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،.
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