The Treaty of Jaffa, 1192: What Richard and Saladin Actually Agreed

The Third Crusade ended in a three-year truce, not a battle. What the Treaty of Jaffa gave each side, why Jerusalem stayed Muslim, and why both rulers could call it a success.

9 September 2026 · Part of The Crusades — a guide to 11 articles →

On 2 September 1192, a truce was sworn at Jaffa that ended the Third Crusade without a final battle and without Jerusalem changing hands. Richard was too ill to attend and swore by proxy; Saladin, by custom, did not swear at all, and his relatives and emirs gave the oath in his place. The Third Crusade is remembered as a failure, and the document that closed it is the reason. That reputation rests on a single measure — the city — and the agreement itself is more interesting than the verdict.

What was left to bargain with

By the summer of 1192 both sides were finished. Richard had twice advanced to Beit Nuba, within about twelve miles of Jerusalem, and turned back both times without giving battle. His reasoning was consistent and is recorded on both sides: the city could probably be taken, and could not be held once the army sailed home, because holding it required a garrison in a fortress cut off from the sea by hostile country. In July his own council of Templars, Hospitallers and Syrian barons told him the same thing.

Saladin's position was no better. His coalition had been in the field for years, his emirs wanted to go home to their own lands, and the loss of the Egyptian caravan in June had shown how exposed his supply lines were. When Richard, already preparing to leave, was drawn back to relieve Jaffa in August and beat a much larger force in front of the town, the message was unmistakable to both: neither could finish the other.

Richard was seriously ill at Jaffa through late August. Negotiations that had run intermittently for a year — including the extraordinary proposal that Saladin's brother al-Adil marry Richard's sister Joanna and rule Jerusalem jointly — came to a conclusion in the first days of September.

The terms

The agreement was a truce, not a peace, and it ran for three years and eight months from September 1192. Its substance was territorial and practical:

• The coast from Tyre to Jaffa remained in Latin hands. This was the real gain of the crusade: a functioning coastal strip with harbours, which is what kept the kingdom of Jerusalem alive for another century.
• Jerusalem remained under Muslim rule, and Saladin guaranteed safe passage for unarmed Christian pilgrims to visit the Holy Sepulchre. Ambroise describes the parties that went up; Richard himself did not go.
• Ascalon was to be demolished. Richard had spent the winter and spring rebuilding its walls at his own expense, and giving it up was the concession that cost him most. A refortified Ascalon threatened the road between Egypt and Syria, which is exactly why Saladin would not leave it standing.
• Merchants of both sides could move freely through the other's territory.

Ascalon is the term to watch. It is the clearest evidence that this was a negotiated settlement between two exhausted powers rather than a favour granted by a victor — Saladin conceded the coast, Richard conceded the fortress that would have made the coast dangerous.

Why the city stayed out of reach

The usual explanation is that Richard lacked the strength. The better one is that he lacked the afterwards. A crusading army was a temporary thing: men had taken a vow, discharged it, and went home. Whoever took Jerusalem would hold it with whatever garrison stayed behind, in a city with no port, surrounded by territory Saladin's successors would continue to control.

The full record of Richard's operations makes the shape of this plain. He fought and won every engagement he commanded in person, from Limassol to the relief of Jaffa. Two of the eighteen operations are advances on Jerusalem; neither is a siege. That is not a record of a commander who was beaten in front of the objective. It is the record of a commander who declined the objective twice, on the same reasoning, and was proved right by what happened to the kingdom that came after him.

Chronology

Conclusion: a truce both men could survive

Saladin died six months after the truce was sworn, and his empire divided among his relatives almost immediately. Richard was shipwrecked on the way home, taken by Leopold of Austria, and held for over a year while England raised a ransom that has been estimated at several times the crown's annual revenue. Neither man ever returned to the question.

The truce held. It was renewed and adapted by their successors, and the coastal kingdom it preserved lasted until 1291. Judged against the promise that launched the crusade — the recovery of Jerusalem — the Treaty of Jaffa is a failure. Judged against what either side could still enforce in September 1192, it is close to the best outcome available to both, which is why both could present it at home as a success.

Frequently asked questions

Did Richard and Saladin ever meet? No. All the negotiations went through intermediaries, most often Saladin's brother al-Adil, and the two exchanged gifts and messages without ever being in the same place.

How long was the truce meant to last? Three years and eight months from September 1192. It was intended as a breathing space, not a settlement, and both sides expected the war to resume.

Why did Richard not visit Jerusalem when pilgrims were allowed in? The chroniclers give no single reason, and the explanations offered since — that he would not enter as a guest a city he had failed to take, or that he was still unwell and anxious to sail — are inferences rather than evidence. What is recorded is that parties of his men went and he did not.

Was giving up Ascalon a defeat? It was the price of keeping the coast. Richard had rebuilt it at his own cost and it was militarily valuable, which is why Saladin insisted; that both sides fought hard over this one clause is the best indication that the treaty was a genuine negotiation rather than a dictated peace.

Image: "Saladin the Victorious" (coloured), after Gustave Doré. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Prefer to listen? Hear this story as a podcast episode or play it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Affiliate links in Recommended reading — and in Further reading on older articles — may earn Writesides of History a commission at no extra cost to you.