Mleh I
( hy, Մլեհ), also Meleh I,
(before 1120 –
Sis, May 15, 1175)
was the eighth
lord of Armenian Cilicia or “Lord of the Mountains”
(1170–1175).
The accomplishments during the reign of his elder brother,
Thoros II placed Cilicia on a firm footing.
But Mleh, whom Thoros II had expelled from Cilicia for converting to
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
, almost undid his brother's work.
On the death of his brother, Mleh invaded Cilicia with the support of a contingent from
Aleppo
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, which remained in his service and assisted him to drive out the
Knights Templar
, colors = White mantle with a red cross
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and
Greeks from the fortresses and, in 1173, the cities which they held in Cilicia.
Soon after the death of
Nur ed-Din (the ''
emir'' of Aleppo),
Mleh was overthrown by his nephew,
Roupen III.
His early life
Mleh was the fourth son of
Leo I, lord of
Armenian Cilicia
The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (Middle Armenian: , '), also known as Cilician Armenia ( hy, Կիլիկեան Հայաստան, '), Lesser Armenia, Little Armenia or New Armenia, and formerly known as the Armenian Principality of Cilicia ( hy, ...
.
The name and the origin of his mother are not known with certainty.
It is possible that she was a daughter of Count
Hugh I of Rethel
Hugh I, Count of Rethel (1040 in Bourg – 1118 in Rethel) was a son of Count Manasses III of Rethel and his wife Judith. He succeeded his father in 1065 as Count of Rethel.
Hugh married Melisende of Crécy, the daughter of Lord Guy I of Mo ...
, or she might have been the daughter of
Gabriel of Melitene.
In the early summer of 1137, the
Byzantine Emperor John II Komnenos came to Cilicia with a full force on his way to take
Antioch; his army successively took
Seleucia
Seleucia (; grc-gre, Σελεύκεια), also known as or , was a major Mesopotamian city of the Seleucid empire. It stood on the west bank of the Tigris River, within the present-day Baghdad Governorate in Iraq.
Name
Seleucia ( grc-gre, Σ ...
,
Korikos
Corycus ( el, Κώρυκος; also transliterated Corycos or Korykos; hy, Կոռիկոս, translit=Koṙikos; tr, Kız Kalesi, Literal translation, lit. "maiden castle") was an ancient city in Cilicia Trachaea, Anatolia, located at the mouth ...
,
Tarsus,
Mamistra,
Adana,
Tel Hamdoun
Toprakkale is a town and district of Osmaniye Province in the Mediterranean region of Turkey. It is located at 10 km to the west of Osmaniye. Its name comes from an Abbasid castle near the city.
The town is on a road and rail crossing, a natu ...
(now ''Toprakkale'' in Turkey) and
Anazarbus
Anazarbus ( grc, Ἀναζαρβός, medieval Ain Zarba; modern Anavarza; ar, عَيْنُ زَرْبَة) was an ancient Cilician city. Under the late Roman Empire, it was the capital of Cilicia Secunda. Roman emperor Justinian I rebuilt ...
.
Mleh and his two brothers,
Stephen and the blind
Constantine took refuge with their cousin, Count
Joscelin II of Edessa
Joscelin II of Edessa (died 1159) was the fourth and last ruling count of Edessa. He was son of his predecessor Joscelin I of Edessa and Beatrice, daughter of Constantine I of Armenia.
Biography
In 1122, Joscelin I was captured by Belek Ghazi. ...
.
In Cilicia, the family castle of
Vahka (today ''Feke'' in Turkey) held out for some weeks, but after its fall their father and two of their brothers,
Roupen and Thoros, were captured.
Leo I and his two sons were imprisoned in
Constantinople where Leo I died shortly afterwards, and Roupen was
blinded and later murdered.
All Cilicia remained under Byzantine rule for eight years.
About the year 1143, Mleh's brother, Thoros escaped from Constantinople and recaptured the family stronghold of Vahka; Mleh and his brother Stephen joined him.
One after another, Thoros reconquered Anazarbus, Adana, Sis (today ''Kozan'' in Turkey) and Pardzerpert (now ''
Andırın'' in Turkey) from the Byzantines.
In 1164,
Nur ed-Din struck at the
Principality of Antioch and laid siege to the key-fortress of Harenc; Prince
Bohemond III of Antioch called upon Thoros II to come to his rescue, and Mleh followed his brother.
At the news of the coming of the Byzantine and Armenian troops, Nur ed-Din raised the siege, but Bohemond III decided to follow in pursuit; the armies made contact on August 10, near Artah.
In the
ensuing battle, Bohemond III fell into an ambush and found himself and his knights surrounded by the army of
Mosul, but Thoros II and Mleh, who had been more cautious, escaped from the battlefield.
In the service of Nur ed-Din
Although Mleh had taken vows as a
Templar, after a quarrel with Thoros II and an attempt to assassinate him, he fled to Nur ed-Din.
Mleh converted to
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
from Armenian Apostolic Christianity. This was to facilitate his plans with Nur ed-Din;
afterwards, he held
Cyrrhus as a
fief from the ''Emir'' of Aleppo.
His brother died in 1168, leaving a child,
Roupen II, to succeed him, under the
regency of a Frankish lord called
Thomas.
But Mleh disputed the succession; early in 1170 Nur ed-Din lent him troops with which he was able not only to dethrone his nephew but also to invade the Cilician plain and take Mamistra, Adana and Tarsus from their Greek garrisons.
The young Roupen III was followed by Mleh's men and murdered.
His rule
With Thoros's legitimate heir dead, Mleh embarked on a policy of conquest with cruel application of force.
He beleaguered the
Hethumids at
Lampron (now ''Namrun Kalesi'' in Turkey), but in spite of a long siege his attempt to take this stronghold failed.
Mleh then attacked the Templars at
Baghras; Bohemond III of Antioch appealed to King
Amalric I of Jerusalem, who marched up into Cilicia and temporarily, its seems, restored Imperial rule.
But Mleh was irrepressible; a year or so later
he routed at Tarsus the assembled forces of the governor
Konstantinos Kalamanos Constantine Kalamanos or Coloman ( gr, Κωνσταντῖνος Καλαμανός; 1137/1145 – after 1173) was a Byzantine governor of Cilicia.
Biography
Constantine was the elder son of Boris Kalamanos (a claimant for the throne of the Kingdom ...
, and sent him to Nur ed-Din, who held Konstantinos for heavy ransom.
On March 10, 1171 Amalric I left
Acre
The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial
Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism.
Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to:
Places
United States
* Imperial, California
* Imperial, Missouri
* Imp ...
for Constantinople where he made a treaty with the Emperor
Manuel I Comnenos; it seems that they decided that a common action should be taken against Mleh.
An expedition organized by the king after his return from Constantinople in 1171 was interrupted by Nur ed-Din's attack on
Kerak
Al-Karak ( ar, الكرك), is a city in Jordan known for its medieval castle, the Kerak Castle. The castle is one of the three largest castles in the region, the other two being in Syria. Al-Karak is the capital city of the Karak Governorate.
...
(today ''Al Karak'' in
Jordan).
In the summer of 1171, Mleh waylaid Count
Stephen I of Sancerre as he passed through Cilicia from 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 ...
to Constantinople.
In order to punish Mleh for his outrage against the count, Amalric I marched north into Cilicia in 1173; but the campaign achieved nothing except to check Mleh's further expansion.
Mleh finally succeeded in 1173 in securing Manuel I's recognition of him as “Baron of Cilician Armenia” with whom now all Byzantine affairs in Cilicia were to be conducted.
On May 15, 1174, Nur ed-Din died; en event which brought an end to Mleh's source of power.
Vulnerable and without an ally, members of Mleh's own inner circle of
Armenian nobles, took the initiative and murdered him in Sis in 1175.
He was buried in Medzkar.
Marriage and child
Mleh married an unnamed daughter of Vasil of Gargar (a sister of the ''
Catholicos
Catholicos, plural Catholicoi, is a title used for the head of certain churches in some Eastern Christian traditions. The title implies autocephaly and in some cases it is the title of the head of an autonomous church. The word comes from ancient ...
''
Gregory).
He had one
illegitimate child by his unknown
mistress:
*
Grigor (? – January 28, 1209/January 27, 1210 or after)
Footnotes
Sources
*Ghazarian, Jacob G: ''The Armenian Kingdom in Cilicia during the Crusades: The Integration of Cilician Armenians with the Latins (1080–1393)''; RoutledgeCurzon (Taylor & Francis Group), 2000, Abingdon;
*
*
External links
The Barony of Cilician Armenia(Kurkjian's History of Armenia, Ch. 27)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mleh, Prince Of Armenia
1175 deaths
12th-century murdered monarchs
Converts to Islam from Christianity
Year of birth unknown
12th-century Armenian people
Armenian former Christians
Ethnic Armenian Muslims
Monarchs of the Rubenid dynasty