Siege of Edessa (1144)

Thesiege of Edessatook place from 28 November to 24 December 1144, resulting in the fall of the capital of theCounty of EdessatoZengi,theatabeg of MosulandAleppo.This event was the catalyst for theSecond Crusade.

Siege of Edessa
Part of theCrusades
Date November 28 – December 24, 1144 Location Edessa,County of Edessa (present-daySanliurfa,Turkey) Result Zengid victory Start of theSecond Crusade
Belligerents
County of Edessa	Zengids
Commanders and leaders
ArchbishopHugh† BishopBasil bar Shumna Bishop John	Imad al-Din Zengi

Background

The County of Edessa was the first of theCrusader statesto be established during and after theFirst Crusade.It dates from 1098 whenBaldwin of Boulogneleft the main army of the First Crusade and founded a principality.

Edessa was the most northerly, the weakest, and the least populated. As such, it was subject to frequent attacks from the surrounding Muslim states ruled by theArtuqids,Danishmends,andSeljuk Turks.CountBaldwin IIand future countJoscelin of Courtenaywere taken captive after their defeat at theBattle of Harranin 1104. Joscelin was captured a second time in 1122, and although Edessa recovered somewhat after theBattle of Azazin 1125, Joscelin was killed in battle in 1131. His successorJoscelin IIwas forced into an alliance with theByzantine Empire,but in 1143, both the Byzantine emperorJohn II ComnenusandFulk of Jerusalemdied. John II was succeeded by his sonManuel I Comnenus,who had to deal with consolidating power at home against his elder brothers, while Fulk was succeeded by his wifeMelisendeand his sonBaldwin III.Joscelin had also quarreled withRaymond II of TripoliandRaymond of Poitiers,leaving Edessa with no powerful allies.

Siege

In 1144, Joscelin was able to make an alliance withKara Arslan,the Artuqid ruler ofDiyarbakır,against the growing power and influence of Zengi. Joscelin marched out of Edessa with almost his entire army to support Kara Aslan against Aleppo. Zengi, already seeking to take advantage of Fulk's death in 1143, hurried north to besiege Edessa, arriving on November 28. The city had been warned of his arrival and was prepared for a siege, but there was little they could do while Joscelin and the army were elsewhere.

The defense of the city was led by the Latin ArchbishopHugh of Edessa,the Armenian Bishop John, and the Jacobite BishopBasil bar Shumna.John and Basil ensured that no native Christians would desert to Zengi. When Joscelin heard of the siege, he took the army toTurbessel,knowing that he could never dislodge Zengi without help from the other crusader states. In Jerusalem, Queen Melisende responded to Joscelin's appeal by sending an army led byManasses of Hierges,Philip of Milly,and Elinand of Bures. Raymond of Poitiers ignored the call for help, as his army was already occupied against the Byzantine Empire inCilicia.

Zengi surrounded the entire city, realizing that no army was defending it. He builtsiege enginesand began tomine the walls,while his forces were joined byKurdishandTurcomanreinforcements. The inhabitants of Edessa resisted as much as they could but had no experience in siege warfare; the city's numerous towers remained undefended. They also did not know counter-mining, and part of the wall near the Gate of the Hours collapsed on December 24. Zengi's troops rushed into the city, killing all those who were unable to flee to the citadel. Thousands more were suffocated or trampled to death in the panic, including Archbishop Hugh. Zengi ordered his men to stop the massacre, although all the Latin prisoners that he had taken were executed; the native Christians were allowed to live freely. The citadel was handed over on December 26. One of Zengi's commanders, Zayn ad-Din Ali Kutchuk, was appointed governor, while Bishop Basil, apparently willing to give his loyalty to whoever ruled the city, was recognized as leader of the Christian population.

Aftermath

In January 1145, Zengi capturedSarujand besiegedBirejik,but the army of Jerusalem had finally arrived and joined with Joscelin. Zengi also heard of trouble in Mosul and rushed back to take control. The Islamic world praised him as a "defender of the faith" andal-Malik al-Mansur,the victorious king.Ibn al-Qaysaranipraised his victory in a rhyming panegyric.He did not pursue an attack on the remaining territory of Edessa or the Principality of Antioch, as was feared. Joscelin II continued to rule the remnants of the county to the west of the Euphrates from Turbessel, but little by little, the rest of the territory was captured by the Muslims or sold to the Byzantines.

Zengi was assassinated by an enslaved person in 1146 while besieging Qalat Jabar and was succeeded in Aleppo by his sonNur ad-Din.Joscelin attempted to take back Edessa following Zengi's murder and recaptured all but the citadel in October 1146. However, he had no help from the other crusader states, and his poorly planned expedition was driven out of Edessa by Nur ad-Din in November. Joscelin, fearing for the safety of the city's Christian Armenians, attempted to break a hole in Nur ad-Din's forces through which the natives could flee to safety. However, Joscelin's attempt failed, and his fears came true when Nur al-Din's troops massacred the fleeing Armenians and forced the survivors into slavery.

By this time, news of the fall of Edessa reached Europe, and Raymond of Poitiers had already sent a delegation includingHugh,Bishop ofJabala,to seek aid fromEugene III.On 1 December 1145, Eugene issued the papal bullQuantum praedecessorescalling for theSecond Crusade.This crusade was led byLouis VII of FranceandConrad III of Germany,but by 1148, it had ended in disaster, and Edessa was never recovered.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusaders, extracted and translated from the Chronicle ofIbn al-Qalanisi.Edited and translated by H. A. R. Gibb. London, 1932.
• William of Tyre.A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea.Edited and translated by E. A. Babcock and A. C. Krey. Columbia University Press, 1943.
• Armenia and the Crusades, Tenth to Twelfth Centuries: The Chronicle ofMatthew of Edessa.Translated by Ara Edmond Dostourian. National Association for Armenian Studies and Research, 1993.

Secondary sources

• Ferdinandi, Sergio (2017).La Contea Franca di Edessa. Fondazione e Profilo Storico del Primo Principato Crociato nel Levante (1098-1150).Pontificia Università Antonianum - Rome.ISBN978-88-7257-103-3.
• Hermes, Nizar F. (2017). "The Poet(ry) of Frankish Enchantment: TheIfranjiyyātof Ibn Qaysarānī ".Middle Eastern Literatures.20(3): 267–287.doi:10.1080/1475262x.2017.1385695.S2CID166119010.
• Runciman, Steven(1952).A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Setton, Kenneth M.;Baldwin, Marshall W., eds. (1969) [1955].A History of the Crusades, Volume I: The First Hundred Years(Second ed.). Madison, Milwaukee, and London: University of Wisconsin Press.ISBN0-299-04834-9.