When Crusaders besieged Damascus because their priest said Jesus promised him to conquer Damascus in his dream.

When a Christian priest claimed he saw Jesus in his dream who promised him to conquer Damascus.

Crusaders i.e. Franks and Germans vs Noor ud din Zangi from Aleppo, Saif ud din Ghazi of Mosul and Muslim army of Damascus.

Ibn Kathir said:

وفيها: حاصرت الفرنج وهم في سبعين ألف مقاتل، ومعهم ملك الألمان في خلق لا يعلمهم إلا الله عز وجل، دمشق وعليها مجير الدين أرتق وأتابكه معين الدين، وهو مدبر المملكة، وذلك يوم السبت سادس ربيع الأول، فخرج إليهم أهلها في مائة ألف وثلاثين ألفا، فاقتتلوا معهم قتالا شديدا.

قتل من المسلمين في أول يوم نحو من مائتي رجل، ومن الفرنج خلق كثير لا يحصون، واستمر الحرب مدة وأخرج مصحف عثمان إلى وسط صحن الجامع، واجتمع الناس حوله يدعون الله عز وجل والنساء، والأطفال مكشفي الرؤس يدعون ويتباكون، والرماد مفروش في البلد، فاستغاث أرتق بنور الدين محمود صاحب حلب وبأخيه سيف الدين غازي صاحب الموصل، فقصداه سريعا في نحو من سبعين ألفا بمن انضاف إليهم من الملوك وغيرهم، فلما سمعت الفرنج بقدوم الجيش تحولوا عن البلد، فلحقهم الجيش فقتلوا منهم خلقا كثيرا، وجما غفيرا، وقتلوا قسيسا معهم اسمه إلياس، وهو الذي أغراهم بدمشق، وذلك أنه افترى مناما عن المسيح أنه وعده فتح دمشق، فقتل لعنه الله، وقد كادوا يأخذون البلد، ولكن الله سلم، وحماها بحوله وقوته.

قال تعالى: {وَلَوْلَا دَفْعُ اللَّهِ النَّاسَ بَعْضَهُمْ بِبَعْضٍ لَهُدِّمَتْ صَوَامِعُ وَبِيَعٌ وَصَلَوَاتٌ وَمَسَاجِدُ يُذْكَرُ فِيهَا اسْمُ اللَّهِ كَثِيرا} [الحج: 40]

In this year (543 h) 70 thousand Frankish fighters and with them was German King and only Allah knows the number of men he had, besieged Damascus.

Leader of damascus was Mujir al-Din artak and atabak Mu’in al-Din, who was keeper of the kingdom, and with them were 1 lac 30 thousand fighters who fought with them (Germans and Franks) fiercely on Saturday the sixth of Rabi’ al-Awwal.

On the first day, about two hundred Muslim men were killed, and from the Franks many men were killed who are countless, and the war continued for a while and the mushaf of Uthman was taken out to the middle of the courtyard of the mosque, and people gathered around it praying to Allah Almighty and the women and the children were crying whose heads were uncovered (I.e. they cried so much that their heads became uncovered).

Artak pleaded with Nur al-Din Mahmud (Zangi), the ruler of Aleppo and his brother Saif al-Din Ghazi, the leader of Mosul and they came to help quickly with about seventy thousand men as others kings also joined. When the Franks heard arrival of the army, they turned from the city.

The army followed them, and they killed many of them, they also killed a priest with them named Elijah (Elias), and he is the one who tempted them to besiege Damascus that is because he fabricated a dream about Jesus that he promised him to conquer Damascus, so he was killed, may Allah curse him, and they were about to take the country, but Allah helped and protected it with his power and strength.

Allah says: ([They are] those who have been evicted from their homes without right – only because they say, “Our Lord is Allāh.”) And were it not that Allāh checks the people, some by means of others, there would have been demolished monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques in which the name of Allāh is much mentioned [i.e., praised]. (And Allāh will surely support those who support Him [i.e., His cause]. Indeed, Allāh is Powerful and Exalted in Might.)

al Bidaya wal Nihaya the year 543 h