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Joscelin I tried to be more conciliatory toward the Armenians than Baldwin of Le Bourg had been. Abandoning his former cruel nature, says Matthew of Edessa, he took a very humane and compassionate attitude toward the city's inhabitants (147). William of Tyre says both Baldwin and Joscelin supplied Edessa with adequate food and arms, and thus it became more formidable than other nearby cities (148). But Joscelin battled constantly with Ilghazi, the Turkish Artukid ruler of Mardin (1107-1122), and his nephew Nur al-Dawla Belek (149). Like earlier Frankish leaders, Joscelin took an Armenian wife, the sister of Leon I, Armenian Roupenid prince of Cilicia; the marriage produced a son, Joscelin II (150). After her death Joscelin married Marie, sister of Roger of Antioch, receiving the fortress of Azaz as her dowry (151). Going to Antioch to bring her to Edessa, he crossed the Euphrates and stayed the night in Birta. There he was informed by people from Murayba and Umqa and the province of Birta that a number of Turks were pillaging the region.
Joscelin and Galeran marched against the supposed Turkish marauders, unaware that they were an army of 4000 horsemen under Nur al-Dawla Belek, the lord of Aleppo, Hanzit, and Hisn Ziyad (Khartabert, Kharberd, Kharput). Unbeknownst to Joscelin and Galeran, Belek was camped at a spring called Haig [Spring of Life] in the province of Edessa, near Rashkifa. Trying to rescue the country from Belek, Joscelin and Galeran mounted swift horses and pursued the Turks, thinking they could find them in the Rashkifa district. They marched from night to midday, consumed by heat, dust, and thirst. When they saw Belek's camp, they realized their small force was no match for his great army. As they went to the river to seek water for themselves and their horses, the Turks struck them down one by one. Then [515] the Turks surrounded them, capturing Joscelin and Galeran and twenty-five to sixty knights on September 13, 1123, and brought them to Edessa (152). Belek told the citizens of Edessa he would release his captives if they surrendered the city to him, but when they refused and insulted him, he took Joscelin and Galeran to Hisn Ziyad (153). Matthew of Edessa says Belek took Joscelin and Galeran to Kharberd (Khartabert, Kharput, Hisn Ziyad) in chains and threw them into prison, while twenty-five of their comrades were taken to Balu a town east of Khartabert on the Euphrates (154). Sadness and fear fell upon the faithful Christians, and because of their grief the Christians of Edessa did not celebrate the feast of the Cross that year (155). Ibn al-Athir reports that when Joscelin was captured, he was placed in a camel's skin which was then sewn shut. He was asked to surrender Edessa but refused. Seeking to be released, Joscelin offered to pay great amounts of money and free many Muslim captives, but his offer was rejected. Belek took him to the fortress of Khartabart with his cousin Guliam (Galeran), "a devil of the kuffar (infidels)," and many prominent knights (156). According to Ibn al-Adim, Belek asked Joscelin and Galeran to hand over the fortress in exchange for their freedom, but they refused, saying, "We and our lands are like loads carried by camels. When a camel becomes wounded, its load will be shifted to another. Now what was in our hands has become the property of someone else" (157).
The misfortune of Joscelin's capture was soon compounded by the capture of King Baldwin II. While he was in Antioch, Baldwin learned that Joscelin had been taken captive and decided to rescue him. In April 1123, he assembled troops to fight Belek and rescue Joscelin. He appointed Geoffrey the Monk, a brave and mighty man and a most fervent Christian, to take over Edessa and his own kingdom in the absence of himself and Joscelin (158). Belek was then ravaging the regions of Gargar, Samosata, and Hisn Mansur. Baldwin came from Samosata to Kesum, planning to rescue [516] the inhabitants. On hearing that Baldwin was in Kesum, Belek collected his force and camped at the river Singa (Ptolemy calls it the Singas). Baldwin, unaware that Belek and his army were nearby, took a few knights with him and reached the Singa bridge, less than a mile away. Most of his cavalrymen were far off. Suddenly Belek's men sprang from their hiding place like wolves and captured King Baldwin, his sister's son, and many others (on the fourth day of the Week of White Apparel, according to the Syriac sources) (159).
Belek took the prisoners to Gargar and tortured them until Baldwin was forced to surrender Gargar. The Anonymous Edessan says that earlier, Belek had told Joscelin and Galeran, then imprisoned at Hisn Ziyad, that he would bring Baldwin to join them (160). So it happened six months later, according to Ibn al-Qalanisi and Ibn al-Adim, that Baldwin was in chains in a deep dungeon in the fortress of Hisn Ziyad together with Joscelin and Galeran (161). Baldwin's capture was a great loss to the Franks in Syria, although the affairs of his kingdom ran smoothly under Eustace Grenier, lord of Caesarea and Sidon, who was chosen as regent. After Eustace died in June 1123, William of Bury, lord of Tiberias, was chosen to replace him (162).
The Anonymous Edessan describes Belek's good administration and character, showing his defense of the poor and his treatment of his Christian subjects. Under Belek, he says, the land was delivered from the thieves and brigands who infested it and robbed the poor. Peace prevailed in the land. It was reported that Belek would hang a Turk if he stole even a crust of bread from a poor person. He never allowed anyone in his domain to [517] harm the Christians, even by a simple word, much to the credit of this Turkish lord (163).
The liberation of Baldwin, Joscelin and Galeran is related by both Western and Eastern sources, but with varying details. In mid-August 1123, four months after Baldwin II was captured, a number of Armenian soldiers, variously given as fifteen, twenty, or fifty, left the fortress of Beth Hisni (Behesni) in the Kesum mountain, having bound themselves by an oath to rescue the captives (164). They plotted with Godfrey the Monk and the queen and went to Hisn Ziyad. Ten of them carried grapes, fruits, and fowls, pretending to be poor peasants complaining that their steward had done them wrong. The others stayed behind, ready to help carry out the plot. When they reached the upper gate of the fortress, there were only two or three guards; the others were at a banquet given by the commander for his officers, who had had too much drink. When the guards went to tell the commander about the visitors, the Armenians seized the swords hanging between the gates and killed the porter and everyone they found. Quickly they summoned their comrades from beyond the walls; they shut the gate, killed everyone inside, and occupied the fortress, with the help of Armenians from the city, and began seeking the prisoners.
Joscelin, the first one rescued, vowed to King Baldwin that he would not rest until he had reached Jerusalem and raised an army to release him. The captives reportedly made him swear not to change his clothes, eat meat, or drink (except the wine of the Eucharist) until he had collected troops and rescued them. He went to Kesum, Tall Bashir, and Antioch, and then, on the advice of Patriarch Bernard, to Jerusalem. The people were happy, believing the king and Galeran would soon be safe and they would control the treasure of Hisn Ziyad, and Joscelin began gathering troops to free Baldwin and the rest of the captives.
Word of the disaster was sent to Belek in Aleppo. When he heard that Khartabart had been taken by deception, the Turks rushed and laid siege to it by night, investing the fortress closely, so that no one could go in or out. By setting up catapults and ordering mining operations, he succeeded in demolishing the tower. He tortured all the Armenians in it who had betrayed him and had them flayed alive. Belek kept only King Baldwin and his [518] kinsman Galeran, moving them to Harran, where they were imprisoned (165). In 1124 he took the captives to Aleppo and imprisoned them in its citadel (166).
After failing to rescue the captives, Joscelin and his men turned their vengeance against the province of Aleppo, which belonged to Belek. Jocelin attacked Buza'a, in the Wadi of Batnan, and then Hailan, destroying Muslim shrines, cutting down trees, and taking captives. On the western bank of the wadi, he destroyed Muslim graves and the shrine of Dakka (167). Retaliating against his sacrilegious act, the religious judge of Aleppo, Abu al-Hasan Ibn al-Khashshab, with the support of Aleppo's Muslim leaders, destroyed the altars of the city's Christian churches, changed their doors, and converted them into mosques (168). Resenting a cross placed atop the minaret of the city's great mosque in 1102 on the orders of Ridwan (then the lord of Aleppo), Ibn al-Khashshab had it destroyed (169). Ibn al-Adim says several churches were converted; even a cathedral became a mosque, named al-Sarrajin. Ibn al-Khashshab left only two churches as traces of the Christian community (170). The Anonymous Edessan says that early in May 1123, Ibn al-Khashshab ordered the Christians to rebuild two mosques that Joscelin had destroyed. But the church stewards said, "We will not do this, for we should thereby open a door against ourselves, so that wherever a mosque is destroyed, we must rebuild it out of church funds." On Friday, at the judge's order, thousands of Muslims with carpenters' tools and axes rushed to the churches. They entered the Church of Saint Jacob, broke the pulpit and the angels of the altar, defaced the sacred images, cut an opening in the south wall of the sanctuary and prayed there, and made it a mosque. They did the same thing with the Greek church of Theotokos (the Virgin Mother of God) and the Nestorians' church. They sacked the churches and the cells of the bishops. The Malkites fled to Antioch, and the Orthodox Syrians (Jacobites) to Qal'at Ja'bar; all of these events reportedly happened on May 6,1123 (171).
[519] Joscelin continued to invade Shabakhtan, Turkoman and Akrad. He seized over 10,000 sheep and cattle, killed many Muslims, and took others captive. He invested Jabbul and its environs, then went to Dayr Hafir and asphyxiated its inhabitants with smoke in the caves, exhumed graves, and looted the dead. In 1124 some of Belek's men encountered a group of Franks at Azaz, near Aleppo; after a fierce fight at Mashhala they killed forty Franks and took their belongings. Others, wounded, fled to Azaz (172). At this time Galeran went to Belek and offered to deliver the fortress into his hands. But Belek put the king and his nephew in chains once more, threw them into prison, and went to encamp at Manbij. At this point Hassan ibn Gümüshtekin, the lord of Manbij, who was defending the city's citadel, sent a messenger to Joscelin and Geoffrey the Monk, asking them for aid and promising to hand over Manbij in return. In the ensuing battle between Joscelin and Belek's forces, the Turks were defeated and Belek was mortally wounded by an arrow (173). Ibn al-Adim says that Gümüshtekin's brother Isa shot Belek, then pulled the arrow from his collarbone and spat on him, declaring, "This one has killed many Muslims" (174). To be sure of Belek's death, Joscelin asked his men to search for the body, which they recognized from the markings on his armor. They cut off his head and carried it with congratulations to Joscelin. Placed in a sack, the head was taken to Antioch, Tyre, and then Jerusalem as a token of Joscelin's success (175). The valiant Geoffrey the Monk was also killed. Belek's army fled to Aleppo, and the Turks proclaimed his uncle's son, Husam al-Din Timurtash ibn Ilghazi, as their leader in his place (176).
After Belek's death on May 6, 1124, King Baldwin II, who had been moved to Aleppo, passed into the hands of Timurtash. While he was in prison there, says Matthew of Edessa, Joscelin and the queen made a pact with Timurtash to ransom him, agreeing to hand over the king's daughter and Joscelin's son as hostages and to pay him 100,000 dahekans, but [520] Galeran and King Baldwin's nephew remained in Timurtash's clutches and were eventually executed (177). The other Syriac sources confirm that Timurtash ransomed the king and his sister's son for 100,000 dinars, and that the lord of Shayzar played an important role in Baldwin's release (178). Baldwin was in captivity about sixteen months, from April 18, 1123 to August 29-30, 1124 (179).
The Muslim sources give a different account of Baldwin's release. Ibn al-Adim says that Timurtash, through the mediation of Abu al-Asakir Sultan ibn Munqidh, the lord of Shayzar (who sent his children and his brothers' children to Timurtash as hostages until the negotiation was settled), made an agreement with Baldwin to release him for a payment of 80,000 dinars, of which 20,000 was to be paid in advance. After the initial payment was made, Timurtash released Baldwin from his chains and honored him at a banquet. He also gave the king a royal outergarment, a golden headgear, and slippers, and returned the horse Belek had taken from him on the day of his capture. Baldwin agreed to restore to Timurtash the towns of Azaz, Zardana, and Kafratab, and not to aid Dubays, the son of Sayf al-Dawla Sadaqa, Mazyadid Shi'ite lord of Hilla (1107-1134), who had rebelled against the Abbasid Caliph al-Mustarshid (1118-1135); after the caliph expelled him from Iraq, he went to the Jazira and Syria and allied himself with the Franks. Timurtash then sent Baldwin to the fortress of Shayzar, where he was held until the lord of Shayzar received the hostages (Baldwin's daughter and Joscelin's son) (180). Usama ibn Munqidh, an eyewitness to these events, says there were in Shayzar certain hostages, including Frankish and Armenian knights, whom Baldwin, the Franks' King, had offered as security for the financial obligation which he owed to Husam al-Din Timurtash (181).
Michael Rabo gives an account of Dubays's rebellion not found in other sources, but seems to confuse Dubays with his father Sadaqa I, lord [521] of Hilla from 1086 until his death in 1107. When al-Mustarshid became caliph, he says, he expelled the entertainers from his father's royal house and burned their musical instruments; he also expelled 3000 pretty women who had been his father's boon companions. On hearing this, the Muslims became outraged, saying those who were entrusted with the faith (the caliphs) secretly led a dissolute life, and that this was the cause of the Arab state's decline. Dubays revolted against the caliph and accused him of moral depravity like his father, but the Turks sided with the caliph. Dubays, angered, left to ally himself with the Franks and brought them to Aleppo, hoping that after capturing it they would hand it over to him (182).
Although King Baldwin was released from captivity, the hostages he had given, including his five-year-old daughter Yvette, were neither released nor redeemed (183). Ibn al-Adim says Abu al-Asakir ibn Munqidh held the hostages because Baldwin had reneged on his agreement with Timurtash. Baldwin sent Timurtash a letter informing him that his patriarch, Bernard of Valence, whom he could not contradict, had objected to his agreeing to surrender Azaz and other cities and fortresses to Timurtash and pay a ran-f om for his freedom. The letter makes it clear that Baldwin had not willfully violated his agreement with Timurtash, but was unable to comply with it because he had been censured by the patriarch. The communications between Baldwin and Timurtash show that the hostages were not likely to be released (184).
King Baldwin apparently decided the only way to end the impasse was to fight Timurtash. He found an ally in Dubays, lord of Hilla, who joined the Franks and urged them to capture Aleppo, saying its citizens favored him because he was a Shi'ite like themselves and would quickly surrender the city to him (185). After Salim ibn Malik, lord of Qal'at Ja'bar, brought Dubays together with Joscelin and Baldwin, he entered into an agreement with them, whereby he was to receive Aleppo and the Franks wiould have its possessions, together with other places within the province of Aleppo (186).
[522] In October 1124 Baldwin and Joscelin marched against Aleppo, joined by Dubays and his company, which included Isa ibn Salim ibn Mali; the Artukid Yaghi Siyan, son of Abd al-Jabbar, lord of Balsh (Balis), and Sultan Shah, Ridwan's son, whom the Artukids had removed from his position as lord of Aleppo (187). When Timurtash learned that Aleppo was about to be attacked, he went to Mardin to ask his brother Sulayman for help, but Sulayman was sick, near death, and unable to help. So Timurtash remained there, awaiting his brother's death so that he could replace him as lord of Mardin. When the citizens of Aleppo saw that Timurtash had delayed too long in Mardin, they concluded that he had failed to get aid from Sulayman. They appealed to Sayf al-Din Aksunkur al-Bursuki, lord of Mosul, to take possession of the city and save them from the infidels (188). Al-Bursuki left for Aleppo; at al-Rahba, he was joined by Zahir al-Din Tughtigin, lord of Damascus, and Samsam al-Din Kirkhan, son of Qaraja, lord of Hims. En route he sent a message to the people of Aleppo, saying he could not reach the city while the Franks were attacking it. So that he could help them effectively, he told them, they should surrender the citadel to his deputies and prepare to seek refuge there if the Franks took the city. They agreed, and al-Bursuki marched on, arriving on January 29, 1125 to a joyous welcome by the citizens of Aleppo. He stayed there a while, then went back to Mosul (189). The arrival of this large Muslim force evidently kept Baldwin II from capturing Aleppo. He and his allies withdrew as the Muslim forces moved to the stronghold of al-Atharib, which had belonged to the Franks. Baldwin retired to Antioch and finally returned to Jerusalem in April 1125, after two years' absence (190).
The Anonymous Edessan, however, says that for nine months the Franks and Dubays besieged Aleppo, attacking it from every direction. The people of the city began to suffer from a shortage of food and provisions and were forced to eat unclean animals. They were about to surrender the city when a messenger came to report that al-Bursuki, lord of Mosul, was on his way to save them. Dubays urged the Franks to let him lead an army to the Euphrates to prevent al-Bursuki from crossing and attacking Aleppo, but the "stiff-necked" Franks rejected his advice. Meanwhile, al-Bursuki [523] crossed the Euphrates at night and reached Aleppo. The citizens opened the gates for him, and he attacked with fury, forcing the Franks to retreat and take refuge in the Jawshan mountain. Ten days later, they went to Antioch. The Turks pursued them as far as Atharb and took all their belongings, and al-Bursuki returned to Aleppo with great joy (191).
Ibn al-Adim gives a similar account, but reports many abominable acts allegedly committed by the Franks. He states that at the siege of Aleppo they cut down trees, destroyed Muslim shrines, and exhumed Muslim graves, then carried the coffins to their tents and used them as vessels for food. They robbed the dead and attached ropes to the legs of bodies that had not yet decayed and dragged them in plain view of the Muslims. Some of them cried, "This is your Muhammad!" or "This is your Ali!" Ibn al-Adim says that whenever the Franks captured a Muslim, they cut off his hands and male organ and handed him over to the Muslims, but adds that Muslims did the same thing to any Frank they captured (192).
King Baldwin II had his hands full of problems. He had not only to look after his own kingdom but, as regent of Antioch, to protect that principality. His most immediate problem was the growing influence of Aksun-kur al-Bursuki, who had become a foe to be reckoned with. In 1121, the Seljuk Sultan Mahmud made al-Bursuki lord of Aleppo and al-Jazira, Sinjar, Nisibin and other cities (193). Since his lordship was also acknowledged by Tughtigin, lord of Damascus, and Kirkhan, son of Qaraja, lord of Hims, the Franks' position in Syria was seriously threatened. Al-Bursuki also won the support of Sultan ibn Munqidh, lord of Shayzar, whom he visited in March 1125, and who sold him (for 80,000 dinars) the Frankish hostages, Baldwin's daughter and Joscelin's son (194). Confident of his strength, al-Bursuki began attacking some towns within the principality of Antioch. He laid siege to Kafartab and captured it in May 1125, before Baldwin II and Pons, lord of Antioch, who was with him, could get to it. He then besieged Zardana, twenty-five miles southwest of Aleppo, but soon left it to attack Azaz, twenty-five miles north of Aleppo (195).
[524] On June 11, 1125, in a ferocious battle with the Franks, the Muslims were badly defeated and lost a great number of men (196). The Anonymous Edessan says that the Turks lost 2000 men, but al-Bursuki escaped with some troops and was chased by the Franks to Aleppo. On arriving there, he charged his son Mas'ud with the city's administration and left for Mosul to raise a new army (197). Ibn al-Adim, however, says that after their defeat the Muslims negotiated briefly with the Franks and agreed to share Jabal al-Summaq [The Black Mountain] and other places then held by the Franks (198). Baldwin also had to deal with Tughtigin of Damascus, who supported al-Bursuki. On January 25, 1126, he met Tughtigin's forces at March Suffar, southwest of Damascus. Tughtigin was beaten and lost many men (199). While the Franks chased his fleeing troops, a contingent of Turks attacked the Frankish camp and stole everything in their tents (200). Baldwin again found himself face to face with the Muslims when Pons, the son of Bertram, count of Tripoli (1112-1137), attacked Rafaniyya in the Apamea district on March 31, 1126. Shams al-Khawas, the town's ruler, appealed to Tughtigin and al-Bursuki for help, but Rafaniyya was unable to hold out and surrendered to Pons and Baldwin II after an eighteen-day siege (201). As a result, the Franks controlled the road between Antioch and Jerusalem and were able to assure the safety of the principality of Antioch (202).
Al-Bursuki, who had raised an army, marched to al-Raqqa in Syria and camped at the fortress of al-Na'ura on the Euphrates, some eight miles from Aleppo. Joscelin I communicated with al-Bursuki, proposing that he take over half of the villages between Azaz and Aleppo and that they should fight over other places. Al-Bursuki accepted these terms (203). Fulcher of Chartres says that al-Bursuki gathered an army and marched to Syria, where he attacked the fortress of al-Atharb but failed to capture it. Baldwin II, along with Joscelin, rushed to oppose him, although they faced another threat from an Egyptian fleet that was attacking the ports of the Kingdom [525] of Jerusalem (204). The forces of Baldwin II and Joscelin camped at Imm, thirty-three miles west of Aleppo and Artah. According to Ibn al-Adim, Baldwin dispatched a message to al-Bursuki, offering to surrender Rafaniyya to him in return for his withdrawal from the country. Al-Bursuki agreed and withdrew. But the Franks soon violated the agreement, believing that they would not have peace with al-Bursuki unless they held all the villages which they had agreed the previous year to share with the Muslims. Al-Bursuki declined, but it appears that he was unwilling to fight the Franks. He himself withdrew to Qinnesrin and Sarmin, while his forces went to al-Fu'a and Danith. The Franks marched to Ma'arrat Misrin, but because of a shortage of food and provisions, they returned to their own territories in August 1126 (205).
Tughtigin fell ill and was carried by a litter to Damascus. Al-Bursuki retreated to Aleppo and then to Mosul, where he was murdered by a group of Batini Assassins in the mosque on Friday, November 26, 1126. That night he dreamed that a pack of dogs had attacked him, and he killed some of them. When he related the dream to his companions, they advised him to leave his house for a few days, but he refused. The dream came true when he was attacked by ten Batini Assassins; after he killed some, the rest overpowered him and killed him (206).
Michael Rabo shows the assassination of al-Bursuki in a different light. He says that in 1129 (not 1126), Joscelin entered the district of Amid, pillaged the city up to its gate, and annihilated the Turks and the Kurds in the Shuma Mountain. Husam al-Din, the lord of Mardin, then had in his custody two famous Frankish knights, one called Bar Noul (probably Renault or Arnault), and another called Galeran. Al-Bursuki gave him an ultimatum: kill these knights, or he would destroy his city. Husam al-Din then killed the knights. Almost immediately, however, he heard reports that al-Bursuki had been stabbed by an Ismaili (assassin) while he was praying in the mosque on Friday. The sword did not penetrate al-Bursuki's body because he was wearing a shield. The assassin was captured, but he gestured to two accomplices [526] to finish the task; they stabbed al-Bursuki in the belly, beneath his shield, and he died. When Husam al-Din learned of the death of al-Bursuki, who had threatened to destroy his city, he regretted killing the two Frankish knights (207).
Al-Bursuki's son, Izz al-Din Mas'ud, succeeded him as ruler of Mosul. Believing that his father's killers were from the city of Hama, he went to Syria. His march into Syria alarmed Tughtigin, lord of Damascus, who, thinking Mas'ud intended to invade his territory, prepared to fight him. Izz al-Din Mas'ud besieged al-Rahba, whose governor eventually had to surrender it to him, but he was suddenly struck by a severe illness and died at a young age in 1127 (208). After al-Bursuki's death and that of Tughtigin in 1128, Syria (especially Aleppo) fell into utter chaos, suffering greatly from a lack of leadership, which the Franks exploited. The Franks were so aware of the situation of the Muslims that when al-Bursuki died, Baldwin II dispatched a message to Izz al-Din, who was then in Aleppo, informing him of his father's death (209). After Mas'ud died, there was a power struggle among several men, including Kuman (Tuman), Qutlugh Abah, Fada'il ibn Badi', and Badr al-Dawla Sulayman ibn Abd al-Jabbar, who finally took over the city, with the citizens' approval. Taking advantage of the chaotic situation, Joscelin marched against Aleppo but left after its people offered him a bribe (210).
Like their Muslim foes, the Franks also suffered from dissension, in the form of a rivalry between Joscelin and Bohemond II. When the elder Bohemond died, his son and namesake was living with his mother in Apulia, Italy, where he remained until he was eighteen. Whether (as the Anonymous Edessan says) he was invited by Baldwin II to come to Antioch and take over his father's principality or not, Bohemond II sailed for Syria with twenty-two ships, ten of them oared, arriving at al-Suwaydiyya, the port of Antioch, in September 1126 (211). Usama ibn Munqidh, whose father, the lord of Shayzar, had a strong relationship with the Franks, says [527] that a ship arrived at al-Suwaydiyya carrying a lad in rags. This lad appeared before Baldwin II and introduced himself as the son of Bohemond, and Baldwin delivered Antioch to him (212).
According to Fulcher of Chartres, when Bohemond II came to Antioch, Baldwin II went out with a magnificent procession and received him warmly, to the cheers of the people. Baldwin turned over to him all his land (the principality of Antioch) and married him to his second daughter, Alice. He promised to give him the throne of the kingdom after his death, but for the present he gave him Antioch and Cilicia. After the wedding, Bohemond took his seat on the throne and the assembled nobles took an oath of fealty to him. Thus, the houses of Jerusalem and Antioch were bound together. Then Baldwin II returned to Jerusalem (213).
But the rivalry between Bohemond II and Joscelin quickly turned into hostility. Bohemond II turned out to be ambitious and aggressive, like his father, and was even more zealous in defending the goals of the Franks. Such traits did not escape Usama ibn Munqidh, who said, "That devil, the son of Bohemond, proved a terrible calamity to our people" (214). In 1127 Bohemond II retook Kafratab, which Aksunkur al-Bursuki had captured in 1125. In 1128, he attacked Shayzar, which belonged to the father of Usama ibn Munqidh, and the next year he captured the fortress of Qadmus (215). Joscelin saw Bohemond II as a rival. Taking advantage of the chaotic situation, he marched on the city in 1127, only to find that Bohemond had done the same. The two Frankish leaders found themselves fighting for possession of whatever they could get of Syria (216).
William of Tyre says the reasons for the enmity between Joscelin and Bohemond are unknown and notes that, contrary to honorable customs, Joscelin sought help from a band of infidel Turks. He ravaged the land of Antioch with sword and fire and subdued its Christian inhabitants. All this happened without the knowledge of Bohemond II, who was fighting the [528] Turks (217). Michael Rabo blames Bohemond II for the strife with Joscelin. He says that Bohemond, whom he calls arrogant, tried to impose his authority over all the Franks, causing dissension and warfare among them. Joscelin seized this opportunity to ravage the district of Antioch, plundering whatever he could find, but did not oppress the city's inhabitants. His actions outraged the Latin patriarch of Antioch, Bernard, who ordered the churches closed and the celebration of the Eucharist, prayers, pealing of bells, and the burial of the dead suspended. Finally, Joscelin and Bohemond were reconciled and Joscelin gave back what he had stolen (218). Michael Rabo may have based his account on that of Matthew of Edessa, who says that because of his forceful character and great power, Bohemond II succeeded in making all the Franks, including Joscelin, the count of Edessa, subjugate themselves to his authority (219).
King Baldwin II hurried to Antioch to meet with Bohemond II and Joscelin before the situation became worse, perhaps fearing that their dispute would give the Muslims an opportunity to harass them. With the help of Patriarch Bernard, he succeeded in reconciling them. William of Tyre asserts that Joscelin yielded to the entreaties of Baldwin and Bernard because he was overcome suddenly by a serious illness. Fearing the prospect of death, he repented his evil deeds and vowed that if God saved his life, he would make peace with Bohemond II and pay him homage. When he had recovered, Joscelin swore fealty to Bohemond in the presence of the king and the patriarch. With the two lords reconciled, King Baldwin II returned to Jerusalem (220).
Michael Rabo, however, says that when Joscelin assaulted Aleppo in 1128 (the actual date was 1127), the Turks, who could not fight him, made peace and pledged to pay him 12,000 dinars annually. But some Turks incited others from Azaz to eliminate Joscelin. They administered poison to him and six of his knights. The knights died, but through the care of physicians Joscelin's life was saved. When he recovered, he had those who had poisoned him and their children killed (221).
[529] The reconciliation with Joscelin was not the end of Bohemond's trouble. He had to face the Turks and the Roupenid Armenians, who ruled Cilicia. Conditions in Cilicia became chaotic after the death of Thoros I, ruler of Partzapert in 1129, followed shortly by the poisoning death of his son Constantine. Since Constantine had no heir, Thoros's brother Leon became the new ruler in 1130 and began to quarrel with Bohemond II. The chaos in Thoros's principality whetted the appetite of both the Danishmend Ilghazi, the lord of Melitene and parts of Cilicia, and Bohemond. Ilghazi, whose power had been enhanced by Thoros's death, became even more powerful when Cassianus, a Byzantine governor of the region of Pontus in northeast Asia Minor, voluntarily surrendered the fortresses in the region to him; in return, Ilghazi gave Cassianus protection and required him to join his army (222). During this time, Armenian marauders from Cilicia had been attacking and plundering Ilghazi's territory. Angered, he decided to attack the Armenians and ravage their country. Bohemond II had likewise suffered from the lawless actions of these Armenians, and he also prepared to march against Cilicia. The Turkish and the Frankish forces happened to invade Cilicia from opposite sides, each unaware of the presence of the other. But while Ilghazi had a strong force, Bohemond had only a few knights. The Armenian prince Leon managed to avoid encountering both invading forces.
The Turkish and Frankish forces met in a fierce battle at Anazarba (Ayn Zarba) in February 1130. After losing a number of men, the exhausted Franks took refuge on a high mound. The Turks surrounded and annihilated them, including Bohemond II. They could not identify him at first, but when they realized the body was that of Bohemond, they cut off his head, scalped it, and kept his beautiful hair. Then they took the head, along with the arms and the horses they had taken from the Franks, to Ilghazi, who in turn sent it to the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad (223). Ilghazi's annihilation of Bohemond II provoked the amazement of the Anonymous Edessan: "How strange! The father of Ilghazi took the father of this Bohemond captive, while the son Ilghazi destroyed the army of his son, the young Bohemond II, and killed him" (224).
[530] Bohemond's untimely death caused problems of succession. He and his wife Alice, the daughter of King Baldwin II, had only one child, a daughter named Constance. The people of Antioch lamented that without a prince, they would face the danger of an attack by their enemies, the Turks. They held a council and summoned King Baldwin to come to Antioch and solve their problem, and he agreed to do so as quickly as he could. But his daughter had other ideas; although her young daughter Constance was sole heir to the principality of Antioch, the ambitious Alice planned to disinherit her and rule Antioch herself. To effect this plan, she sent a message to Imad al-Din Zangi, atabeg of Aleppo, asking him to assist in confirming her as the ruler of Antioch; in return, she would become his dependent. The messenger was captured and brought before King Baldwin II. He confessed all the details of the plot and was put to death. Baldwin rushed to Antioch, taking with him his son-in-law Fulk, count of Anjou (225). Baldwin was refused entrance to the city on Alice's orders, but the Frankish dignitaries of Antioch, including Peter Latinator, a monk of St. Paul, and William Aversa, who opposed her, had the gates opened, and Baldwin and Fulk entered the city. With reluctance Alice appeared before her father, who was indignant at her behavior. The king placed Antioch under his own authority until Constance was of age; to appease his daughter, he granted her the coastal cities of Laodicea and Jabala (226). Ibn al-Adim says Baldwin captured some of the men who had plotted with his daughter and had their hands and legs cut off (227)
The Franks' situation worsened with the death of King Baldwin II on August 21, 1131. Preparing for his death, the king had invited Fulk of Anjou to come to the East as heir to the kingdom. Fulk arrived in the spring of 1129; on June 2 of that year he married Melisend, Baldwin's eldest daughter, receiving Tyre and Acre as dowry, and so became Baldwin's sole heir (228). Fulk and Melisend were crowned and consecrated by William, the Latin [531] patriarch of Jerusalem, in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on October 14, 1131 (229). The new king was faced with intrigues by Baldwin's daughter Alice. Taking advantage of her father's death, she conspired with William, lord of the fortress of Sihyoun, Pons, lord of Tripoli, and Joscelin II of Edessa to take control of the government of Antioch. On discovering her intrigues, the Frankish knights in Antioch appealed to King Fulk to thwart her plan. But when he arrived in Tripoli, Pons refused to let him enter the city. Fulk put Pons and his supporters to flight and captured some of his men. Finally, through the mediation of loyal advocates of peace, the new king and Pons were reconciled. Before departing Antioch, Fulk left the principality in the hands of Rainaud Masoire, a capable man of high birth (230). At the behest of his wife Melisend, the king allowed her sister Alice to return, to Antioch. Alice sought to marry her daughter Constance to the son of the Byzantine emperor; the Frankish princes of Antioch and the clergy were outraged, fearing the city would fall into the hands of the Greeks. To solve the problem, King Fulk recommended that Constance marry Raymond, the son of Count William of Poitou, then at the court of King Henry of England. On arriving in Antioch, Raymond married Constance and became ruler of Antioch. Distressed, Alice retired to Laodicea, where she lived in semi-seclusion until her death in 1136 (231).
The death of King Baldwin II was followed shortly by that of Joscelin. Although exhausted by a long illness and awaiting death, Joscelin, the formidable Frank, still had some energy left for combat. Marauders had been attacking and ransacking the fortress of Tall Arran, between Aleppo and Manbij, and Joscelin went out with a force to defend his territory. He ordered tunnels dug under the fortress to undermine the attackers. When he entered the tunnels to examine the work himself, bricks fell upon him and he was almost buried alive. He was rescued but had suffered many fractures. He was carried on a litter to Tall Bashir. Meanwhile, reports had reached him that Ilghazi ibn Danishmend was marching with his forces against the principality of the Armenian Roupenids. Despite his ill health, Joscelin summoned his son and namesake, telling him to go out and challenge Ilghazi. When the son, a coward, began to make excuses, Joscelin took matters into his own hands and went out with a force to challenge Ilghazi. Realizing that Joscelin had come out to challenge him, Ilghazi [532] became frightened and returned to his own country. Joscelin marched on to Duluk; there he died and was buried in the village church (232).
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