THE FIRST DECADES OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY: MINING AND LIGHT ARTILLERY

During the first four decades of the twelfth century, the Muslims conducted their siege campaigns employing their combined customary techniques of frontal assault, digging under and climbing over the walls. They refrained from bombarding fortifications with heavy artillery, the construction of complex siege towers, and starving the besieged within the city. Their customary tactics took less time to mount, were more efficient, and led to a speedier end to the campaign. The Muslims limited the use of heavy artillery and complex siege engines to defence, deploying such equipment atop the walls of their own cities and fortifications.

In 1104 Fakhr al-Malk ibn ʿAmar, the ruler of Tripoli, mounted a surprise attack on ‘the pilgrims' castle’ which had been built near his city, killing its garrison. The conquerors sacked the castle and set it afire, turning it into a ruin and inflicting deadly wounds on its founder, Raymond of Saint Gilles. One year later, the ruler of Damascus took the castle of Raffaniya by the exact same stratagem. The Muslims launched a surprise attack against the city, killed the garrison which held the Frankish citadel above it, set it afire, and retreated to Homs. The castle of Al-ʿAl which al-Qalanisi, described as one of ‘those which could not be conquered’, was taken by surprise attack late in 1105, and those engaged in its construction – who had not yet completed their work – were killed to the last man.