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===Participation of the Franks to the Mongol invasion of the Levant (1260)=== [[Image:1260MongolConquestsLevant.jpg|thumb|1260 Mongol offensive in the Levant.]] After Baghdad, in 1260 the Mongol forces, along with their Christian allies, conquered Muslim [[Syria]], domain of the [[Ayyubid dynasty]]. They took the city of [[Aleppo]] with the help of the Franks of Antioch,<ref>Tyerman, p.806 "The Frankish Antiochenes assisted the Mongols' capture of Aleppo".</ref> and on [[March 1]], [[1260]] proceeded to capture [[Damascus]],<ref>[http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200704/history.s.hinge.ain.jalut.htm Saudi Aramco World "The Battle of Ain Jalut"]</ref><ref name=grousset-581/> under the Christian Mongol general [[Kitbuqa]]. Numerous historians, some of them quoting [[Le Templier de Tyr]], explain that Kitbuqa entered the city of Damascus in triumph together with Hethoum and Bohemond VI, and that great Christian celebrations were made.<ref>Grousset, p.586: "We known from Le Templier de Tyr that the king of Armenia Hetoum I and the Prince of Antioch Bohemond VI accompanied Kitbuqa in this offensive: "The king of Armenia and the Prince of Antioch went to the army of the Tartars and went to take Damas"."</ref><ref>"On 1 March Kitbuqa entered Damascus at the head of a Mongol army. With him were the King of Armenia and the Prince of Antioch. The citizens of the ancient capital of the Caliphate saw for the first time for six centuries three Christian potentates ride in triumph through their streets", Runciman, p.307</ref><ref>Jean Richard, p.423: "Bohemond... supported Hulegu with his troops in the siege of Aleppo; he also occupied [[Baalbek]], and entering into Damascus with the Mongols, had the satisfaction of celebrating mass in the great Mosque"</ref><ref>"On March 1st 1260, Damascus had to let general Kitbuqa inside its walls. He was accompanied by king Hetoum and Prince Bohemond" [[Jean-Paul Roux]], ''Histoire de l'Empire Mongol'', p.346</ref><ref>"The Mongols then attacked Muslim Syria, and they were accompanied by Hetoum and his son-in-law Bohemond when they took Aleppo and Damascus", [[Claude Mutafian]], p.58</ref> According to [[Peter Jackson]], writing in 1980, Bohemond VI of Antioch was said to be present in some later accounts but not in contemporary sources, and it is likely a later legend.<ref>Peter Jackson, "Crisis in the Holy Land in 1260," ''English Historical Review 376 (1980) 486</ref> In 2005 however, Peter Jackson wrote that Bohemond is recorded to have participated to the Mongol conquest of [[Baalbek]], not far from Damascus, and that he may have ridden into Damascus with the Mongols.<ref>Jackson, "The Mongols and the West", p.117. Jackson also references Al-Yunani as recording Bohemond in Ba'labakk (Baalbek), and later asking to receive the land from the Mongols.</ref> The historian De Reuven Amitai-Preiss concludes that the accounts may be exagerated, but have some truth to them, and says of Bohemond VI that after his passage at Baalbek "it is most probable that he also passed through Damascus".<ref>"While this report cannot be taken literally, it may contain a grain of truth. Armenian troops were part of Ketbuqa's force, while some time during the Mongol occupation Bohemond visited [[Baalbek]] and even intended to ask Hulegu for possession of the town. (...) If this prince reached as far as Baalbek, it is most probable that he also passed through Damascus." De Reuven Amitai-Preiss, "Mongols and Mamluks", p.31</ref> According to the contemporary account of Le Templier de Tyr, mass was celebrated in the [[Umayyad Mosque|Grand Mosque of the Umayyads]] (the former cathedral of Saint [[John the Baptist]]),<ref>Jean Richard, p.423</ref>, and numerous mosques were profaned: {{quote|"The king of Armenia and the Prince of Antioch went to the army of the Tatars, and they all went off to take Damascus. When Damascus was taken, the Prince, to the shame of the Sarasins, established a beautiful church, which at the time of the Greeks used to belong to the Christians, and where since then the Sarasins had prayed Mahomet. The Prince had mass held for the Franks and the bells rung. In the other mosques of Mahomet, where the Sarazins were, shrubs were placed, wine was sprayed on the walls, and fresh pork grease was smeared. And if he commanded his people to do some dirt, they would do tenfold."|''Gestes des Chiprois'', Le Templier de Tyr, quoted in "Histoire des Croisades III", René Grousset<ref>"Le roy d'Arménie et le Prince d'Antioche alèrent en l'ost des Tatars et furent à prendre Damas...". Quoted in "Histoire des Croisades III", Rene Grousset, p586</ref>}} On the contrary the southern Franks of the Kingdom of Jerusalem were weary of the Mongols, but their policy was rather incoherent.<ref>Demurger, "Jacques de Molay", p.55-56</ref> At the beginning of 1260, the Templars and knights from the [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]] launched an offensive against the Muslim cities of [[Tibnin]] and [[Tiberias]]. The offensive was a failure, and ended with many knights being imprisoned, including [[Guillaume de Beaujeu]] and [[Thibaud Gaudin]], future Grand Masters of the Templars, so that they had to be ransommed. Afterwards however, the southern Franks made a passive alliance with the Mamluks, which facilitated the Mamluk victory over the Mongols at [[Ain Jalut]].<ref>Demurger, "Jacques de Molay", p.55-56</ref> The Mongol invasion effectively destroyed the [[Ayyubid Dynasty]], who had been overthrown in Egypt ten years before but had held on in Syria. The last Ayyubid king [[An-Nasir Yusuf]] died in 1260.<ref>Atlas des Croisades, p.108</ref> With the Islamic power centers of Baghdad and Damascus gone, the center of Islamic power transferred to the Egyptian Mamluks in Cairo. After the victory, Hulagu gave numerous gifts to Bohemond VI, including some of the conquered cities, including [[Lattakieh]].<ref>"Subsequently, Hulegu sent presents to [sent for, oe41] the duke of Antioch [Bohemond VI] who was a relative of the King of Armenia [son-in-law of the King of Armenia, oe41], and ordered that all the districts [g50] of his kingdom which the Saracens had held be returned to him. He also bestowed many other favors on him." [http://rbedrosian.com/hetum3.htm Fleur des Histoires d'Orient, Chap.29]</ref> But then because of a new internal conflict in [[Turkestan]], Hulagu had to stop the Mongol invasion before it reached Egypt, and departed with the bulk of his forces, leaving only about 10,000 Mongol horsemen in Syria under Kitbuqa to occupy the conquered territory,<ref>Runciman, p.310</ref> including [[Nablus]] and [[Gaza]] in the south, as well as the fortress of [[Ajlun]], east of [[River Jordan]].<ref>Grousset, p.586</ref> The Mongols engaged in raids southward towards Egypt, reaching as far as [[Ascalon]] and [[Jerusalem]], and a Mongol garrison of about 1,000 was placed in Gaza,<ref>Jean Richard, p.428</ref><ref>Amin Maalouf, p.264</ref><ref>Tyerman, p.806</ref> with another garrison located in [[Naplouse]].<ref>Amin Maalouf, p.262</ref> Runciman considers that Nablus and Gaza were occupied, but that Jerusalem itself was not reached by the Mongols.<ref name=runciman-308/> The Mongols however claimed repeatedly that they had remitted Jerusalem to the Christians on this occasion.<ref>"Hulegu informed Louis IX that he had handed over the Holy City to the Franks already, during the brief Mongol occupation in 1260 (although, as we have seen, this is nowhere indicated in any of the Muslim sources, still less in the Frankish appeals for help to the West), and the claim was reiterated in 1274 by Abaqa's envoys.", Jackson, p.174</ref>
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