Battle of Azaz (1125)
| date | June 11, 1125 |
|---|---|
| place | at Azaz |
| output | Victory of the Crusaders |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
County Edessa |
|
| Commander | |
|
|
al-Bursuqi from Mosul |
| Troop strength | |
| at 3,100 | relatively larger |
| losses | |
|
unknown |
over 1,000 men |
The Battle of Azaz took place on June 11, 1125 between the Crusader States and the Seljuks .
prehistory
Joscelin I of Edessa had taken the city of Azaz ( Hazart ) in northern Syria from the Atabeg of Aleppo in 1118 . 1119 a crusader army from Antioch under Roger of Salerno was defeated in the battle of Ager Sanguinis . In 1123, Baldwin II of Jerusalem was captured by Muslims while on patrol in the county of Edessa . Released in 1124, Baldwin began a siege of Aleppo in 1125 , which caught the attention of Aq Sunqur al-Bursuqi , the Seljuk Atabeg of Mosul . Il-Bursuqi marched south, lifted the siege of Aleppo, forced the Crusaders to retreat, and then besieged Zerdana in Edessa County.
On June 11, 1125, the enemy armies met. The Christian army consisted of the contingents of Baldwin II from the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Principality of Antioch, where Baldwin was regent, Joscelins I from the County of Edessa and those of the Pons of Tripoli from the County of Tripoli. In total there were around 1,100 knights and 2,000 foot soldiers. The army of Atabegs il-Bursuqi, which in the meantime had received reinforcements from his ally Tugtakin from Damascus, had gathered outside of Azaz and was probably much larger than that of the Christians.
Course of the battle
After a brief advance, Baldwin faked an alleged retreat, with which he succeeded in luring the Seljuks away from Azaz into open terrain, where he surrounded them together with the other contingents. After a long and bloody battle, the Seljuks were routed and their camp was conquered. Baldwin made enough booty to release the prisoners the Seljuks had made in the course of the battle (including the future Joscelin II of Edessa ).
consequences
This victory allowed the Crusaders to restore much of the influence they had lost after their defeat on the Ager Sanguinis in 1119. Baldwin now planned an attack on Aleppo, but Antioch, where Bohemond II took office in 1126 , preferred to fight against Edessa, so that the project failed. Aleppo and Mosul were united in 1128 under the much stronger ruler Zengi , during whose reign Christian rule in northern Syria began to wane.
Notes and individual references
- ↑ a b So Fulcher von Chartres in his chronicle Historia Hierosolymitana .
- ↑ So Ibn al-Athīr in his chronicle. According to Fulcher von Chartes, the Muslims lost 5 emirs and 2,000 men, Matthias von Edessa exaggerated with 15 emirs and 5,000 men.
literature
- RC Smail: Crusading Warfare 1097-1193. Barnes & Noble Books, New York (1956) 1995. ISBN 1-56619-769-4
- Reinhold Röhricht : History of the Kingdom of Jerusalem (1100–1291). Wagner, Innsbruck 1898. p. 176