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Siege of al-Shughur
Part of The Crusades
Date 5–9 August 1188 Location Shughr-Bakas near Jisr al-Shughur Result Ayyubid victory
Belligerents
Ayyubid Sultanate	Principality of Antioch
Commanders and leaders
Saladin	Bohemond III of Antioch
Strength
Unknown	Unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Unknown

The siege of al-Shughur took place in August 1188 between the Ayyubid Sultanate led by Saladin and the Principality of Antioch, who held modern-day Jisr al-Shughur. Saladin captured the two forts, Shughr-Bakas, lying there.

Siege

Saladin took the main contingent of his army and left Sahyun Castle on July 30, he reached and encamped on the banks of the Orontes River near a fortress of Jisr ash-Shughur, this castle on the heights to the west of bridge al-Shughur crossing had two castles divided by a wide fosse that cut across the spur. According to Baha' al-Din, Saladin took the detachment and assaulted the Bakas castle until it was taken on August 5 massacring its garrison and taking the rest captives, while Ibn al-Athir claimed that the castle was abandoned when the Ayyubids arrived.

Baha' al-Din claims that al-Shugur was bombarded from all sides but does not state that if stones reached the walls, leaving the defenders with no choice but to surrender. Ibn al-Athir claimed some stones managed to hit the castle but had no effect; however, the crusader position was so hopeless that the Ayyubid forces were shocked to learn that the garrison asked for surrender since the Ayyubids had achieved little in the siege and that they would have failed to capture it. After the capture of the castles, he handed them over to an emir called Qilij, whom he ordered to rebuild the fort and depart.

Aftermath

After the capture of the two castles, Saladin dispatched his son Az-Zahir Ghazi to take the fort of Sarmin. He succeeded in capturing the castle, destroying it.

References

1. ^ Fulton 2018, p. 167.
2. Conder 1897, p. 132.
3. Richards 2010, p. 348.
4. ^ Conder 1897, p. 133.
5. ^ Richards 2010, p. 349.

Sources

• Conder, Claude Reignier (1897). The Life of Saladin. Harvard University.
• Fulton, Michael S. (2018). Artillery in the Era of the Crusades, Siege Warfare and the Development of Trebuchet Technology. BRILL. ISBN 9789004376922.
• Richards, Donald Sidney (2010). The Chronicle of Ibn Al-Athir for the Crusading Period from Al-Kamil Fi'l-Ta'rikh. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 9780754669517.

• Conflicts in 1188
• Battles involving the Principality of Antioch
• Sieges of the Crusades
• Battles of Saladin
• 1180s in the Ayyubid Sultanate
• Sieges involving the Ayyubid Sultanate