Maraclea was a small coastal Crusader town and a castle in the

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...

, between

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 ...

and

Baniyas Baniyas ( ar, بَانِيَاس ') is a Mediterranean coastal city in Tartous Governorate, northwestern Syria, located south of Latakia (ancient Laodicea) and north of Tartous (ancient Tortosa). It is known for its citrus fruit orchards an ...

(Buluniyas). The modern-day location is known as Kharab Maraqiya ( ar, خراب مرقية).

History

Following the

Muslim conquest of the Levant The Muslim conquest of the Levant ( ar, فَتْحُ الشَّام, translit=Feth eş-Şâm), also known as the Rashidun conquest of Syria, occurred in the first half of the 7th century, shortly after the rise of Islam."Syria." Encyclopædia Br ...

, Caliph

Mu'awiya I Mu'awiya I ( ar, معاوية بن أبي سفيان, Muʿāwiya ibn Abī Sufyān; –April 680) was the founder and first caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from 661 until his death. He became caliph less than thirty years after the deat ...

repopulated and garrisoned the coastal cities including Maraclea. In 675/676, a

Byzantine fleet The Byzantine navy was the naval force of the East Roman or Byzantine Empire. Like the empire it served, it was a direct continuation from its Imperial Roman predecessor, but played a far greater role in the defence and survival of the state than ...

assaulted Maraclea, killing the governor of

Homs Homs ( , , , ; ar, حِمْص / ALA-LC: ; Levantine Arabic: / ''Ḥomṣ'' ), known in pre-Islamic Syria as Emesa ( ; grc, Ἔμεσα, Émesa), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level ...

. In 968, Byzantine Emperor

Nikephoros II Phokas Nikephoros II Phokas (; – 11 December 969), Latinized Nicephorus II Phocas, was Byzantine emperor from 963 to 969. His career, not uniformly successful in matters of statecraft or of war, nonetheless included brilliant military exploits whi ...

ravaged the region including Maraclea. In 1030,

Niketas of Mistheia Niketas of Mistheia was a Byzantine official, originally from Mistheia, and '' doux'' of Antioch (1030–1032). He was an eunuch who held the titles of ''patrikios'' and ''rhaiktor''. Career In 1030, Byzantine Emperor Romanos III Argyros appointe ...

, doux of Antioch, managed to force a coalition of Arab tribes led by

Nasr ibn Musharraf al-Rawadifi Nasr ibn Musharraf al-Rawadifi ( ar, نصر بن مشرف الروادفي; died 1032) was an Arab chieftain of the Citadel of Maniqa and Jabal al-Rawadif near Antioch. Biography In 1027 AD, the ruler of Aleppo, Salih ibn Mirdas, was able to defe ...

, the qadi 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 ...

and the local

Fatimid The Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili 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 east. The Fatimids, a dy ...

commander to withdraw from besieging Maraclea. During the middle of the 13th century, the possession of the castle was a matter of dispute between the

Principality of Antioch The Principality of Antioch was one of the crusader states created during the First Crusade which included parts of modern-day Turkey and Syria. The principality was much smaller than the County of Edessa or the Kingdom of Jerusalem. It extende ...

and the

Hospitallers The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic Church, Catholic Military ord ...

. In 1271, the city of Maraclea was destroyed by the Mamluks. Its Lord, one of the vassals of

Bohemond VI Bohemond VI (–1275), also known as the Fair, was the prince of Antioch and count of Tripoli from 1251 until his death. He ruled while Antioch was caught between the warring Mongol Empire and Mamluk Sultanate. In 1268 Antioch was captured by t ...

, named Barthélémy de Maraclée, is recorded as having fled from the Mamluk offensive, taking refuge in Persia at the Mongol Court of

Abagha Abaqa Khan (27 February 1234 – 4 April 1282, mn, Абаха/Абага хан (Khalkha Cyrillic), ( Traditional script), "paternal uncle", also transliterated Abaġa), was the second Mongol ruler (''Ilkhan'') of the Ilkhanate. The son of Hulag ...

, where he exhorted the Mongols to intervene in the

Holy Land The Holy Land; Arabic: or is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Holy ...

. In 1285,

Qalawun ( ar, قلاوون الصالحي, – November 10, 1290) was the seventh Bahri Mamluk sultan; he ruled Egypt from 1279 to 1290. He was called (, "Qalāwūn the Victorious"). Biography and rise to power Qalawun was a Kipchak, ancient Turki ...

blackmailed Bohemond VII into destroying the last fortifications of the area, where Barthélémy was entrenched, a square tower which had been erected some distance from the shore. Qalawun said he would besiege Tripoli if the Maraclea fort was not dismantled.

References

Sources

* * * * * {{cite book , last=Runciman , first=Steven , title=A history of the Crusades 3 , publisher=Penguin Books , year=1987 , ISBN=978-0-14-013705-7 Populated places disestablished in the 13th century Crusader castles