Siege of Antioch
The Siege of Antioch took place during the First Crusade in 1097 and 1098 after Battle of Dorylaeum (1097). The first siege, by the crusaders against the Muslim-held city, lasted from 21 October 1097 to 2 June 1098. Antioch lay on the crusaders' route to Palestine.
Location of Antioch in present day Turkey
Defender of Antioch:Yaghi-Siyan
Anticipating that Antioch would be attacked the Muslim governor of the city, Yaghi-Siyan, began stockpiling food and sending requests for help. The walls surrounding the city presented a formidable obstacle to its capture, so the leaders of the crusade decided to besiege Antioch.
Defensive wall of Antioch
Robert II, Count of Flanders, Adhemar of Le Puy, Bohemund of Taranto, Hugh I, Count of Vermandois; Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy; Stephen II, Count of Blois, Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, Godfrey of Bouillon started the siege. The ensuing nine-month siege has been described as "one of the great sieges of the age".
Siege of Antioch
An army under the leadership of
Duqaq of Damascas was en route to relieve Antioch. On the morning of 31 December Duqaq marched towards Bohemund and Raymond's army and the two met at the village of Albara.The month ended inauspiciously for both sides: there was an earthquake on 30 December, and the following weeks saw such unseasonably bad rain and cold weather that Duqaq had to return home without further engaging the crusaders. Another rescue team sent by
Ridwan of Aleppo was beaten back!
Capture of Antioch
The siege continued, and at the end of May 1098 a Muslim army under the command of
Kerbogha of Mosul approached Antioch. This army was much larger than the previous attempts to relieve the siege. The crusaders knew they would have to take the city before Kerbogha arrived if they had any chance of survival.
Bohemund secretly established contact with Firouz, an newly converted ex-christian Armenian guard who controlled the Tower of the Two Sisters but had a grudge with Yaghi-Siyan, and bribed him to open the gates. Firouz opened the gates and a massacre followed. The remaining Christians in the city opened the other gates and participated in the massacre themselves, killing as much of the hated Turkish garrison as they could. The crusaders, however, killed some of the Christians along with the Muslims, including Firouz's own brother.
Bohemond of Taranto alone mounts the wall of Antioch
A 14th-century depiction of the crusaders' capture of Antioch
Capture of Antioch by Bohemond
Yaghi-Siyan fled but was captured by some Syrian Christians outside the city. He was decapitated and his head was brought to Bohemund.
Arab historian Ali ibn al-Athir described the city’s fall.
Yaghi Siyan showed unparalleled courage and wisdom, strength and judgment. If all the Franks who died had survived they would have overrun all the lands of Islam. He protected the families of the Christians in Antioch and would not allow a hair of their head to be touched.
After the siege had been going on for a long time the Franks made a deal with one of the men who were responsible for the towers. He was a cuirass-maker called Ruzbih [or Firuz, or Firouz] whom they bribed with a fortune in money and lands. He worked in the tower that stood over the river-bed, where the river flowed out of the city into the valley. The Franks sealed their pact with the cuirass-maker, God damn him! and made their way to the water-gate. They opened it and entered the city. Another gang of them climbed the tower with ropes. At dawn, when more than 500 of them were in the city and the defenders were worn out after the night watch, they sounded their trumpets … Panic seized Yaghi Siyan and he opened the city gates and fled in terror, with an escort of thirty pages.Yaghi-Siyan fell from his horse in flight; his companions tried to lift him back into the saddle, but they could not get him to sit up, and so left him for dead while they escaped. He was at his last gasp when an Armenian shepherd came past, killed him, cut off his head and took it to the Franks at Antioch.
Second siege
Kerbogha of Mosul began the second siege, against the crusaders who had occupied Antioch.By the time he arrived, around June 5-9, the Crusaders had been in possession of the city since 3 June. They were not able to restock the city before Kerbogha, in turn, was besieging the Crusaders in the city. While the crusaders were marching towards Karbogha, the Fatimid section of the army ( shia from Egypt) deserted the Turkish contingent, as they feared Kerbogha would become too powerful were he able to defeat the Crusaders. Duqaq and many other emirs had already betrayed Kerbogha and were taking their armies back to their own lands, this desertion considerably reduced the numerical advantage the mighty army had over its Christian opponents. Soon the remaining Muslim troops had to retreat. Unified Christian army was so large that Kerbogha had to retreat and returned to Mosul a broken man.
Siege by Karbogha
