing one hundred mounted knights and two thousand foot soldiers, welcome reinforcement. With him was Archbishop John Turco of Nicosia, so the people lit bonfires to celebrate. Yet the boom of Muslim kettledrums resounded through the city. All understood that something must be done. King Henry therefore instructed two knights to speak with Ashraf Khalil and find out why he did not observe the truce. Discourteously he received the knights outside his tent. He demanded keys to the city. At this moment a stone loosed by a Frankish perrier struck not far away. Ashraf Khalil drew his sword a hand’s breadth as if to kill these envoys, but was prevented by Emir Shujai who implored him not to defile his blade with the blood of pigs.
Now the Saracens began to fill bags with sand, which they brought forward and threw down in order to level the ground. Meantime the sappers went about their work. Soon it became apparent that the old tower named for King Hugh could not be defended so the Franks withdrew, setting it afire. A few days later the English tower and that named for the Comtesse de Blois started to break apart. The wall near Saint Anthony’s Gate began to crumble.
On the eighteenth of May just before dawn Ashraf Khalil ordered his men to take the city. Muslim regiments led by emirs wearing white turbans advanced through the almond orchards shouting insults and war cries, hidden from view by dense mist, encouraged by three hundred drummers mounted on camels. Cymbals and trumpets sounded. What happened that day was recorded in the Gestes des Chiprois, by the Templar of Tyre, by Ashraf Khalil himself in a letter to King Hethoum of Armenia, and by others.
These Muslims got in through the Accursed Tower, according to some. Others say they entered by way of a breach in the king of Jerusalem’s castle. The first carried long shields, followed by those hurling Greek fire. Next came archers. Noble Christian ladies, girls, peasant women, nuns, all ran shrieking toward the harbor, some with babies in their arms. Saracens caught them. One would seize a woman, another would fling her baby into the street and horses would trample it. Or they would fight to have the woman but end by killing her. And because of Christian wickedness a furious storm arose, hindering the flight of any who would escape to Cyprus. Those on the quai beheld a roiling evil sea, green and black. Documents speak of
