Yakındoğu’da Kurulan Haçlı Devletleri Crusader States In The Near East

The Crusades, which are among the most important events in World history, started upon the call of Pope Urbanus II in 1095 and had a great impact on the following 200 years. In the first one of these Crusades to the East, which were nine in total, the Crusaders founded crusader states in Urfa and Antioch in Anatolia and in Jerusalem and Tripoli in the Near East. The Jerusalem Crusader Kingdom, founded in 1099, at the end of the First Crusade, followed an expansionist policy during the reign of King Baldwin I, which continued during the reign of Baldwin II, too. During this period, Baldwin was captured and imprisoned in the castle of Harput by Belek, the great Emir of Aleppo and Harput who was known for his extraordinary struggles against the crusaders. Yet, with the death of Belek in May 1124, he was released from imprisonment by Timurtaş, a relative of Belek, on 16 June 1124. The Kingdom was first defeated by Salahaddin Eyyubi in the Battle of Hıttin on 4 July 1187 and then ended on 2 October 1187. However, the Crusaders conquered Acre on 12 July 1191 and started to continue their rule from here under the name of “the Second Kingdom”. The Crusader County of Tripoli founded in 1109 by Bertrand, the son of Raymond de St. Gilles, one of the leaders of the First Crusade, continued until 1187 and then came under the rule of the Crusaders in Antioch. While, on the one hand, struggling to expand their territories, the Tripoli counts Bertrand, Pons, Raymond II, Raymond III also united, on the other hand, for the common Christian goals and and helped the other Crusader states.