It occurred in August 1179, when Saladin conquered and destroyed Chastelet, a new border castle built by the Knights Templar at Jacob's Ford on the upper Jordan River, a historic passage point between the Golan Heights and north Galilee.

[7] Jacob's Ford was also one of the safest crossings of the Jordan and, because of its location and importance, was utilized by Christian Palestine and Muslim Syria as a major intersection between the two civilizations.

As a bold strategic move and as a result of his military victory at Montgodard, Baldwin decided to march to Jacob's Ford and build a defensive fortress on its territory.

At the time, he was unable to stop the erection of Chastelet by military force because a large portion of his troops were stationed in northern Syria, putting down Muslim rebellions.

As one author writes, "Saladin was always at pains to portray himself as the champion of Islam against the European intruders, although in fact he spent much of, if not more, of his career involved in a war against other Muslims.

"The Castle now had a formidable ten met[er] high wall – what one Arabic contemporary later described as ‘an impregnable rampart of stone and iron’ – and a single tower, but it was still a work in progress.

"[10] After Baldwin IV refused both bribes, Saladin turned his attention away from the uprisings in northern Syria and focused on Jacob's Ford and the Castle of Chastelet.

As one Crusades author asserts and inquisitively asks, "[t]he siege was effectively a race – could the Muslims crack the stronghold's defenses before the Latin forces arrived?

While the archers distracted the men inside the fortification, miners were digging a tunnel to breach the stone and iron walls at the north-east corner of Chastelet.

As a result, the Crusaders' attempts to refortify the castle were in vain and, approximately six days after the siege began, Saladin and his troops entered Chastelet.

On the same day, less than one week after reinforcements were called, Baldwin IV of Jerusalem and his supporting army set out from Tiberias, only to discover smoke permeating the horizon directly above Chastelet.

The corpses in the pit began to decay in the August heat and, as a result, a plague ensued, killing approximately ten of Saladin's senior officers.

After the capture of Jerusalem, Saladin remained militarily and politically successful in the Near East until a military encounter with Richard the Lionheart, after which he was forced to make peace in 1192.