Volta
Conflict6 April – 18 May 1291

Fall of Acre

The Mamluk sultan al-Ashraf Khalil captured Acre, the last crusader stronghold, ending the crusader states in the Levant.

The Hospitaller marshal Matthieu de Clermont defending the walls of Acre in 1291 — Dominique Papety, c. 1840
The Hospitaller marshal Matthieu de Clermont defending the walls of Acre in 1291 — Dominique Papety, c. 1840

Dominique Papety · Public domain · Source

Beginning under Baybars, the Mamluks took the crusader castles one by one, destroying Antioch (1268) and Tripoli (1289). In April 1291 al-Ashraf Khalil surrounded Acre with a great army and siege engines, and the city fell six weeks later, on 18 May.

The Templars held their seaside fortress for ten days more. Tyre, Sidon and Beirut were soon abandoned and the Franks withdrew to Cyprus. Some two hundred years of crusading in the Holy Land had effectively come to an end.

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The map in 1291

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States at the time
Mamluk Sultanate · conqueror
Kingdom of Jerusalem · fell
Places
Acre

People

  • al-Ashraf Khalil1293

    commander · Mamluk sultan (r. 1290–1293) who took Acre in 1291, ending the crusader states in the Levant

Before and after

Earlier
1260 Battle of Ain Jalut
Later
1917 Balfour Declaration

Themes that include this event

  • The Crusades1095 – 1291

    From the Council of Clermont to the fall of Acre — two centuries of war between Latin Europe and the Islamic world over the Holy Land