Battle of Harran
| date | May 7, 1104 |
|---|---|
| place | at Harran |
| output | Seljuk victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
Baldwin II by Edessa |
|
| Troop strength | |
| unknown | unknown |
| losses | |
|
unknown |
unknown |
The Battle of Harran took place on May 7, 1104 between the Crusader states Antioch and Edessa on one side and the Seljuks on the other. It was the first major battle against the newly established states during the First Crusade .
prehistory
When the Seljuks attacked the border regions of the County of Edessas in 1104, Count Baldwin II called Bohemond I of Antioch and Tankred of Tiberias for help. Bohemond and Tankred marched from Antioch to Edessa, where they met Baldwin and Joscelin von Courtenay , with whom they marched together to Harran , 20 km away . They were accompanied by Bernhard von Valence , Latin Patriarch of Antiochiena , Dagobert of Pisa , Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem , and Archbishop Benedict of Edessa. Baldwin had previously warned the Harran residents not to go to their fields along the Euphrates , so that they now suffered hunger and quickly submitted.
In the crusaders' camp there was a dispute between Bohemond and Baldwin over who owned the city, while a Seljuk army arrived to liberate the city. The Seljuks, under the Dschekermisch von Mosul and Sökmen I. , the Ortoqidischen lord of Mardin , divided into two groups, one brought food into the city, while the other tried to distract the crusaders or to engage in a fight. The quarrel between Bohemond and Baldwin, however, was already distraction enough and had progressed so far that it threatened to break up the alliance. Nevertheless, they managed to get their troops ready for battle.
The battle
Baldwin and Joscelin commanded their Edessan troops on the left, Bohemond and Tankred the Antiochene on the right. The Edessans attacked first, but were completely defeated, Baldwin and Joscelin were captured by Jerkers. Antioch's troops suffered only minor losses and were able to flee to Edessa. Bohemond did not bother to pay a ransom, but appointed Tankred as regent in Edessa.
consequences
The battle was one of the first defeats of the Crusaders, it strengthened the belief among the Muslims that the Christians were not invincible either, as it had appeared during the First Crusade. The Byzantine Empire took advantage of the defeat by strengthening its claims on Antioch and recapturing Latakia and parts of Cilicia . Many cities ruled from Antioch rose and were taken by Muslim troops from Aleppo . Even Armenian regions fell off and stood Byzantium or Lesser Armenia .
The events brought Bohemond to travel to Italy to bring in new troops, during which time he also left Tankred to rule Antioch.
William of Tire writes that there has been no more devastating defeat than this. Antioch recovered the following year, but the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I later forced the Treaty of Devol on Bohemond , which would have made Antioch a Byzantine vassal had Tankred accepted it. Antioch was defeated again in the Battle of Ager Sanguinis in 1119 , Edessa, however, never recovered from the defeat and survived until 1144 only because of the internal disputes of the Muslims.
literature
- Bernard S. Bachrach and David S. Bachrach, 2005. The Gesta Tancredi of Ralph of Caen: A History of the Normans on the First Crusade . The first English translation. ISBN 0-7546-3710-7
- André Alden Beaumont: Albert von Aachen and the County of Edessa , in Louis J. Paetow (editor): The Crusades and Other Historical Essays. Presented to Dana C. Munro by His Former Students . New York, 1928, pp. 101-138, esp. 124-127.
- Fulcher of Chartres, A History of the Expedition to Jerusalem, 1095-1127 , trans. Frances Rita Ryan. University of Tennessee Press, 1969.
- Stefan Heidemann: The renaissance of the cities in northern Syria and northern Mesopotamia: urban development and economic conditions in ar-Raqqa and Harran from the Bedouin domination to the Seljuks . Islamic History and Civilization: Studies and Texts 40, Leiden, 2002, p. 192-197.
- Armenia and the Crusades, Tenth to Twelfth Centuries: The Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa . Trans. Ara Edmond Dostourian. National Association for Armenian Studies and Research, 1993.
- Robert Lawrence Nicholson: Tancred: A Study of His Career and Work in Their Relation to the First Crusade and the Establishment of the Latin States in Syria and Palestine . Chicago, 1940, pp. 138-147.
- William of Tire, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea , trans. EA Babcock and AC Krey. Columbia University Press , 1943.