Were war elephants used during the Crusades

[Erpingham]

An interesting question posed by this article

To quote the first line

"There is no definitive proof that Muslim armies used war elephants in battle, but the frequency of their representation in medieval European sources suggests it was likely. "

The article isn't quite as naive as this sounds (it's a hook), though I found the argument confusing. It is not until right at the end the tale of Eleazar Maccabeus turns up, for example, which is a major driver for medieval war elephant images.

[Imperial Dave]

What a question...never even considered it before! 

[Nick Harbud]

...and, of course, one should not discount the effect it has had on the minds of wargame rule writers.  I mean the paragraphs written about the use of elephants to batter down city gates, the negative factors that apply to those gates with anti-elephant spikes, the positive factors for elephants with case-hardened steel head armour, etc, etc.

Bah!  As the Duke of Wellington once said, "I don't know what effect they have on the enemy, but by God they frighten me!"

[Keraunos]

The Cremona elephant looks like an open top bus taking a victorious football team on a tour around the town, and as for Eleazar, he looks remarkably insouciant for someone being trodden on by an elephant carrying a double decker howdah!