Khwarazmians sack Jerusalem

1244

A wandering army of Khwarazmian mercenaries, uprooted by the Mongols and hired by Egypt, seized Jerusalem and massacred its Christian population. The city would remain in Muslim hands until General Allenby's camels entered it in 1917. The sack was so thorough that it extinguished the last Christian presence in the holy city and ended any realistic hope of recovering it through negotiation or crusade.