APPENDIX E
LAODICEA AND THE FIRST CRUSADE
Laodicea, as a commodious port on the Syrian coast directly opposite the fertile island of Cyprus, was a maritime base of the utmost importance to the crusaders, and it has a special interest for the life of Robert Curthose. Its history during the period of the First Crusade is obscure, and it may be admitted at the outset that it will not be possible to elucidate it entirely from such meagre and contradictory materials as have survived. Nevertheless, the problems are by no means hopeless; and the sources, such as they are, are worthy of a more careful and critical examination than they have yet received.[1]
From the oriental sources it seems reasonably certain that during the period immediately preceding the arrival of the crusaders in Syria Laodicea was in the hands of the Turks. Previous to 1086 it had belonged to the Munkidhites of Shaizar;[2] but it passed from their hands into the possession of Malik-Shah when in that year he established himself at Aleppo.[3] Malik-Shah granted it to Kasim ed-daula Aksonkor, who held it until his death in 1094.[4] There is no evidence that it passed out of Turkish control between this date and the arrival of the crusaders and their associates from the West in 1097; and, in view of the precarious situation of the Eastern Empire and the preoccupation of the Greek Emperor with other problems during this period, there seems to be no ground for such a supposition. According to Kemal ed-Din—who wrote towards the middle of the thirteenth century, and whose statement would perhaps deserve little consideration were it not so specific—a fleet of twenty-two ships came from Cyprus on the 8th of the month of Ramadan in the year 490 of the Hegira (19 August 1097), entered the port of Laodicea, pillaged the town, and carried off all the merchandise.[5]
The western sources dealing with Laodicea in 1097-98 are numerous; but at some points they are contradictory, and at best they yield but scanty information. It will be well to analyze them separately with some care:—
(1) The letter of Anselm de Ribemont to Archbishop Manasses of Rheims, written from Antioch near the end of November 1097, states definitely that Laodicea had been taken—evidently by some one acting in the interest of the crusaders, and pretty clearly before the arrival of the land forces at Antioch on 21 October 1097.[6]
This statement is confirmed by the anonymous Florinensis Brevis Narratio Belli Sacri,[7] as it is also by the account of Raymond of Aguilers.
(2) Raymond of Aguilers, who, because of his actual presence in Syria and his close association with the count of Toulouse, is by all odds the best and most reliable chronicler dealing with the events now under consideration, seems to have received but little attention from modern scholars in this connection. According to his account, which is quite full, English mariners, who were fired with enthusiasm for the Crusade, sailed via Gibraltar to the eastern Mediterranean, and with much labor obtained possession of the port of Antioch (evidently Port St. Simeon is meant) and of Laodicea before the arrival of the land forces. And during the siege of Antioch, together with the Genoese, they rendered important services to the crusaders by means of their fleet, keeping open commercial intercourse with Cyprus and other islands, and in particular protecting the ships of the Greeks from attack by the Saracens. Finally, when the crusaders were about to advance from Syria upon Jerusalem, the English, finding that their ships had been reduced by wear and tear from thirty to nine or ten, abandoned them or burned them, and joined the land forces on the southward march.[8]