Nine hundred years ago, on May 29, 1123 CE, Crusader troops crushed the attacking Egyptian army of the Fatimid caliph at Yibna (biblical Yavne), off the coast of the Mediterranean Sea between Ascalon (Ashkelon) and Jaffa (Tel Aviv). The Crusaders were led by the Flemish lord Eustace Granier, who was the constable and bailiff of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Muslim challengers were led by the Fatimid vizier Al-Mamun al-Batahi. The short and decisive battle took place 24 years after the first establishment of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, which was an ephemeral state founded by European Christian conquerors […]
