Al-Zahir Baybars put Antioch in mind after defeating the Mongols in the battle of Ain Jalut, because it was the head of the allies and partners of the Mongols, and he remained planning for 10 years after taking power until he was able with his intelligence and cunning to demolish its impregnable fortress, opening the fourth day Ramadan 666 AH an important area that controls the northern roads of the Levant, and breaking the thorn of the Crusaders by destroying the second emirate after "Edessa" established by the Crusaders in the wake of their first campaign.

The conquest of Antioch was considered the greatest conquest achieved by Muslims against the Crusaders since Saladin's conquest of Jerusalem, because of the strength, pride and empowerment it carried for Muslims at a stage when they were known for weakness and loss of land in the hands of the Mongols and the Crusaders.

The Crusade on Antioch

Antioch was conquered during the reign of Caliph Omar bin Al-Khattab, may God be pleased with him, after the Battle of Yarmouk led by Abu Ubaidah bin Al-Jarrah, and the city remained under Muslim rule until it was controlled by the Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros II, and then fell into the hands of the Seljuks in 1085 AD.

Thus, it was handed down until the beginning of the First Crusades on the Levant in 1098 AD (491 AH) and its fall to Bouhmand, who made it the second Crusader emirate, and it remained so for about 170 years.

After the Crusaders seized it, they removed all Islamic trace in it, and turned its mosques into churches, and fortified it with a 12-kilometer-long wall, inside it 136 towers and 24 thousand balconies, roaming by guards every day and night alternately, and made it their military base to lead their crusades, until the greatest cities became immune and immune at the time, and the opening of Muslims became difficult, until Al-Zahir Baybars came and Zalzalha siege lasted only 5 days!

The importance of Antakya

One of the reasons for the conflict over this region historically is its distinctive geographical location, as it was equivalent to the city of Constantinople in terms of its area and wealth, and it is a large city located west of the city of Aleppo, and on the mouth of the Orontes River in the Mediterranean Sea.

The city is of particular importance to the Crusaders, due to its location between the Levant and the country of Rome, and because it is the seat of the Kingdom of Heraclius the Great of Rome during the first Islamic conquest, and also because of the presence of St. Peter's Church, which is one of the oldest Christian churches made of caves carved in the mountains, in which the name of Christians was given for the first time.

It has another importance, as it has the Royal Catholic Church, as the Patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Syriac Catholic, Roman Catholic and Syriac Maronite denominations was called the "Patriarch of the City of God Antioch Great and All the East", that is, from the Levant from the Taurus Mountains to the borders of Egypt, Qalqilya and Cyprus, and its influence extended to Iraq and Persia until the fifth and sixth centuries.

Antioch remained the center of the Holy See until the seventh century, and after the first Arab-Islamic conquest, the Greek Orthodox patriarchs moved between Antioch, Constantinople and Cyprus until they settled in Damascus, which became the center of the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Syriac Orthodox patriarchates.

Baibars and the dream of unifying Islamic countries

The Mamluk princes agreed to appoint Al-Zahir Baybars as their Sultan in 1260 AD, after the killing of Sultan Sayf al-Din Qutuz, and Baibars began to establish stability in the countries on which he was appointed, including Egypt and the Levant, and he strengthened the army and provided it with weapons, and fortified the borders of his country, and restored the era of the Abbasid state to Egypt.

The Crusaders allied with the Mongols against the Mamluks, and worked as guides for their armies, so that some of the Crusader emirates received Mongol forces in their fortresses, which caused a major problem for the Mamluks, so the Sultan since he took power and for 10 years to work to get the Crusaders out of the Levant permanently, especially after the Mongols crushed him in the first battle of Homs in 1260 AD.

Baibars began his plan to recover the Islamic countries seized by the Crusaders, so he set out from Egypt to Palestine, and the treaty between him and the Crusader ruler in Jaffa had expired and not been renewed, and he walked until he surprised him by entering the city.

Siege of Antakya

Baibars conquered Caesarea in 663 AH (1265 AD), then Arsuf, and a year later opened the "Safad Castle", so the morale of the Crusader emirates was shattered, and some of them began to ask for truce and safety.

Then he went to Karak, and then to Gaza after forcing Jaffa to surrender, then turned on the fortress of the Kurds, and then hit the "Acre Castle", leaving the Crusaders there only the castle of "Atlit", and arrived in Tripoli on 15 Shaaban 666 AH and raided it and eliminated its garrison and terrorized those around it.

He also passed over Safita and the fortress of Antarsus, and its owner welcomed him and released 300 Muslim prisoners who were with him, so Sultan Baybars was not exposed to his emirate, and from there he prepared his way north to open Antioch, which made it isolated by opening what was around it.

Baibars sent Governor Bohmand VI a letter warning him to march on his principality, giving him 3 days, but received no response.

Baibars came out of Tripoli in 666 AH (1268 AD), and did not tell any of his leaders about his destination, deluding those around him that his destination is not Antioch, so he first went down Homs and then headed from it to Hama, and so he was moving between cities at night and landing in the morning so that the Crusaders could not follow him and know his goals, until Bohmand thought that he left Tripoli back to Egypt.

From Hama, Baibars divided his army into 3 divisions, to tighten his control over the city and isolate it from the rest of the cities, so he sent one to the north to block the corridors between Qalqilya and the Levant and prevent supplies from the Great Armenian Kingdom, and another was sent to the Swedish port to sever the link between Antioch and the sea.

Then he went with his main division directly to Antioch, and besieged it in the first Ramadan trying to open it peacefully, but its people fathered, and on the second day he decided to strike the walls of the city, so its people asked for safety and sent a delegation to negotiate and set many conditions, all of which Baibars rejected.

The handover negotiations led by the governor of the city and the deputy of Bouhmand did not succeed, as senior priests, ministers and princes feared and oppressed Prince Bohmand VI.

The Mamluk Sultan tightened his siege on the city on the third day, and was then able to create a gap that enabled the forces to climb the fort, and a great battle began inside Antioch, and then Baybars closed the gates of the city, so the Crusader garrison, estimated at 8 thousand fighters, fled to the castle, and when the people of the city realized that it was inevitably fallen, they surrendered themselves the next day, asking for safety for their lives, and they acquiesced, so the city was opened on the fourth of Ramadan.

Results of the conquest of Antakya

After Baibars opened the city, he released the Muslim prisoners in it, and took many spoils from them until it was said that their abundance made them divide the money in containers, and the Sultan stayed for two days while he began the division himself when he saw a shortcoming from his subjects.

Then the Sultan sent to Bohmand VI to tell him what he did and what happened to the city and its people, and Bohmand was not aware of what happened while he was in his second emirate in Tripoli, south of Antakya, and said in the letter, "And our book includes this human beings to you with what God has given you of safety and longevity if you were not in this period in Antioch, if you were in it, you would have been either dead or captive, or wounded or broken."

When Baibars was the conquest of Antioch handed over its castle to the princes Badr al-Din Beylik Khazindar and Badr al-Din Bisra al-Shamsi, and after he divided the spoils marched to the castle and set it on fire, and its flames spread to all parts of the city, leaving it empty on its thrones, and the aim was to spread the spirit of despair in the hearts of the Crusaders to return to this fortified city, which remained a flank in the heart of the Levant for almost two centuries.

When the news of the conquest reached Acre, its owner sent a request for forgiveness and satisfaction from the Mamluk Sultan, and offered him a 10-year truce, and the messengers of King Haitham the Armenian came to him offering to return what they had taken from the Islamic cities during the Mongol invasion of the Levant, including Bahnasa, Marzban and Raban.

The Daoists (Knights Templar) fled from the Baghras area near Antioch, and left its fortress empty, so Al-Zahir sent a military campaign that seized the castle and everything in it, and it became a fortress of Islamic fortresses, and Tripoli began to ask for reconciliation effectively, and negotiations began between the two sides.

The city returned to the Muslims after the Crusaders controlled it for 170 years, and a new era began after the collapse of the Crusaders in the region, leaving them then only Tripoli, and Baibars began the Great Jihad Campaign, to be the only one who was able to overcome the Mongols and the Crusaders, the two largest forces at that time.