Muslim Fortresses in the Levant: Between Crusaders and Mongols (67 page)

The Cilician question: Mamluk fortresses within the boundaries of the Armenian kingdom

The Armenian kingdom was perceived as the northern “entrance gate” to the Mamluk sultanate. Furthermore, parts of Cilicia were still occupied by the Ayyubids in the mid thirteenth century. The area between al-Bīra and
was officially part of
Yūsuf’s kingdom.
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Between 660/1262 and 662/1264 five raids were carried out into northern Syria. Apart from the fourth in which the army of King Het‘um was reinforced by contingents of Īlkhānid soldiers and Frankish knights from Antioch, the campaigns were initiated and organized by the Armenians. None of the campaigns achieved lasting political or territorial results.
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The Armenian invasions had a long and lasting impact on the relations with the Mamluk sultanate. During most of the second half of the thirteenth century, from as early as 1266, the Mamluks tried to establish a firm hold in Cilicia by restoring and strengthening the fortresses they conquered. Apart from Mongol-Armenian attempts to invade Syria from Cilicia, a number of plans drawn up in Europe for the launching of a new Crusade assigned Cilicia an important role.

Plans for a new Crusade, and the prospect of a Mongol, Armenian and European alliance against the Mamluks

A series of new grand campaigns was being planned in western Europe during the second half of the thirteenth and the first decades of the fourteenth century. The aims of this new Crusade were to conquer Egypt and the territories the Franks had lost in the East. After the fall of Acre (1291) a number of proposals were written, some of which were presented to the Pope.

In a number of such proposals, written by different authors, Cilicia was to serve as a base for organizing the armies before entering Syria. The Mamluks must have been aware of this new European initiative. Thus, pat of the need to demonstrate constant military presence in Cilicia probably arose from the fear of an alliance of European, Armenian and Īlkhānid forces. This idea is conveyed in the accounts written by Het‘um and by Fidenzio of Padua.
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In reality, though, the Armenian kingdom had lost much of its strength due to internal strife over the throne; and the will and ability of European rulers to organize a new Crusade is questionable.
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During Philip IV’s reign (1285–1314) a program for a new Crusade written by a certain Philip of Taranto was presented to the Pope. This Crusade was to conquer Byzantium, cross the Armenian kingdom and march to the Holy Land. Those plans were forgotten soon after the death of the Pope and of the king of France in 1314.
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One of the figures who supported the idea of a new Crusade to the East and actively tried to promote and organize a campaign was Marino Sanudo, a Venetian merchant and chronicler (1270–1343). Much of his life was devoted to planning a Crusade that was to revive the Kingdom of Jerusalem, though emphasis lay on the conquest of Egypt. He prepared a written account titled “Liber secretorum Fidelium Crucis super Terrae Sanctae Recuperatione et Conservatione” that was read and accepted by Pope John XXII in 1321. Marino Sanudo had traveled widely in the Eastern Mediterranean and was acquainted with the geography, climate, culture and population of the region. His valuable knowledge made him an important figure whose opinions and advice were discussed in the courts of popes, monarchs and the nobility. His book was presented to popes Clement V and John XXII, Edward II of England and to two French kings, Charles IV and Philip VI.
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The economic importance of the Armenian kingdom was much emphasized in this composition. According to Sanudo, the Mamluks could only be weakened and eventually defeated by an attack on the Sultanate’s revenues. A trade embargo should be imposed, the Egyptian coast besieged and the land routes running from central Asia, India and Persia to the Cilician harbors opened to trade. This land route was to replace the sea routes that went from India to Aden and to Alexandria via the Red Sea.
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The ocean trade routes that were controlled by Egypt from as early as the tenth century were still an important source of revenue in the early Mamluk period.
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An important issue raised and stressed by Sanudo was the need to damage and severely limit the Mamluk slave trade which provided the core of the Sultanate’s army.
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Sanudo’s advice eventually influenced some of the decisions made by European rulers. In the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries a number of initiatives were made to send European forces to strengthen the Armenian kingdom. While most of those enterprises never passed the final planning stage, some actually set out but failed to reach their destination.

In the late thirteenth century Pope Boniface VIII (1294–1303) asked the Armenian king to try and maintain his position until the European force reached Asia Minor; it is not quite clear if a force was ever sent.
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During the reign of Pope Clement V (1305–14) a Genoese force seems to have been preparing to leave for the Armenian kingdom, though apparently it never set sail. Assisted by the Order of the
Hospitallers, the Pope managed to summon a force of 5,000 men that was to spend five years in the Armenian kingdom. This force was to be the vanguard of the Crusade headed by Philip VI of France. The contingent left for Asia Minor but its voyage ended in Rhodes.
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During the years 1300–4 the Order of the Hospitallers had sent reinforcements to the Armenian kingdom, but it could not maintain this support for long and it soon came to a halt. In 1306 the Armenian king Leon VI sent a delegation to the papal court demanding a new Crusade, in order to rescue his kingdom that had been deserted and betrayed by the Īlkhānid state. A similar request was sent in the following year by King Oshin (1307–20).
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The most impressive plan of all was proposed by the Īlkhān Öljeitü in 1307. The Īlkhānid delegation which came to Poitiers asked the Pope to support a Crusader army that would march to Cilicia. The Īlkhān committed himself to send 100,000 mounted men, 200,000 horses and 200,000 rations of grain to meet the Crusader army when it reached the Armenian kingdom.
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Returning to our Italian advocate of the Crusades, Marino Sanudo not only roamed through the courts of Europe voicing his ideas on the economic importance of Cilicia, but even raised funds to assist the Armenians in warding off Mamluk raids and full-scale campaigns.
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In 1323, he proposed sending a French vanguard of 10 ships carrying 1,300 knights and their mounts. The French king Charles IV feared this force would not suffice, and claimed that the Armenians could not be trusted. He insisted that the number of men be doubled. This of course raised the cost of the expedition. The size of the force supposed to arrive by sea encumbered the entire plan, which was eventually dropped mainly because of the great expense involved.
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Although the ideas of Marino Sanudo were not implemented, Pope John XXII clearly understood the importance of maintaining the Christian presence in Asia Minor. He aimed to restore Hospitaller property,
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and promised and convinced the Armenians that the Order would contribute to the defense and safety of their kingdom.

A slightly different plan for a large Crusader force was drawn up during the reign of Philip VI (r. 1328–50), but it never materialized due to the growing political friction between the European rulers.
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The Armenian historian
(Hayton), who in 1306 was living close to the papal court at Poitiers, was the author of yet another book concerning the revival of the Crusades titled: ‘La flor des estoires la terre d’Orient’. It was written in answer to a direct request from the Pope. The book contains
own ideas as to the route this new Crusade should follow.
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It is not surprising that he suggests attacking Syria, and that Cilicia should be used as a meeting and organization point before heading into Syria. The Armenian kingdom, he wrote, had suitable harbors, numerous horses and was rich enough to provision the armies and their mounts with foodstuffs and fodder.
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His ideas seem to have been ignored. The Armenians had probably lost much of their credibility due to the schism between the two churches (Rome and the Armenian church) and the political chaos within the kingdom.

Another proponent of a new Crusade to the East was Otto of Grandson, who suggested sending a European force to the Port of Ayās where it would be met by the Mongol and Armenian armies.
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Since he himself had commanded a force that
defended Acre in 1291 and was perceived by many as a fierce and brave fighter, his opinions aroused some interest in the various European courts.

Throughout this period European presence in Cilicia was negligible. Reinforcements sent from the west amounted to small contingents of a few thousand men at the most. It seems, however, that the rumors of preparations for a new Crusade, the few scant European attempts (that mostly failed) to assist the Armenians, and the idea of creating a joint force with the Īlkhānids were enough to alert the Mamluks.
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It is against this background that we can understand their efforts to try and establish a Mamluk base and permanent footing in Cilicia. Thus, they emphasized their presence by occupying Armenian strongholds, maintaining Mamluk garrisons, raiding the kingdom and leaving behind trails of destruction.