Jalal al-Mulk Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Ammar ( ar, جلال الملك علي بن محمد بن عمار) was the ruler (''

qadi A qāḍī ( ar, قاضي, Qāḍī; otherwise transliterated as qazi, cadi, kadi, or kazi) is the magistrate or judge of a '' sharīʿa'' court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and mino ...

'') of

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...

during the

First Crusade The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic ru ...

Ali belonged to the house of the

Banu Ammar The Banu Ammar ( ar, بنو عمار, Banū ʿAmmār, Sons of Ammar) were a family of Shia Muslim magistrates (''qadi''s) who ruled the city of Tripoli in what is now Lebanon from c.1065 until 1109. History Accounts vary regarding the origin of ...

, which was known more for its learning than for warfare. The dynasty had been founded by his uncle,

Amin al-Dawla Abu Talib al-Hasan ibn Ammar Amin may refer to: People * Amin (name), a masculine given name and also a surname * Al-Amin, the sixth Abbasid caliph, who ruled from 809 to 813 * Amin (Qing dynasty), an Imperial Prince of the Qing Dynasty * Amin, an arbitrator who assessed and ...

, who as ''

'' of

had declared himself independent from the

Fatimid Caliphate The Fatimid Caliphate was an Isma'ilism, Ismaili Shia Islam, Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the ea ...

c. 1065. Ali came to power in Tripoli after his uncle's death in 1072, after a brief succession struggle with his brother, whom he expelled from the city. He was able to maintain his precarious independence by playing the Fatimids off the

Seljuks The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; fa, سلجوقیان ''Saljuqian'', alternatively spelled as Seljuqs or Saljuqs), also known as Seljuk Turks, Seljuk Turkomans "The defeat in August 1071 of the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes by the Turk ...

. In 1081, he captured

Jableh ) , settlement_type = City , motto = , image_skyline = Jableh Collage.jpg , imagesize = 250px , image_caption = General view of city and port • Roman Amphitheater• Al ...

from the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

. Under Ali's reign, the

came to the Levant. Following the

Siege of Antioch The siege of Antioch took place during the First Crusade in 1097 and 1098, on the crusaders' way to Jerusalem through Syria. Two sieges took place in succession. The first siege, by the crusaders against the city held by the Seljuk Empire, last ...

, the Crusaders began to make their way down to

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

in early 1099. Soon, the party of

Raymond IV Raymond IV may refer to: * Raymond IV of Pallars Jussà (count, 1047–1098) *Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse (r. 1094 - 1105), also count of Tripoli (1102–1105) *Raymond IV, Count of Tripoli Raymond IVKevin James Lewis, ''The Counts of Tripoli and ...

approached Tripoli. Fearing the advancing Crusaders, he attempted to strike an alliance with them. However, due to the prosperity of Tripoli and the surrounding countryside, Raymond wished to make Tripoli his subject rather than his ally. He soon began the

Siege of Arqa Arqa ( ar, عرقا; akk, 𒅕𒋡𒋫, translit=Irqata) is a Lebanese village near Miniara in Akkar Governorate, Lebanon, 22 km northeast of Tripoli, near the coast. The town was a notable city-state during the Iron Age. The city of '' ...

, while encouraging Raymond of Pilet and Raymond, Viscount of Turenne to capture

Tortosa Tortosa (; ) is the capital of the ''Catalonia/Comarques, comarca'' of Baix Ebre, in Catalonia, Spain. Tortosa is located at above sea level, by the Ebro river, protected on its northern side by the mountains of the Cardó Massif, of which Buin ...

, a subject of Ali's, as well, which they did. The Siege of Arqa, which lasted from 14 February to 13 May 1099, was a failure, and Raymond was eventually persuaded to leave the city in the hands of Tripoli. As the Crusaders approached Ali's capital, he attempted to buy his immunity. He offered 300 Christian captives, compensating them with 15,000

bezants In the Middle Ages, the term bezant (Old French ''besant'', from Middle Latin, Latin ''bizantius aureus'') was used in Western Europe to describe several gold coins of the east, all derived ultimately from the Solidus (coin), Roman ''solidus''. ...

and 15 horses. The Crusaders left Tripoli untouched on 16 May. Ali did not live to see the long

Siege of Tripoli The siege of Tripoli lasted from 1102 until July 12, 1109. It took place on the site of the present day Lebanese city of Tripoli, in the aftermath of the First Crusade. It led to the establishment of the fourth crusader state, the County of Trip ...

, being succeeded by his brother

Fakhr al-Mulk ibn Ammar Fakhr al-Mulk ibn Ammar was the last ''qadi'' of Tripoli, from 1099 to 1109, before the city was taken by the Crusaders. Biography Fakhr al-Mulk was a member of Banu Ammar. He succeeded his brother Jalal al-Mulk Ali ibn Muhammad during the First ...

References

Sources

* * * {{EI2 , last = Wiet , first = G. , title = ʿAmmār , volume = 1 , page = 448 , url = http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_0625 1099 deaths 11th-century Arabs Muslims of the First Crusade History of Tripoli, Lebanon Medieval Lebanon Arab people of the Arab–Byzantine wars