Fall of Tripoli
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County of Tripoli
The County of Tripoli was the last Crusader state founded in the Levant, located in what today are parts of western Syria and northern Lebanon, where exists the modern city of Tripoli. The Crusader state was captured and created by Christian forces in 1109, originally held by Bertrand of Toulouse...
(in what is modern-day Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
), by the Muslim Mamluk
Mamluk
A Mamluk was a soldier of slave origin, who were predominantly Cumans/Kipchaks The "mamluk phenomenon", as David Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior...
s. The battle occurred in 1289 and was an important event in the Crusades
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
, as it marked the capture of one of the few remaining major possessions of the Crusaders.
Context
The County of Tripoli, though founded as a Crusader State and predominantly Christian, had been a vassal state of the Mongol EmpireMongol Empire
The Mongol Empire , initially named as Greater Mongol State was a great empire during the 13th and 14th centuries...
since around 1260, when Bohemond VI, under the influence of his father-in-law Hethum I, King of Armenia, had preemptively submitted to the rapidly advancing Mongols. Tripoli had provided troops in the Mongols' 1258 sacking of Baghdad
Battle of Baghdad (1258)
The Siege of Baghdad, which occurred in 1258, was an invasion, siege and sacking of the city of Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate at the time and the modern-day capital of Iraq, by the Ilkhanate Mongol forces along with other allied troops under Hulagu Khan.The invasion left Baghdad in...
, as well as the 1260 Mongol invasions of Syria, which had caused even further friction with the Muslims.
After the Mongols had destroyed Baghdad and Damascus, centers of the Abbasid
Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate or, more simply, the Abbasids , was the third of the Islamic caliphates. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphate from all but the al-Andalus region....
and Ayyubid caliphates, the center of Islamic power shifted to Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, with the Egyptian Mamluks. Around the same time, the Mongols were slowed in their westward expansion by internal conflicts in the thinly-spread Empire. The Mamluks had taken advantage of this to advance northwards from Egypt, and re-establish dominion over Palestine and Syria, pushing the Mongols back to Persia. The Mamluks had attempted to take Tripoli in a 1271 siege
Siege of Tripoli (1271)
The 1271 Siege of Tripoli was initiated by the Mamluk ruler Baibars against the Frankish ruler of the Principality of Antioch and the County of Tripoli, Bohemond VI...
, but had instead been persuaded to agree to a truce, because of the arrival of Prince Edward
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
in Acre
Acre, Israel
Acre , is a city in the Western Galilee region of northern Israel at the northern extremity of Haifa Bay. Acre is one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the country....
that month, with the beginning of the Ninth Crusade
Ninth Crusade
The Ninth Crusade, which is sometimes grouped with the Eighth Crusade, is commonly considered to be the last major medieval Crusade to the Holy Land. It took place in 1271–1272....
. The Mamluks negotiated a truce with Edward as well, though as it turned out his forces had been too small to be very effective.
The Mongols, for their part, had not proven to be staunch defenders of their vassal Christian state of Tripoli. Abaqa Khan
Abaqa Khan
Abaqa Khan , also Abaga , or Abagha Khan, was the second Mongol ruler of the Persian Ilkhanate. The son of Hulagu Khan and Yesuncin Khatun, he reigned from 1265–1282 and was succeeded by his brother Tekuder Khan...
, the leader of the Mongol Ilkhanate
Ilkhanate
The Ilkhanate, also spelled Il-khanate , was a Mongol khanate established in Azerbaijan and Persia in the 13th century, considered a part of the Mongol Empire...
and someone who had been sending envoys to Europe in an attempt to form a Franco-Mongol alliance
Franco-Mongol alliance
Franco-Mongol relations were established in the 13th century, as attempts were made towards forming a Franco-Mongol alliance between the Christian Crusaders and the Mongol Empire against various Muslim empires. Such an alliance would have seemed a logical choice: the Mongols were sympathetic to...
against the Muslims, had died in 1282. He was succeeded by Tekuder
Tekuder
Ahmed Tekuder , also known as Sultan Ahmad , was the sultan of the Persia-based Ilkhanate, son of Hulegu and brother of Abaqa. He was eventually succeeded by Arghun Khan...
, a convert to Islam. Under Tekuder's leadership, the now Islamic-leaning Mongols were not inclined to defend Christian territories against Muslim advances. This further freed the Mamluks to make attacks against the remaining coastal cities which were still under Crusader control.
Tekuder was assassinated in 1284 and replaced by Abaqa's son Arghun
Arghun
Arghun Khan aka Argon was the fourth ruler of the Mongol empire's Ilkhanate, from 1284 to 1291. He was the son of Abaqa Khan, and like his father, was a devout Buddhist...
, who was more sympathetic to Christianity. He continued his father's communications with Europe towards the possibility of forming an alliance, but still did not show much interest in protecting Tripoli. Meanwhile, the Mamluks continued to expand their control, conquering Margat
Margat
Margat, also known as Marqab from the Arabic Qalaat al-Marqab is a castle near Baniyas, Syria, which was a Crusader fortress and one of the major strongholds of the Knights Hospitaller...
in 1285, and Lattakiah in 1287.
The Muslim Sultan Qalawun
Qalawun
Saif ad-Dīn Qalawun aṣ-Ṣāliḥī was the seventh Mamluk sultan of Egypt...
still had an official truce with Tripoli, but the Christians themselves gave him an excuse to break it. The Christians had been pursuing an unwise course, as rather than maintaining a united front against the Muslims, they had fallen into bickering battles with each other, of which the best known example was the dispute between the merchant republics, Genoa
Republic of Genoa
The Most Serene Republic of Genoa |Ligurian]]: Repúbrica de Zêna) was an independent state from 1005 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast, as well as Corsica from 1347 to 1768, and numerous other territories throughout the Mediterranean....
and Venice
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until 1797. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in...
. Lucia of Tripoli
Lucia of Tripoli
Lucia was the last countess of Tripoli.She was the daughter of Bohemund VI, Prince of Antioch and Sibylla of Armenia. Her brother was Bohemund VII of Tripoli. When Bohemund VII died in 1287, their mother appointed as regent Bertrand of Gibelet. He proved to be very unpopular with the commune of...
, ruler of the County of Tripoli, had allied with the Genoese
Republic of Genoa
The Most Serene Republic of Genoa |Ligurian]]: Repúbrica de Zêna) was an independent state from 1005 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast, as well as Corsica from 1347 to 1768, and numerous other territories throughout the Mediterranean....
, and was therefore opposed by the Venetians
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until 1797. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in...
, as well as by Bartolemew Embriaco of Gibelet. Frank envoys from either Bartolemew or the Venetians had been sent to Alexandria, Egypt to ask for the intervention of the Mamluk Sultan Qalawun against the Genoese, on the grounds that the Genoese might potentially dominate the Levant
Levant
The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...
and obstruct or eliminate Mamluk trade if left in power. Because of the Venetian envoys, Qalawun thus had an excuse to break his truce with Tripoli, and he moved north with his army.
The siege
Catapult
A catapult is a device used to throw or hurl a projectile a great distance without the aid of explosive devices—particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. Although the catapult has been used since ancient times, it has proven to be one of the most effective mechanisms during...
s. In response, Tripoli's Commune and nobles gave supreme authority to Lucia. In the harbor at the time, there were four Genoese galleys, two Venetian galleys, and a few small boats, some of them Pisan. Reinforcements were sent to Tripoli by the Knights Templar
Knights Templar
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
, who sent a force under Geoffrey of Vendac, and the Hospitallers sent a force under Matthew of Clermont. A French regiment was sent from Acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
under John of Grailly. King Henry II of Cyprus sent his young brother Amalric
Amalric, Prince of Tyre
Amalric de Lusignan or Amaury II de Lusignan, Prince of Tyre , of the Lusignan family, was a son of Hugh III of Cyprus and Isabella of Ibelin.-Biography:...
with a company of knights and four galleys. Many non-combatants fled to Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
.
The Mamluks fired their catapults, two towers soon crumbled under the bombardments, and the defenders hastily prepared to flee. The Mamluks overran the crumbling walls, and captured the city on April 26, marking the end of an uninterrupted Christian rule of 180 years, the longest of any of the major Frankish conquests in the Levant
Levant
The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...
. Lucia managed to flee to Cyprus, with two Marshals of the Orders and Almaric of Cyprus. The commander of the Temple Peter of Moncada was killed, as well as Bartholomew Embriaco. The population of the city was massacred, although many managed to escape by ship. Those who had taken refuge on the nearby island of Saint-Thomas were captured by the Mamluks on April 29. Women and children were taken as slaves, and 1200 prisoners were sent to Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
to work in the Sultan's new arsenal
Arsenal
An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, issued to authorized users, or any combination of those...
.
Nephin
Nephin or Nefin , at 806 metres , is the second highest peak in County Mayo and the second highest in Connacht, in Ireland...
and Le Boutron. Peter of Gibelet kept his lands around Gibelet (modern Byblos
Byblos
Byblos is the Greek name of the Phoenician city Gebal . It is a Mediterranean city in the Mount Lebanon Governorate of present-day Lebanon under the current Arabic name of Jubayl and was also referred to as Gibelet during the Crusades...
) for about 10 more years, in exchange for the payment of a tribute to the Sultan.
Aftermath
Two years later Acre, the last major Crusader outpost in the Holy LandHoly Land
The Holy Land is a term which in Judaism refers to the Kingdom of Israel as defined in the Tanakh. For Jews, the Land's identifiction of being Holy is defined in Judaism by its differentiation from other lands by virtue of the practice of Judaism often possible only in the Land of Israel...
was also captured in the Siege of Acre
Siege of Acre (1291)
The Siege of Acre took place in 1291 and resulted in the loss of the Crusader-controlled city of Acre to the Muslims. It is considered one of the most important battles of the time period. Although the crusading movement continued for several more centuries, the capture of the city marked the end...
in 1291. It was considered by many historians to mark the end of the Crusades, though there were still a few other territories being held to the north, in Tortosa and Atlit. However the last of those, the small Templar garrison on the island of Ruad
Ruad
Ruad may refer to:* Arwad, a small waterless island off the coast of Tortosa, Syria* Fall of Ruad, battle around 1300 between the Egyptian Mamluks and the Crusaders* Áed Rúad, High King of medieval Irish legend* Ruad, Old Irish term for red, as in Red Branch...
was captured in 1302 or 1303 in a siege. With the Fall of Ruad
Fall of Ruad
The Fall of Ruad in 1302/3 was one of the culminating events of the Crusades in the Eastern Mediterranean. When the garrison on the tiny Isle of Ruad fell, it marked the loss of the last Crusader outpost on the coast of the Levant...
, was lost the last bit of Crusader-held land in the Levant.