Antioch Falls to the Mamluks: The Last Great Crusader State Dies
Baibars sent a letter to the Count of Antioch describing, in present tense, exactly what his soldiers were doing to the city's residents while the count sat safe in Tripoli. Four days of methodical destruction. The Mamluks killed or enslaved every single person—seventeen thousand gone. Not one Christian remained. Antioch had survived earthquakes, Persian sieges, and Byzantine reconquests for twelve centuries. It took less than a week to become permanent Muslim territory. The count received Baibars's letter after the city had already fallen. He was reading about corpses.
May 18, 1268
758 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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