Great Battles in History

Welcome to Great Battles in History. This podcast explores some of the most famous and most important battles in world history from ancient times to the Second World War. Each episode dives deeply into a single battle, investigating its origins, the course of combat, and the outcomes. We will examine the contending forces, including some of history’s most celebrated armies, navies, and air forces. We will meet great captains like Hannibal Barca, Saladin, Napoleon, and Chester Nimitz. We will also delve into the experiences of the soldier at the sharp end: the Spartan hoplite at Thermopylae, the English longbowman at Agincourt, the mounted samurai at Nagashino, the Soviet tanker at Kursk. Battles are regarded as events that change the course of history; the most important have been described as decisive. We will come to question this idea, for, as we’ll see, while a handful of battles do qualify as momentous, epochal turning points, most others—including not a few widely considered decisive—changed very little if anything at all. Finally, battles are more than just exercises of pure strategy and tactics; they are artifacts— creations of the political, social, economic and cultural forces of their times. To investigate great battles is to open up history in its widest sense.

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Great Battles in History

Hattin, Part 1-Introduction

February 26, 2021 • Darryl Dee • Season 1 • Episode 3

The Battle of Hattin is the most famous battle of the Crusades. On July 4, 1187, the army of the Muslim warlord Saladin destroyed the host of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem at the Horns of Hattin. In the battle’s aftermath, Saladin overran the Crusader States. On October 2, he entered Jerusalem. Yet Hattin was not a decisive battle that ended the Crusades. It ushered in a century of renewed and intensified holy war.

This episode begins by examining the First Crusade and the establishment of the Crusader States. Then it looks at the armies of the Crusaders and the Muslims. It traces the wars between them, which culminated in the rise of the Muslim champion Saladin. The episode next takes the listener through the battle of Hattin to its bloody climax beneath the shadow of the Horns. It concludes by examining how Hattin led to the crescendo and climax of crusading.

A note to the listener: I am posting parts one to four, the first half of the Battle of Hattin episode, today. Parts five to eight will appear in the coming days. Thanks so much for your patience. I hope you enjoy the episode.