The Mamluk Sultanate launched a naval raid on the Kingdom of Cyprus in March 1368. The raid was a delayed response to the Alexandrian Crusade of October 1365, which had been spearheaded by King Peter I of Cyprus.[1]
| Mamluk raid on Cyprus | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 The eastern Mediterranean in the contemporary Catalan Atlas (1375), with the Sultan al-Ashraf Sha'ban figuring prominently | |||||
| |||||
| Belligerents | |||||
 Mamluk Sultanate |
 Kingdom of Cyprus | ||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||
| Ibrahim al-Tazi | Unknown | ||||
| Strength | |||||
|
500 men 2 ships | Unknown | ||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||
| Unknown |
35 prisoners 1 or 2 ships | ||||
The main sources for the expedition are Leontios Makhairas, al-Maqrizi and al-Nuwayri.[1]
Construction of the Mamluk fleet
editIn response to the crusade, the Mamulk atābak Yalbugha al-Umari ordered the construction of a fleet at Cairo. Ibn Qāḍī Shuhba dates this to November–December 1365, but al-Maqrizi, who is probably more reliable, places it in January–February 1366, at the same time as a fleet was ordered in Beirut.[1]
Procurement in Cairo was to be the responsibility of the vizier Mājid ibn al-Qazwīna, while construction ws overseen by Ṭaybughā and Bahāʾ al-Dīn ibn al-Mufassar. According to al-Maqrizi, the craftsmen and sailors were imported from the Maghreb or recruited from among the Turcomans of Upper Egypt. According to al-Nuwayri, the fleet cast off on 28 November 1366. According to al-Maqrizi, there were 100 ships, each under the command of an emir. The Prise d'Alexandrie, however, puts the number of ships at 200.[1]
Raid on Cyprus
editIn May 1366, the Ottomans offered to send 100 ships in a joint attack on Cyprus, but the Mamluks could not commit, since their fleet was still under construction.[1] In March 1368, the privateer brothers Peter and John Grimante, sailing from Famagusta raided Alexandria and Damietta, seizing several ships.[1][2] In Alexandria, they faced strong resistance from the captain of the arsenal, Ibrahim al-Tazi, who was from the Maghreb.[1]
Sultan al-Ashraf Sha'ban immediately summoned al-Tazi to Cairo and offered him command of the fleet, moored at Boulaq, for a raid against Cyprus. Al-Tazi opted to take only a single ship from Cairo together with one other ship from Alexandria.[1] He set sail from the port of Alexandria with 500 of his crew for an armed reconnaissance of the Cypriot coast.[1][3] According to al-Nuwayri, he sent back a boat full of booty on 30 March. He captured one or two boats before being forced to retreat by Genoese galleys in Cypriot service. He returned to Alexandria in mid-April or early May.[1] The sources are not entirely consistent,[1] but the raid lasted about 23 days.[3] It netted 35 Cypriot prisoners.[4][5]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Clément Onimus, "Peter I of Lusignan's Crusade and the Reaction of the Mamluk Sultanate", in Alexander D. Beihammer and Angel Nicolaou-Konnari, eds., Crusading, Society, and Politics in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Age of King Peter I of Cyprus (Brepols, 2022), pp. 251–271, at 258–259.
- ^ George Francis Hill, A History of Cyprus, Vol. 2: The Frankish Period, 1192–1432 (Cambridge University Press, 1948), p. 354.
- ^ a b ʻAbbādī, Aḥmad Mukhtār ʻAbd al-Fattāḥ (1981). تاريخ البحرية الإسلامية في مصر والشام (in Arabic). دار النهضة العربية،.
- ^ العزيز, سالم، السيد عبد (1969). تاريخ الإسكندرية وحضارتها في العصر الإسلامي (in Arabic). دار المعارف،.
- ^ Ḥasan Saʻīd, Ibrāhīm (1973). تايخ البحرية المصرية (in Arabic). Jāmiʻat al-Iskandarīyah.