Capture of Tyre, Sidon, Beirut, Haifa and Tartus
The port of Tyre was one of the most protected strongholds of the Franks on the Syrian coast. Saladin failed twice to capture it. Tyre was passed from Margaret of Lusignan to her nephew Amalric shortly before the capture of Acre by Al-Ashraf Khalil. On May 19, Al-Ashraf, while still in Acre, sent a group of men, led by Emir Sanjar al-Shuja'i, to examine the situation in Tyre. Having a small garrison and seeing the fleeing refugees from Acre, Adam of Cafran, the Bailli of Tyre, panicked and fled to Cyprus. Tyre was taken by the Muslims without a fight.
A month after the capture of Acre, Al-Ashraf Khalil sent a force led by Emir al-Shuja'i to Sidon. The Knights Templar, as their fortune had been brought to Sidon earlier by Theobald Gaudin, the new Master of the Temple, decided to take refuge inside a castle that was built on an isle ca. 90 meters from the shore. Gaudin took the fortune and left for Cyprus after he promised his followers to send reinforcement from Cyprus. But Gaudin never sent anything and his followers had to fight till they fled by sea, in the night, to Tartous after they saw the Muslims building a bridge. Emir al-Shuja'i ordered the destruction of the sea castle on July 14.
After the capture of Sidon, al-Shuja'i marched to Beirut. Beirut, which had a small garrison, was an important trading seaport for the Crusaders. Eschiva of Ibelin, the Lady of Beirut, thought she was secure because she had a truce with al-Ashraf Khalil's father Qalawun. al-Shuja'i summoned the commanders of the garrison and arrested them. Seeing the commanders arrested, everyone fled by sea. Beirut was taken by the Muslims on July 31. al-Shuja'i ordered the razing of its walls and castles and turned its Cathedral to a Mosque.
Haifa was captured on July 31, with little resistance. Tartus was besieged by Emir Bilban and the crusaders had to flee to the nearby island of Arwad and was captured on August 3, followed by Atlit on August 14. Nothing was left for the Franks except the Island of Arwad which was captured by an Egyptian army later in 1302.
In 1292, Al-Ashraf Khalil accompanied by his Vizier Ibn al-Salus arrived to Damascus and left – via Aleppo – to besiege the castle of Qal'at ar-Rum (Hromgla in Armenian). Qal'at ar-Rum, which was the seat of the Patriarch of Armenia, was besieged by more than 30 catapults and was captured after 30 days by Khalil, who renamed it Qal'at al-Muslimin (Castle of the Muslims). Khalil left Emir al-Shaja'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 Sultan entered Cairo from the Victory Gate (Bab al-Nasr) and was greeted by the celebrating population, also with thousands of lighted candles .
The Sultan returned to Damascus and assembled an army to invade Sis, the capital of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, but Armenian messengers arrived to Damascus and appealed to him not to attack Sis. Til Hemdun, Marash and Behesni were given to the Sultan in exchange for peace. On the other hand, Khalil had good relations with the Kingdom of Cyprus, the Kingdom of Aragon, and the Kingdom of Sicily, who had commercial and military treaties with him.
The process of conquering the crusader kingdom, begun by Saladin in 1187, was finally completed by Khalil who was described on some of his monuments as Alexander. Al-Ashraf was also planning to attack Cyprus and the Mongols in Baghdad.
The Crusaders were shocked. Their 200 years of effort had gone in vain. The crusaders' kingdom of Jerusalem had already been destroyed by Saladin, Baibars and Qalawun, and Louis IX's Seventh Crusade against Egypt ended in a complete failure, but the crusaders tried to keep their strongholds on the Syrian coast intact, hoping to be able one day to recapture what they had lost. Pope Nicholas IV tried to act but he died in 1292, and the European kings, who became involved in internal conflicts and struggles, became unable to organize new effective crusades. As for the Templars, they were accused of heresy in Europe and badly persecuted by King Philip IV of France and Pope Clement V.
Read more about this topic: Al-Ashraf Khalil
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