Mamluk raid on Cyprus (1368)

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Mamluk raid on Cyprus
1375 Atlas Catalan, Eastern Mediterranean 01.jpg
The eastern Mediterranean in the contemporary Catalan Atlas (1375), with the Sultan al-Ashraf Sha'ban figuring prominently
DateMarch–April 1368
Location
Belligerents
Flag of the Mamluk Sultanate (Alexandria).svg Mamluk Sultanate Flag Kiprskogo korolevstva (1192-1489).png Kingdom of Cyprus
Commanders and leaders
Ibrahim al-Tazi Unknown
Strength
500 men
2 ships
Unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown 35 prisoners
1 or 2 ships

The Mamluk Sultanate launched a naval raid on the Kingdom of Cyprus in March 1368. The raid was a delayed response to the Alexandrian Crusade of October 1365, which had been spearheaded by King Peter I of Cyprus. [1]

Contents

The main sources for the expedition are Leontios Makhairas, al-Maqrizi and al-Nuwayri. [1]

Construction of the Mamluk fleet

In response to the crusade, the Mamulk atābak Yalbugha al-Umari ordered the construction of a fleet at Cairo. Ibn Qāḍī Shuhba dates this to November–December 1365, but al-Maqrizi, who is probably more reliable, places it in January–February 1366, at the same time as a fleet was ordered in Beirut. [1]

Procurement in Cairo was to be the responsibility of the vizier Mājid ibn al-Qazwīna, while construction ws overseen by Ṭaybughā and Bahāʾ al-Dīn ibn al-Mufassar. According to al-Maqrizi, the craftsmen and sailors were imported from the Maghreb or recruited from among the Turcomans of Upper Egypt. According to al-Nuwayri, the fleet cast off on 28 November 1366. According to al-Maqrizi, there were 100 ships, each under the command of an emir. The Prise d'Alexandrie , however, puts the number of ships at 200. [1]

Raid on Cyprus

In May 1366, the Ottomans offered to send 100 ships in a joint attack on Cyprus, but the Mamluks could not commit, since their fleet was still under construction. [1] In March 1368, the privateer brothers Peter and John Grimante, sailing from Famagusta raided Alexandria and Damietta, seizing several ships. [1] [2] In Alexandria, they faced strong resistance from the captain of the arsenal, Ibrahim al-Tazi, who was from the Maghreb. [1]

Sultan al-Ashraf Sha'ban immediately summoned al-Tazi to Cairo and offered him command of the fleet, moored at Boulaq, for a raid against Cyprus. Al-Tazi opted to take only a single ship from Cairo together with one other ship from Alexandria. [1] He set sail from the port of Alexandria with 500 of his crew for an armed reconnaissance of the Cypriot coast. [1] [3] According to al-Nuwayri, he sent back a boat full of booty on 30 March. He captured one or two boats before being forced to retreat by Genoese galleys in Cypriot service. He returned to Alexandria in mid-April or early May. [1] The sources are not entirely consistent, [1] but the raid lasted about 23 days. [3] It netted 35 Cypriot prisoners. [4] [5]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Clément Onimus, "Peter I of Lusignan's Crusade and the Reaction of the Mamluk Sultanate", in Alexander D. Beihammer and Angel Nicolaou-Konnari, eds., Crusading, Society, and Politics in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Age of King Peter I of Cyprus (Brepols, 2022), pp. 251–271, at 258–259.
  2. George Francis Hill, A History of Cyprus, Vol. 2: The Frankish Period, 1192–1432 (Cambridge University Press, 1948), p. 354.
  3. 1 2 ʻAbbādī, Aḥmad Mukhtār ʻAbd al-Fattāḥ (1981). تاريخ البحرية الإسلامية في مصر والشام (in Arabic). دار النهضة العربية،.
  4. العزيز, سالم، السيد عبد (1969). تاريخ الإسكندرية وحضارتها في العصر الإسلامي (in Arabic). دار المعارف،.
  5. Ḥasan Saʻīd, Ibrāhīm (1973). تايخ البحرية المصرية (in Arabic). Jāmiʻat al-Iskandarīyah.