The Franks occupied Tiberias during the first crusade after the capture of Jerusalem. Later city was given in fief to Tancred, who made it the capital of the Principality of Galilee. In 1099 the original site of the old city moved north to its present location. St. Peter’s Church, originally built by the Crusaders, is still standing today. The Jewish community of numbered about 50 families the start of 12th century. At this time it was said that the best Torah manuscripts could be found in the city of Tiberias.
In the 12th-century, the city was the subject of negative undertones in Islamic tradition. In 1187, Saladin ordered his son al-Afdal to send an envoy to Count Raymond of Tripoli requesting safe passage through his fiefdom of Galilee and Tiberias. Raymond was obliged to grant the request under the terms of his treaty with Saladin. Saladin’s force left Caesarea Philippi to engage the fighting force of the Knights Templar. The Templar force was destroyed in the encounter. Saladin then besieged Tiberias; after six days the town fell. On July 4, 1187 Saladin defeated the Crusaders coming to relieve Tiberias at the Battle of Hattin, 10 kilometres (6 miles) outside the city. However, during the Third Crusade, the Crusaders drove the Muslims out of the city and reoccupied it.
Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, (Maimonides) also known as Rambam, a leading Jewish legal scholar, philosopher and physician of his period, died in 1204 in Egypt and was later buried in Tiberias. His tomb is one of the city’s important pilgrimage sites.
In 1265 the Crusaders were driven from the city by the Mamluks, who ruled Tiberias until the Ottoman conquest in 1516