Siege of Tripoli (1271)

The 1271 Siege of Tripoli was initiated by the Mamluk ruler Baibars against the Frankish ruler of the Principality of Antioch and the County of Tripoli, Bohemond VI. It followed the dramatic Fall of Antioch in 1268, and was an attempt by the Mamluks to completely destroy the Crusader states of Antioch and Tripoli.

In the mid-13th century, the Crusaders had been steadily losing ground, and were being squeezed between the advancing troops of the Egyptian Mamluks from the south, and the advancing Mongol Empire from the east, with insufficient assistance arriving from Europe in the West. Around 1260, Bohemond VI, under the influence of his father-in-law, King Hethum I of Armenia, had submitted Antioch and Tripoli to the Mongol Empire, making them vassal states which contributed troops to the Mongol forces, in their battles against the Muslims. The Mongols made dramatic victories in Persia and Syria, effectively destroying the Abbasid and Ayyubid Caliphates, and causing a shift of Islamic power to the Egyptian Mamluks in Cairo. However, before the Mongols could continue their advance southwards through Palestine towards Egypt, a succession crisis resulted in the withdrawal of the majority of their troops, as the Mongol princes convened on Karakorum to decide on a new Great Khan. A smaller force was left to occupy Syria and engage in raids through Palestine, but the Crusaders and the Mamluks engaged in a truce, which allowed the Mamluks to advance northwards through Crusader territory, and engage the weakened Mongol force at the Battle of Ayn Jalut in 1260. When the bulk of the Mongol forces returned in 1262, they were never able to avenge the loss. Meanwhile, the Mamluks proceeded to reclaim the rest of the Levant from Crusader hands. Jerusalem had been taken in 1244 by the Khwarezm Turks, and the Egyptian Mamluks worked their way northward, capturing castle after castle.

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