Siege of Damascus (1400)
Siege of Damascus | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasir-ad-Din Faraj[1] | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Timurid Empire |
Mamluk Sultanate | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Timur |
Nasir-ad-Din Faraj | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Unknown | All killed |
The siege of Damascus (also known as the Sack of Damascus and the Capture of Damascus) was a major event in 1400–01 during the war between the
Background
Timur was one of the most powerful Central Asian rulers since Genghis Khan. By long and relentless fighting, he sought to rebuild the Mongol Empire of his predecessors.[4][5]
Prior to attacking Syrian cities, Timur had initially sent an ambassador to Damascus who was executed by the city's Mamluk viceroy, Sudun.
Battle
Timur had initially camped at Qubbat Sayyar near Al-Rabweh, west of Damascus. He then raided the surroundings of the city including
He later fought an army led by the Mamluk Sultan Nasir-ad-Din Faraj which was defeated outside Damascus leaving the city at the mercy of the Mongol besiegers.[11] With his army defeated by January 1401, the Mamluk sultan dispatched a deputation from Cairo, including Ibn Khaldun, who negotiated with him, but after their withdrawal he put the city to sack.
One particularly distressing incident, verified by independent eyewitnesses, was the burning of the famous
Aftermath
After the capture of Damascus, Timur's neo-Mongol empire now bordered another emerging power in the region, the Ottoman Empire. The two powers soon came into direct conflict. Bayezid demanded tribute from one of the
Notes
References
- ^ Unknown. "Battle of Ankara". A Mughal book illustration.
- ^ Rafis Abazov, Palgrave Concise Historical Atlas of Central Asia, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 56.
- ^ Europe in the Late Middle Ages, ed. John Rigby Hale, John Roger Loxdale Highfield, Beryl Smalley, (Northwestern University Press, 1965), 150;"Timur, after defeating the Mamluks in 1400, won a decisive victory over the Ottomans near Ankara in 1402".
- ^ Beatrice Forbes Manz, "Temür and the Problem of a Conqueror's Legacy," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Apr., 1998), 25; "In his formal correspondance [sic?] Temur continued throughout his life as the restorer of Chinggisid rights. He even justified his Iranian, Mamluk and Ottoman campaigns as a reimposition of legitimate Mongol control over lands taken by usurpers ...".
- ^ Michal Biran, "The Chaghadaids and Islam: The Conversion of Tarmashirin Khan (1331–34)," Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 122, No. 4 (Oct. – Dec., 2002), 751; "Temur, a non-Chinggisid, tried to build a double legitimacy based on his role as both guardian and restorer of the Mongol Empire.".
- ^ a b "Battle of Aleppo". Britannica. 25 October 2023.
- ^ Ibn Khaldūn 1952, pp. 65–66.
- ^ Battle of [email protected].
- ^ le Strange 1890, p. xxiii.
- ^ Ibn Khaldūn 1952, p. 57.
- ^ Margaret Meserve, Empires of Islam in Renaissance Historical Thought, (Harvard University Press, 2008), 207.
- ^ Ibn Khaldūn 1952, p. 97.
- ^ Darke 2010, p. 116.
- ISSN 0950-3110.
- ^ a b c Tucker 2011, p. 140.
Bibliography
- Darke, Diana (2010). Syria. Bradt Travel Guides. ISBN 9781841623146.
- Ibn Khaldūn (1952). Ibn Khaldun and Tamerlane. University of California Press.
- le Strange, Guy (1890), Palestine Under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to 1500, Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Tucker, Spencer C. (2011). Battles That Changed History: An Encyclopedia of World Conflict. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-59884-429-0.