Editing Haifa (section)

===Crusader, Ayyubid and Mamluk rule===
[[File:Haifa and Mount Carmel (before 1899).jpg|thumb|Mount Carmel before 1899]]
Prosperity ended in 1100 or 1101, when Haifa was besieged and blockaded by European Christians shortly after the end of the [[First Crusade]], and then conquered after a fierce battle with its Jewish inhabitants and Fatimid garrison. Jews comprised the majority of the city's population at the time.<ref name=jsource2/><ref name=AlCarmel>{{Cite book |first=Alex |last=Carmel |year=2002 |title=The History of Haifa Under Turkish Rule |edition=4th |publisher=Pardes |location=Haifa |isbn=978-965-7171-05-9 |language=he |page=17}}</ref><ref name=634to1099>{{cite book |title=A History of Palestine, 634-1099 |first=Moshe |last=Gil |year=1992 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=829 |isbn=978-0-521-40437-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tSM4AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA829 |quote=Haifa was taken [...] in August 1100 or June 1101, according to Muslim sources which contradict one another. Albert of Aachen does not mention the date in a clear manner either. From what he says, it appears that it was mainly the Jewish inhabitants of the city who defended the fortress of Haifa. In his rather strange Latin style, he mentions that there was a Jewish population in Haifa, and that they fought bravely on the walls of the city. He explains that the Jews there were protected people of the Muslims (the Fatimids). They fought side by side with units of the Fatimid army, striking back at Tancred's army from above the walls of the citadel (... ''Judaei civis comixtis Sarracenorum turmis'') until the Crusaders overcame them and they were forced to abandon the walls. The Muslims and the Jews then managed to escape from the fortress with their lives, while the rest of the population fled the city ''en masse''. Whoever remained was slaughtered, and huge quantities of spoils were taken. [...] [Note #3: Albert of Aachen (Albericus, Albertus Aquensis), ''Historia Hierosolymitanae Expeditionis'', in: [[Recueil des historiens des croisades|''RHC'']] (Occ.), IV. p. 523; etc.] |access-date=17 May 2015 |archive-date=3 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803011751/https://books.google.com/books?id=tSM4AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA829 |url-status=live}}</ref> Under the Crusaders, Haifa was reduced to a small fortified coastal stronghold.<ref name=AlCarmel /> It was a part of the [[Principality of Galilee]] within the [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]]. Following their victory at the [[Battle of Hattin]], [[Saladin]]'s [[Ayyubid dynasty|Ayyubid]] army captured Haifa in mid-July 1187 and the city's Crusader fortress was destroyed.<ref name=Judaica/>{{sfn|Lane-Poole|1906|p=219}} [[Second Crusade|The Crusaders]] under [[Richard I of England|Richard the Lionheart]] retook Haifa in 1191.{{sfn|Lane-Poole|1906|p=309}}

In the 12th century religious hermits started inhabiting the caves on Mount Carmel, and in the 13th century they formed a new Catholic monastic order, the [[Carmelites]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Origins of the Carmelites |publisher=Carmelite.org.uk |url=http://www.carmelite.org.uk/History.html |access-date=20 March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510031519/http://www.carmelite.org.uk/History.html |archive-date=10 May 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Under Muslim rule, the church which they had built on Mount Carmel was turned into a mosque, later becoming a hospital. In the 19th century, it was restored as a Carmelite monastery, the [[Stella Maris Monastery]]. The altar of the church as we see it today, stands over a cave associated with Prophet Elijah.<ref name=Frommers>{{cite web |title=Stella Maris Lighthouse, Church and Carmelite Monastery |publisher=Frommers |url=http://www.frommers.com/destinations/haifa/A36285.html |access-date=11 April 2008 |url-status=live |archive-date=26 March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080326201914/http://www.frommers.com/destinations/haifa/A36285.html}}</ref>

In 1265, the army of [[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|Mamluk]] sultan [[Baibars]] [[Fall of Haifa (1265)|captured Haifa]], destroying its fortifications, which had been rebuilt by King [[Louis IX of France]], as well as the majority of the city's homes to prevent the European Crusaders from returning.<ref name=byz>{{cite web |url=http://www.tour-haifa.co.il/eng/modules/article/view.article.php/40/c2 |title=Haifa in the Middle Ages |publisher=Tour-Haifa.co.il |access-date=15 February 2008 |archive-date=15 April 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080415121923/http://www.tour-haifa.co.il/eng/modules/article/view.article.php/40/c2 |url-status=live}}</ref> From the time of its conquest by the Mamluks to the 15th century, Haifa was an unfortified small village or uninhabited. At various times there were a few Jews living there and both Jews and Christians made pilgrimages to the [[Cave of Elijah]] on Mount Carmel.<ref name=jsource2/> During Mamluk rule in the 14th century, al-Idrisi wrote that Haifa served as the port for [[Tiberias]] and featured a "fine harbor for the anchorage of galleys and other vessels.<ref name=Strange>{{Cite book |title=Palestine Under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to 1500 |url=https://archive.org/stream/palestineundermo00lestuoft/palestineundermo00lestuoft_djvu.txt |first1=Guy |last1=le Strange |year=1890 |publisher=Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund |page=446 |access-date=26 July 2009}}</ref>