Richard the Lionheart and the Ferocious Saladin Face to Face in Arsuf: A Proteomic Study

Gleb Zilberstein,Pier Giorgio Righetti,Svetlana Zilberstein

doi:10.3390/heritage4040188

Abstract

On 7 September 1191, a fierce battle took place in Arsuf (Palestine) between the Crusaders (marching south towards Jerusalem) led by King Richard the Lionheart and the Ayyubid army commanded by the sultan Saladin. The confrontation lasted for most of the day and terminated with a victory of the Crusaders, proving Richard’s courage as a soldier and his skill as a commander while denting Saladin’s reputation as an invincible warrior. The site (today known as Apollonia) holds the ruins of a Crusader castle perched on a cliff over the sea. We recovered plenty of pottery shards among which we could distinguish those of the Crusaders from those of the Ayyubid army. Extraction of food remnants confirmed that the Crusaders’ diet consisted mostly of pig and sheep meat (together with cheese), with a minimum of carbohydrates (what today would be termed a “ketogenic” diet), whereas the Muslim army consumed mostly carbohydrates (wheat, Triticum durum, Hordeum vulgare), together with fruits and vegetables, with minimal levels of sheep meat and cheese. As a result, the Crusaders’ diet had a positive effect on their slenderness and “cardio”. This might have been why the Ayyubid army lost ca. 10 times more soldiers in Arsuf. Shrewdness of leaders and soldiers’ equipment and willingness to fight are, of course, the main ingredients of victory, but diet too might not have a secondary role and help to tip the balance.

Highlights

Whereas some catastrophic events such as Word War I and II are still vivid in our memories, most of us have forgotten that for close to 200 years (1096 to 1285), we Europeans pestered the Muslim world with the Crusades in the Holy Land
On 7 September 1191, a fierce battle took place in Arsuf (Palestine) between the Crusaders led by King Richard the Lionheart and the Ayyubid army commanded by the sultan Saladin
Even if most of these events have fallen into oblivion, at least two major figures have remained in our collective memories, King Richard the Lionheart and his opponent, the “Ferocious” Saladin

Summary

Introduction

Whereas some catastrophic events such as Word War I and II are still vivid in our memories, most of us have forgotten that for close to 200 years (1096 to 1285), we Europeans pestered the Muslim world with the Crusades in the Holy Land. There was not just one crusade, but as many as eight, starting with that depreciable event of 27 November 1095 in Clermont when Pope Urban II was persuaded by a monk, Pierre d’Amiens, to open the flood of a series of aggressions in Palestine. In his book, dedicates 10 pages at the end of his treatise to catalog a much larger collection) [14]. Even if most of these events have fallen into oblivion, at least two major figures have remained in our collective memories, King Richard the Lionheart and his opponent, the “Ferocious” Saladin. In 1936, two companies, Perugina and Buitoni, launched a competition offering, as a prize, a Fiat 500 Topolino to anyone who could complete the collection of 150 lithographed color stamps, the premium one being the image of Saladin. A movie by Mario Bonnard, Il Feroce Saladino, appeared telling the story of a person who had found a catch of such stamps and had become filthy rich by selling them underground

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