In the two decades following the First Crusade the three Crusader principalities of Antioch, Tripoli, and Jerusalem gradually expanded and conquered almost the entire Levantine coast from the Taurus range to the Sinai peninsula. The fourth principality – the County of Edessa – meanwhile thrust eastwards across the Euphrates river, cutting off Muslim Syria from Asia Minor and Mesopotamia (see map 2).

In 1119 the Franks of Outremer – as the settlers came to be known – hit upon more difficult times. A new Turkoman dynasty, the Artuqids of the tribe of Döger, took upon itself to halt the invaders' progress and roll them back into the sea. At the battle of the Field of Blood in 1119 Il-Ghazi ibn Artuq – head of the Artuqid clan – wiped out the army of the Principality of Antioch, along with most of the Norman nobility and Prince Roger of Antioch himself. In 1121, as King Baldwin II of Jerusalem was striving to rescue Antioch and halt the Artuqid offensive, Count Pons of Tripoli rebelled against the king's authority, and only when Baldwin marched on Tripoli at the head of the royal army did Pons submit. In 1122 it was Edessa's turn. One of Il-Ghazi's nephews, Prince Balak, took captive Count Joscelin of Edessa, Count Galeran of Birejik, and sixty other Edessan knights.

King Baldwin II was thus forced to act as regent for both Antioch and Edessa, since the heirs of Prince Roger and Count Joscelin were ten-year-old boys, while simultaneously ruling Jerusalem and keeping a watchful eye on the unreliable Pons of Tripoli. Baldwin felt that his most urgent task was to succour Edessa and stabilize the Franks’ north-eastern flank. However, as he was touring Edessa’s threatened frontiers, disaster struck.