Editing Second Crusade (section)

=== Council of Palmarea ===
{{Main|Council of Acre}}
The nobility of Jerusalem welcomed the arrival of troops from Europe. A council to decide on the best target for the crusaders took place on 24 June 1148, when the [[High Court of Jerusalem]] met with the recently arrived crusaders from Europe at Palmarea, near [[Akko|Acre]], a major city of the crusader [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]]. This was the most spectacular meeting of the Court in its existence.{{sfn|Riley-Smith|1991|p=50}}{{sfn|William of Tyre|Babcock|Krey|1943|loc=vol. 2, bk. 17, ch. 1, pp. 184–185: "it seems well worth while and quite in harmony with the present history that the names of the nobles who were present at the council... should be recorded here for the benefit of posterity&nbsp;... to name each one individually would take far too long."}}

In the end, the decision was made to attack the city of Damascus, a former ally of the Kingdom of Jerusalem that had shifted its allegiance to that of the Zengids, and attacked the Kingdom's allied city of [[Battle of Bosra (1147)|Bosra]] in 1147.{{sfn|Nicolle|2009|pp=54–55}} Historians have long seen the decision to besiege Damascus rather than Edessa as "an act of inexplicable folly". Noting the tensions between Unur, the ''atabeg'' of Damascus, and the growing power of the Zangids, many historians have argued that it would have been better for the crusaders to focus their energy against the Zangids. More recently, historians such as David Nicolle have defended the decision to attack Damascus, arguing that Damascus was the most powerful Muslim state in southern Syria, and that if the Christians held Damascus, they would have been in a better position to resist the rising power of [[Nur ad-Din (died 1174)|Nur ad-Din]]. Since Unur was clearly the weaker of the two Muslim rulers, it was believed that it was inevitable that Nur ad-Din would take Damascus sometime in the near future, and thus it seemed better for the crusaders to hold that city rather than the Zangids.{{sfn|Nicolle|2009|pp=37–38}} In July their armies assembled at [[Tiberias]] and marched to Damascus, around the [[Sea of Galilee]] by way of [[Banias]]. There were perhaps 50,000 troops in total.{{sfn|Runciman|1952|pp=228–229}}