| Siege of Alexandria (1174) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of The Crusades | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Ayyubid Sultanate |  Kingdom of Sicily | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Saladin | Tancred of Lecce | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown | 30,000 men 1,500 knights 280 ships | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | Heavy | ||||||
The siege of Alexandria in 1174 was a short and unsuccessful attempt by the Normans of Sicily to overthrow Saladin from Egypt.
After Saladin had abolished the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid sympathizers began plotting against Saladin; a conspiracy led by Umara ibn Abi al-Hasan al-Yamani included Egyptians, Sudanese, and some Turkish officers and soldiers. The conspirators called for aid from the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Sicily. However, Saladin was able to crack down on the conspirators and punish them. Umara was crucified on April 6, 1174. The Egyptians and Sudanese were exiled to Upper Egypt. [1] [2] [3]
The Latins did not join in their attack following the death of their king, Amalric, and the news of the failed plot. [4] [5] [6] However, the Normans of Sicily called for their aid despite being unaware of the plot's failure. [7]
Under the command of his cousin Tancred of Lecce, [8] William II sent out a fleet of 280 ships, 30,000 soldiers, and 1,500 knights. [9] [10] [11] On July 28, they arrived in Alexandria. The garrison was caught completely off guard. The Normans started attacking the city walls with their siege towers, mangonels, and catapults. It was necessary for the defenders to repel the attack until night. The defenders were able to repel the attack when the Normans moved their siege artillery closer to the walls the following day, thanks to reinforcements from the nearby villages. [12]
After the defenders launched daring sorties on July 31 and August 1 that destroyed the Norman's siege engines and killed many of them, the garrison triumphantly withdrew back inside the walls. [13] The Normans, meanwhile, received word that Saladin was advancing on the city with his army to relieve it. The garrison's morale was boosted by these reports, and they mounted a daring nighttime sortie that drove the Normans to their ships and out to sea. [14] The Normans left the city on August 2 and fled north. [15] [16]
The Kingdom of Jerusalem, also known as the Latin Kingdom, was a Crusader state that was established in the Levant immediately after the First Crusade. It lasted for almost two hundred years, from the accession of Godfrey of Bouillon in 1099 until the fall of Acre in 1291. Its history is divided into two periods with a brief interruption in its existence, beginning with its collapse after the siege of Jerusalem in 1187 and its restoration after the Third Crusade in 1192.
Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, commonly known as Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from a Kurdish family, he was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, he spearheaded the Muslim military effort against the Crusader states in the Levant. At the height of his power, the Ayyubid realm spanned Egypt, Syria, Upper Mesopotamia, the Hejaz, Yemen, and Nubia.
Year 1169 (MCLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar.
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The Ayyubid dynasty, also known as the Ayyubid Sultanate, was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni Muslim of Kurdish origin, Saladin had originally served the Zengid ruler Nur ad-Din, leading Nur ad-Din's army in battle against the Crusaders in Fatimid Egypt, where he was made Vizier. Following Nur ad-Din's death, Saladin was proclaimed as the first Sultan of Egypt by the Abbasid Caliphate, and rapidly expanded the new sultanate beyond the frontiers of Egypt to encompass most of the Levant, in addition to Hijaz, Yemen, northern Nubia, Tarabulus, Cyrenaica, southern Anatolia, and northern Iraq, the homeland of his Kurdish family. By virtue of his sultanate including Hijaz, the location of the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina, he was the first ruler to be hailed as the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, a title that would be held by all subsequent sultans of Egypt until the Ottoman conquest of 1517. Saladin's military campaigns in the first decade of his rule, aimed at uniting the various Arab and Muslim states in the region against the Crusaders, set the general borders and sphere of influence of the sultanate of Egypt for the almost three and a half centuries of its existence. Most of the Crusader states, including the Kingdom of Jerusalem, fell to Saladin after his victory at the Battle of Hattin in 1187. However, the Crusaders reconquered the coast of Palestine in the 1190s.
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Raymond III was count of Tripoli from 1152 to 1187. He was a minor when Nizari Assassins murdered his father, Raymond II of Tripoli. Baldwin III of Jerusalem, who was staying in Tripoli, made Raymond's mother, Hodierna of Jerusalem, regent. Raymond spent the following years at the royal court in Jerusalem. He reached the age of majority in 1155, after which he participated in a series of military campaigns against Nur ad-Din, the Zengid ruler of Damascus. In 1161 he hired pirates to pillage the Byzantine coastline and islands to take vengeance on Byzantine emperor Manuel I Komnenos, who had refused to marry his sister Melisende. He was captured in the Battle of Harim by Nur ad-Din's troops on 10 August 1164, and imprisoned in Aleppo for almost ten years. During his captivity, Amalric I of Jerusalem administered the county of Tripoli on his behalf.
The siege of Acre was the first significant counterattack by Guy of Jerusalem against Saladin, leader of the Muslims in Syria and Egypt. This pivotal siege formed part of what later became known as the Third Crusade. The siege lasted from August 1189 until July 1191, in which time the city's coastal position meant the attacking Latin force were unable to fully invest the city and Saladin was unable to fully relieve it with both sides receiving supplies and resources by sea. Finally, it was a key victory for the Crusaders and a serious setback for Saladin's ambition to destroy the Crusader states.
The Battle of Montgisard was fought between the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Ayyubid Dynasty on 25 November 1177 at Montgisard, in the Levant between Ramla and Yibna. The 16-year-old Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, severely afflicted by leprosy, led outnumbered Christian forces against Saladin's troops in what became one of the most notable engagements of the Crusades. The Muslim Army was quickly routed and pursued for twelve miles. Saladin fled back to Cairo, reaching the city on 8 December, with only a tenth of his army. Muslim historians considered Saladin's defeat to be so severe that it was only redeemed by his victory ten years later at the battles of Cresson and Hattin and the Siege of Jerusalem in 1187. Saladin did defeat Baldwin IV in the Battle of Marj Ayyun and the Siege of Jacob’s Ford in 1179, only to be defeated by Baldwin again at the Battle of Belvoir Castle in 1182 and the Siege of Kerak in 1183.
Asad ad-Dīn Shīrkūh bin Shādhī, also known as Shirkuh, or Şêrko was a military commander in service of the Zengid dynasty, and uncle of Saladin. His military and diplomatic efforts in Egypt were a key factor in establishing the Ayyubid dynasty in that country.
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Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf ibn al-Ḥāfiẓ, better known by his regnal name al-ʿĀḍid li-Dīn Allāh, was the fourteenth and last caliph of the Fatimid dynasty, and the twenty-fourth imam of the Hafizi Isma'ili branch of Shi'a Islam, reigning from 1160 to 1171.
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