Mamluk raid on Cyprus | |||||
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The eastern Mediterranean in the contemporary Catalan Atlas (1375), with the Sultan al-Ashraf Sha'ban figuring prominently | |||||
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Belligerents | |||||
Mamluk Sultanate | 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]
The main sources for the expedition are Leontios Makhairas, al-Maqrizi and al-Nuwayri. [1]
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]
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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