Siege of Safed (1266)
Siege of Safed (1266) | |||||||
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Part of the Crusades | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Mamlūk Sultanate | Knights Templar | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Baybars I | ? | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
? | 2,000+ | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
? | 800–2,000 |
The siege of Safed (13 June – 23 July 1266) was part of the campaign of the
and put up strong resistance. Direct assault, mining and psychological warfare were all employed to force the garrison to surrender. It was ultimately tricked into surrendering through treachery and the Templars were massacred. Baybars repaired and garrisoned the castle.The main sources for the siege from the Muslim perspective are
Preparations
According to
The additional 500 troops prescribed for wartime in De constructione castri Saphet were probably hired mercenaries. The actual size of the garrison at the start of the siege in 1266 is unknown, but it was certainly larger than 1,700 expected in peacetime. No Templar reinforcements are known to have come to the fortress prior to the siege, but there seems to have been a force of
As part of his strategy, Baybars launched several raids throughout Palestine to distract his opponents, confuse them about the main target of the campaign and prevent them from sending reinforcements to Safed.
Siege
The siege of Safed began on 13 June 1266 (8 Ramadān 664
Baybars ordered a preliminary assault on the walls in order to push back the defenders and give the stonemasons time to drill into the base of the wall and the towers. So-called "dart-casters" threw containers tar at the gate and burnt it down.[13] The walls were also undermined.[14] At one point, a Templar counter-mine broke through the ceiling of the besiegers' mine, leading to an underground mêlée. The Templars appear to have withdrawn progressively further into the fortress as is outer defences were overcome.[15] According to Ibn al-Furāt, Baybars offered 100 gold dinars each to the men who removed the first ten stones from the wall of the citadel.[16]
With direct assaults causing unacceptable losses, Baybars switched to
Aftermath
Baybars did not honour the safeconduct he had induced Leo to present to the Templars.
After the siege, Leo remained with Baybars and became a Muslim.
Already in October 1266, Pope Clement IV could mention the fall of Safed when ordering the preaching of a new crusade and the raising of funds for 500 crossbowmen to be sent to the Holy Land by March 1267.[26] The Templars' heroic defence of Safed had become legendary by the early 14th century, when it was cited at the trial of the Templars in Cyprus.[27]
Notes
- ^ Marshall 1992, passim.
- ^ a b c Marshall 1992, pp. 115–116.
- ^ Marshall 1992, p. 117.
- ^ Marshall 1992, p. 120.
- ^ a b Riley-Smith 2014, p. 100.
- ^ a b Marshall 1992, p. 203.
- ^ Marshall 1992, p. 196.
- ^ Marshall 1992, p. 189.
- ^ a b Holt 1995, p. 107.
- ^ Marshall 1992, p. 244.
- ^ Marshall 1992, p. 223.
- ^ Marshall 1992, p. 232.
- ^ Marshall 1992, p. 234.
- ^ Marshall 1992, p. 233.
- ^ Marshall 1992, p. 238.
- ^ Boas 2017, p. 41n.
- ^ a b Marshall 1992, p. 235.
- ^ a b Marshall 1992, p. 270.
- ^ Marshall 1992, p. 32.
- ^ Holt 1995, p. 32, although on p. 42 he implies that the siege ended on 20 July (15 Shawwāl).
- ^ Marshall 1992, p. 217.
- ^ Marshall 1992, p. 249.
- ^ Holt 1995, p. 11.
- ^ Holt 1995, p. 15.
- ^ Holt 1995, p. 42.
- ^ Marshall 1992, p. 83.
- ^ Marshall 1992, p. 57.
Bibliography
- Boas, Adrian J. (2017). "Archaeological Evidence for the Mamluk Sieges and Dismantling of Montfort: A Preliminary Discussion". In Adrian J. Boas (ed.). Montfort: History, Early Research and Recent Studies of the Principal Fortress of the Teutonic Order in the Latin East. Brill. pp. 41–.
- Holt, P. M. (1995). Early Mamluk Diplomacy (1260–1290): Treaties of Baybars and Qalāwūn with Christian Rulers. E. J. Brill.
- Khamisy, Rabei G. (2017). "Montfort Castle (Qalʿat Al-Qurayn) in Mamluk Sources". In Adrian J. Boas (ed.). Montfort: History, Early Research and Recent Studies of the Principal Fortress of the Teutonic Order in the Latin East. Brill. pp. 28–40.
- Marshall, Christopher (1992). Warfare in the Latin East, 1192–1291. Cambridge University Press.
- Riley-Smith, Jonathan (2014) [1987]. The Crusades: A History (3rd ed.). Bloomsbury.
- Shachar, Uri Zvi (2020). "Enshrined Fortification: A Trialogue on the Rise and Fall of Safed". The Medieval History Journal. 23 (2): 265–290. S2CID 212846031.
- Thorau, Peter (1992). The Lion of Egypt: Sultan Baybars I and the Near East in the Thirteenth Century. Longman.