Part 35

Bohemond and Tancred, however, needed the money at a time when Baldwin's return would lead to Tancred losing his position as de facto ruler of Edessa and having to return to Antioch, so they responded to the king's letter, saying, "It is not good diplomacy to appear too eager to accept this offer, when showing some hesitation may lead to Jekermish increasing the ransom." At the same time, they agreed to accept Jekermish's offer of money, thus Baldwin remained in captivity.184 The outcomes of the Battle of Balikh The Battle of Balikh had a number of very important outcomes for both the Muslims and the Crusaders, the most important of which included the following: a) It stopped the Crusader advance and prevented them expanding towards the east at the expense of the Muslims; it also put an end to their hopes of advancing towards Iraq and taking full control of Mesopotamia. b) It dashed Bohemond's aspirations of controlling Aleppo and turning the principality of Antioch into a large state. Moreover, it destroyed the Crusaders' hopes of severing links between the Muslim forces in Syria, Mesopotamia and Asia Minor, which they had wished to achieve by capturing Aleppo. c) It determined the fate of Edessa. This principality was faced with a great deal of internal troubles, especially from the Armenians who soon started to voice their complaints about the oppression of the Armenian church by the Latin rulers and their persecution of its clergy. This prompted the Armenians to make contact with the Turks, which in turn weakened Edessa, thus the possibility of its falling into Muslim hands became imminent.185 d) It gave the Muslims the opportunity to regain the possessions that had been joined to the principality of Antioch and which they had lost to the Crusaders earlier on. After Baldwin's capture, Tancred took charge of the principality of Edessa and Bohemond became the strongest of the Crusader rulers in the north. The circumstances of the victory led to a rapprochement between the Muslim and Byzantine forces against the common enemy. Ibn al-Qalanisi explained the consequences of these developments as follows: e) It was a good victory for the Muslims; nothing like it had happened before. It weakened the morale of the Franks, reduced their supplies of weapons and equipment, and diminished their power. The Muslims' morale was raised, and they became more determined to support the faith and fight the infidels. f) People began to speak of defeating them [the invaders] and became certain that the Muslims would put an end to them. g) It destroyed the myth that the Crusaders could not be defeated.186 h) The Byzantine Emperor Alexios took advantage of the weakness of Bohemond's position after criticism was directed against him for not ransoming his friend Baldwin. In addition, the treaty that Bohemond had made with the Emperor encouraged uprisings by the inhabitants of Cilicia against their Norman rulers. The Emperor also ordered his troops to capture a number of cities and positions which Tancred had captured previously, and the Byzantine fleet took part in the capture of some of the coastal cities between Latakia and Tartous. Furthermore, the Byzantines were able to use their naval bases in Cyprus to help Raymond de Aguilers — the sworn enemy of Bohemond — who was trying to establish a principality around Tripoli, parallel to and south of Antioch. Meanwhile, no one from Jerusalem offered Bohemond any help during this calamity.187 Thus Jekermish, by forming an alliance with Suqman, was able to play a major role in the history of the Crusades and, along with his allies, to present the Muslim world with its first decisive victory against the Crusaders. This was to pave the way for the emergence of leaders and Islamic alliances which would direct continual blows against the Crusader forces, starting with Mawdood, the Seljuk ruler of Mosul and ending with Salah ad-Deen, and including Ilghazi and Balak al-Artuqiyeen, Aq Sunqur al-Bursuqi, Imad adDeen Zangi and Noor ad-Deen Zangi.188 Jekermish persists in Jihad In spite of some negative signs that followed the Muslim victory in Balikh, Jekermish continued to aspire to achieve other victories in this field. Less than two years later that became possible for him, when at the end of 499 AH/1106 CE, he received instructions from Sultan Muhammad to launch a new campaign against the Crusaders. He contacted local rulers and was able to form an alliance which included Radwan the ruler of Aleppo, Ilghazi al-Artuqi the ruler of Mardin, Albi Timurtash the ruler of Sinjar and alAsbahadh Sawa, one of the rulers of Persia. However, what Ilghazi suggested to the aforementioned rulers delayed implementation of the suggested plan: he asked them to start their campaign by moving against Jekermish with the aim of capturing Mosul so as to earn the pleasure of Sultan Muhammad. This latter held a grudge against the ruler of Mosul because of his actions; moreover, there was the possibility of utilizing the financial and military resources of Mosul against the Crusaders. The leaders agreed to this and joined forces to attack Nusaybin, which belonged to the ruler of Mosul. However, the representatives of Jekermish in that city succeeded — with instructions from their master in Mosul — in provoking a rift between Radwan and Ilghazi. Radwan took the opportunity during a feast held before the walls of Nusaybin to kidnap Ilghazi and put him in chains.