I am not absolutely certain of what you mean. Do you mean that some on the Christian side had already reached agreement with Saladin before Hattin to betray the Christians? This was suggested by some western European sources in the aftermath of the battle. Obviously, when your own side has just been massacred, you are likely to suspect anyone who escaped of having escaped through treachery. Raymond count of Tripoli escaped, and as he was also known to have made a truce with Saladin in the past, he was blamed by some western writers for betraying the Christians. However, the Christian sources in the Holy Land and the Muslim sources make no mention of any such deals by Raymond, and modern historians believe that Raymond was slandered. You can find translations of the western sources that accused Raymond of treachery in Peter Edbury's The Conquest of Jerusalem and the Third Crusade, pp. 154-5, and in my Chronicle of the Third Crusade pp. 31-2 and note 26, and see also note 10 on p. 29. Conquest of Jerusalem, pp. 158-163 gives accounts of the battle which modern historians reckon to be more reliable than these two sources. |
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