Battle of the Field of Blood (Ager Sanguinis)

The Battle of the Field of Blood was a decisive Muslim victory over the Crusader Principality of Antioch. Roger of Salerno, regent of Antioch, chose to engage the Artuqid army of Il-Ghazi despite the advice of his vassals to wait for reinforcements. Il-Ghazi had assembled a large Turkoman army and lured the Antiochene force into difficult terrain. The crusader army was ambushed in a narrow valley, surrounded, and systematically destroyed. Roger of Salerno was killed in the fighting along with virtually his entire army — approximately 700 knights and thousands of infantry. The scale of the defeat sent shockwaves through the crusader states. The victory temporarily crippled Antioch and demonstrated that Muslim commanders had learnt how to defeat crusader heavy cavalry by denying them the space to charge effectively. However, Il-Ghazi failed to follow up the victory by besieging Antioch, and the Frankish states recovered.