| Siege of Rumkale | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 The Rumkale fortress | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia  Ilkhanate |  Mamluk Sultanate | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Stefanos IV (POW) | Al-Ashraf Khalil Sanjar al-Shuja‘i Ibn al-Sal'us Sharaf al-Din bin al-Khatir † | ||||||
The siege of Rumkale or the fall of Rumkale took place in 1292 and resulted in the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia losing the castle of Rumkale to the Mamluk Sultanate. [1] [2] [3]
Amidst the fierce wars between the Egyptian Mamluks on one hand and the Mongol Ilkhanate and the Crusaders on the other hand, the Kingdom of Lesser Armenia which was an Armenian Kingdom in southern Anatolia (modern-day southern Turkey). When the Mongols were preparing to invade Egypt, the Armenians supported them. These forces were annihilated along with the Mongols at the hands of the Mamluks in the Battle of Ain Jalut (1260), and in all the battles in which the Armenians cooperated with the Mongols or Crusaders after that. [4] [5] [6]
After the Mamluk army conquered the city of Acre, which was considered the most important Crusader state and the heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, there was an Armenian castle called the Rumkale (meaning the "Roman Castle"). This castle was very important to the Armenians because it was the seat of the Armenian Patriarch. It was also a refuge to the Mongols and the Crusaders who fled from the Mamluk army in the Levant. The castle's forces, led by the Armenian Patriarch Stefanos IV, secretly carried out raids on Muslim caravans and on rural villages, in violation of a treaty with the Mamluk sultan al-Mansur Qalawun. [1] [3]
The Mamluk na'ib (deputy) of the city of Aleppo learned through his spies about these violations of the treaty. In 1292, a detailed report was sent to Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil, who was still returning to Egypt after the conquest of Acre. The sultan ordered a general mobilization throughout Egypt and the usual call for volunteers in Egypt to join a campaign against Rumkale. The preachers in the mosques delivered sermons to encourage Muslims to join the jihad. Al-Maqrizi, a 14th-century writer, mentions that the most prominent preacher was the Abbasid caliph, who delivered a sermon in the mosque of the citadel. [1] [3]
Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil bin Qalawun accompanied by his vizier Ibn al-Sal'us [7] [8] came out at the head of the Egyptian army to confront the Armenians. The army reached the city of Damascus, then moved to Aleppo. From Aleppo, it reached the walls of the Rumkale Citadel, whose inhabitants and its Armenian and Mongol fighters were shocked by the Egyptian army outside the city walls. But despite the terror within the walls of the castle, the city was very impregnable because of the Euphrates River and the Marzban River, which surrounded the castle from every point, and its mountainous nature, in addition to the strength and height of its walls. All of these factors made it a more formidable and stronger castle than the Acre Castle, which the Egyptians conquered with great difficulty. [1] [3]
The Egyptian army did not give up and began to implement a plan that was extremely intelligent and difficult at the same time. As an attempt to restrict the inhabitants of the castle, the Armenians and Mongols, and force them to surrender, the Egyptian forces pulled the waters of the Euphrates River towards the valleys and they were filled with water. With the presence of the Marzaban River, the Egyptians knew that they could control the castle from all sides. 30 catapults were deployed and began to demolish the city walls during the siege on it, [9] the catapults continued to strike the walls of the citadel without stopping for a month until the walls of the city were pierced on many sides. At that time, Emir Sanjar al-Shuja'i, the na'ib (deputy) of Damascus, ordered a chain to be made and entangled in the holes. The soldiers mounted it, and fought intensely. The citadel was conquered on Saturday, the eleventh of Rajab, in the year 691 AH, corresponding to 1292 AD. [1] [2] [3]
After the Egyptians entered the citadel, they stormed the headquarters of the Armenian Patriarch Stefanos IV, who was attacking Egyptian caravans and villages and protecting the Mongols, and he was arrested. [1] [3] Historian Muhammad Kurd Ali says:
“In the year 691 AH, al-Malik al-Ashraf went with his Egyptian soldiers and went to the Rumkale Castle, which is on the side of the Euphrates, where the Armenian Patriarch Kitagekos (Stefanos IV) resided. He took him and those with him captive, and destroyed what was ruined from this fortified castle.” [3]
The siege of the castle lasted for 33 days, and after its conquest, Sultan Khalil named it the Qal'at al-Muslimin (Castle of the Muslims), instead of its old name, the Rumkale Castle. [10] It was known by this name, and Sultan Khalil ordered the rebuilding of everything that was destroyed in the castle and the flags of the Sultanate be raised over it on all sides. [1] [3]
Sultan Khalil left Emir Sanjar al-Shuja‘i at the castle and returned to Damascus with prisoners. The population of Damascus bid farewell to the victorious Sultan on his way to Cairo at night with thousands of lighted candles. The army returned, with Sultan El-Ashraf Khalil at its head, and entered Cairo at night from the Bab al-Nasr (Victory Gate), according to the old Egyptian custom. The army was received by tens of thousands of Egyptian people who lighted thousands of candles and hanged decorations. The women continued to ululate and the voices of takbir and applause rose. [1] [3]
Year 1292 (MCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.
Qalāwūn aṣ-Ṣāliḥī was the seventh Turkic Bahri Mamluk Sultan of Egypt; he ruled from 1279 to 1290. He was called al-Manṣūr Qalāwūn. After having risen in power in the Mamluk court and elite circles, Qalawun eventually held the title of "the victorious king" and gained de facto authority over the sultanate. He is the founder of the Qalawunid dynasty that ruled Egypt for over a century.
The Bahri Mamluks, sometimes referred to as the Bahri dynasty, were the rulers of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt from 1250 to 1382, following the Ayyubid dynasty. The members of the Mamluk ruling class were purchased as slaves (mamluks) and manumitted, with the most powerful among them taking the role of sultan in Cairo. While several Bahri Mamluk sultans tried to establish hereditary dynasties through their sons, these attempts were ultimately unsuccessful, with the role of sultan often passing on to another powerful Mamluk.
Al-Ashraf Salāh ad-Dīn Khalil ibn Qalawūn was the eighth Turkic Bahri Mamluk sultan, succeeding his father Qalawun. He served from 12 November 1290 until his assassination in December 1293. He was well known for conquering the last of the Crusader states in Palestine after the siege of Acre in 1291. While walking with a friend, Khalil was attacked and assassinated by Baydara and his followers, who was then killed under the orders of Kitbugha.
Al-Malik an-Nasir Nasir ad-Din Muhammad ibn Qalawun, commonly known as an-Nasir Muhammad, or by his kunya: Abu al-Ma'ali or as Ibn Qalawun (1285–1341) was the ninth Mamluk sultan of the Bahri dynasty who ruled Egypt between 1293–1294, 1299–1309, and 1310 until his death in 1341. During his first reign he was dominated by Kitbugha and al-Shuja‘i, while during his second reign he was dominated by Baibars and Salar. Not wanting to be dominated or deprived of his full rights as a sultan by his third reign, an-Nasir executed Baibars and accepted the resignation of Salar as vice Sultan.
Izz al-Din Aybak was the first of the Mamluk sultans of Egypt in the Turkic Bahri line. He ruled from 1250 until his death in 1257.
Shajar al-Durr, also Shajarat al-Durr, whose royal name was al-Malika ʿAṣmat ad-Dīn ʾUmm-Khalīl Shajar ad-Durr, was a ruler of Egypt. She was the wife of As-Salih Ayyub, and later of Izz al-Din Aybak, the first sultan of the Mamluk Bahri dynasty. Prior to becoming Ayyub's wife, she was a child slave and Ayyub's concubine.
The siege of Acre took place in 1291 and resulted in the Crusaders' losing control of Acre to the Mamluks. It is considered one of the most important battles of the period. Although the crusading movement continued for several more centuries, the capture of the city marked the end of further crusades to the Levant. When Acre fell, the Crusaders lost their last major stronghold of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. They still maintained a fortress at the northern city of Tartus, engaged in some coastal raids, and attempted an incursion from the tiny island of Ruad; but, when they lost that, too, in a siege in 1302, the Crusaders no longer controlled any part of the Holy Land.
Pope Athanasius III of Alexandria, 76th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark.
Starting in the 1240s, the Mongols made repeated invasions of Syria or attempts thereof. Most failed, but they did have some success in 1260 and 1300, capturing Aleppo and Damascus and destroying the Ayyubid dynasty. The Mongols were forced to retreat within months each time by other forces in the area, primarily the Egyptian Mamluks. The post-1260 conflict has been described as the Mamluk–Ilkhanid War.
An-Nasir Yusuf, fully al-Malik al-Nasir Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn al-Aziz ibn al-Zahir ibn Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shazy, was the Ayyubid Kurdish Emir of Syria from his seat in Aleppo (1236–1260), and the Sultan of the Ayyubid Empire from 1250 until the sack of Aleppo by the Mongols in 1260.
Kitbugha, royal name: al-Malik al-Adil Zayn-ad-Din Kitbugha Ben Abd-Allah al-Mansuri al-Turki al-Mughli; Arabic: الملك العادل زين الدين كتبغا بن عبد الله المنصورى التركى المغلى) was the 10th Mamluk sultan of Egypt from December 1294 to November 1296.
Al-Ashraf Musa (1229–1263), fully Al-Ashraf Musa ibn al-Mansur Ibrahim ibn Shirkuh, was the last Ayyubid Kurdish prince (emir) of Homs, a city located in the central region of modern-day Syria. His rule began in June 1246, but was temporarily cut short in 1248 after he was forced to surrender Homs and then given Tall Bashir by his cousin an-Nasir Yusuf, the Emir of Aleppo. For a short period of time during Mongol rule in 1260, al-Ashraf served as Viceroy of Syria, although the position was largely nominal. He helped achieve the Mongols' defeat at the hands of the Egypt-based Mamluks by withdrawing his troops from the Mongol coalition during the Battle of Ain Jalut as part of a secret agreement with the Mamluk sultan Qutuz. Following the Mamluk victory, al-Ashraf was reinstated as Emir of Homs as a Mamluk vassal, but was stripped of his viceroy position. Since he left no heirs, after his death, Homs was incorporated into the Mamluk Sultanate.
Husam ad-Din Muhanna ibn Isa was the Arab lord of Palmyra and amir al-ʿarab under the Mamluk Sultanate. He served between 1284 and his death, but was dismissed and reinstated four times during this period. As the chieftain of the Al Fadl, a clan of the Tayy tribe, which dominated the Syrian Desert, Muhanna wielded considerable influence among the Bedouin. He was described by historian Amalia Levanoni as "the eldest and most senior amir" of the Al Fadl during his era.
Al-Sahib Shams ad-Din Muhammad ibn Uthman ibn Abi al-Raja' al-Tanukhi, better known as Ibn al-Sal'us, was an Arab merchant and the wazir of the Mamluk sultan, al-Ashraf Khalil. Ibn al-Sal'us began his career as a merchant based in Damascus, where he was eventually employed as a deputy muhtasib. He gained a good reputation for his efforts at ensuring accountability in Damascene commerce. He was later appointed chief muhtasib in Cairo by Sultan al-Mansur Qalawun in 1290, but was soon after exiled to the Hejaz. When al-Ashraf Khalil succeeded Qalawun in November 1290, he recalled Ibn al-Sal'us to Cairo and appointed him wazir. Ibn al-Sal'us restored the political influence of the office of wazir and accompanied al-Ashraf Khalil during military expeditions against the Crusaders and the Armenians. His arrogance toward senior Mamluk emirs drew their resentment. In the months following al-Ashraf Khalil's murder, Ibn al-Sal'us was arrested and tortured to death on the orders of his rival, Emir Sanjar al-Shuja‘i.
The fall of Outremer describes the history of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from the end of the last European Crusade to the Holy Land in 1272 until the final loss in 1302. The kingdom was the center of Outremer—the four Crusader states—formed after the First Crusade in 1099 and reached its peak in 1187. The loss of Jerusalem in that year began the century-long decline. The years 1272–1302 are fraught with many conflicts throughout the Levant as well as the Mediterranean and Western European regions, and many Crusades were proposed to free the Holy Land from Mamluk control. The major players fighting the Muslims included the kings of England and France, the kingdoms of Cyprus and Sicily, the three Military Orders and Mongol Ilkhanate. Traditionally, the end of Western European presence in the Holy Land is identified as their defeat at the Siege of Acre in 1291, but the Christian forces managed to hold on to the small island fortress of Ruad until 1302.
Shams al-Din Sunqur al-Ashqar al-Salihi was the Mamluk viceroy of Damascus in 1279–1280, who attempted to rule Syria independently, in a rebellion against the Egypt-based sultan Qalawun. While the rebellion in Damascus was quashed in 1280, Sunqur ensconced himself in the Sahyun Castle in the coastal mountains of northern Syria. He joined Qalawun in the successful defense of Syria against the Ilkhanid Mongols at the Battle of Homs in 1281. He remained in a state of peaceful relations with the sultan, despite ruling his coastal principality independently.
The siege of Margat took place in 1285 and resulted in the Crusaders losing the castle of Margat to the Mamluk Sultanate. The capture of the castle paved the way for the siege of Acre.
The Military of the Mamluk Sultanate, officially known as Al-Asakir al-Masria or Al-Askar al-Masri or Al-Jund al-Masri or Al-Asakir al-Mansoura, was the official armed forces of the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate.
The fall of Sis or the siege of Sis was the capture of Sis and the destruction of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia by the Egyptian Sultanate. It occurred on 13 April 1375.