A History of the Crusades-Vol 2 by Steven Runciman

give back the Cilician cities, sent his general Butumites to recover
them. But Butumites’s force was unreliable. He entered Cilicia in the autumn of
1103 but soon decided that the task was beyond him; and he learnt that the
Franks were planning to expand northward against Marash, which the Armenian
Thatoul held for the Emperor. He hastened there himself, and, probably, by so
doing, he saved Thatoul for the moment. But he was recalled to Constantinople.
Early next spring Bohemond and Joscelin marched on Marash. Thatoul was
powerless. The Byzantine army was far away. The Danishmend Turks were now on
good terms with the Franks. He surrendered his city to Joscelin, who allowed
him to retire to Constantinople; while Bohemond took the town of Albistan, to
the north of Marash.
     
    1104: The
Importance of Harran
    The Franks now felt secure from attacks from
Anatolia. They could turn against the Moslems of the east. In March 1104
Bohemond reinvaded the lands of Ridwan of Aleppo and took the town of Basarfut,
on the road from Antioch to Aleppo; but his attempt against Kafarlata, to the
south, failed owing to the resistance of the local tribe of the Banu Ulaim.
Joscelin meanwhile cut the communications between Aleppo and the Euphrates.But, if the Moslems of Syria were to be effectively cut off from the
Moslems of Iraq and Persia, the great fortress of Harran, situated between
Edessa and the Euphrates, in the northern Jezireh, would have to be occupied by
the Christians. If they held Harran, the Franks could even contemplate an
expedition against Mosul and into Mesopotamia. In the spring of 1104 conditions
seemed to be favourable. During 1103 the whole eastern Moslem world had been
torn by a civil war between the Seldjuk Sultan Barkiyarok and his brother
Mohammed. Peace was made between them in January 1104 by which the Sultan
retained Baghdad and the western Iranian plateau. His third brother, Sanjar,
already had obtained Khorassan and eastern Iran; and Mohammed obtained northern
Iraq and the Jezireh and the suzerainty rights over Diarbekir and over all
Syria. It was an uneasy arrangement. Each of the brothers hoped soon to upset
it and in the meantime intrigued for allies amongst all the Turkish and Arab
princes. In the Jezireh itself the death in 1102 of the atabeg of Mosul,
Kerbogha, whom the Franks had defeated at Antioch, had provoked a civil war.
The Ortoqid prince of Mardin, Soqman, had failed to secure the succession for
his candidate and was at war with the new atabeg, Jekermish, appointed by the
Seldjuk Mohammed. Harran itself had belonged to a Turkish general, Qaraja, who
had been a mameluke in Malik Shah’s service; but his brutal behaviour had
caused the inhabitants to rise against him and to hand over the government to a
certain Mohammed of Isfahan. Mohammed in his turn was murdered by a former page
of Qaraja’s, called Jawali, with whom he had rashly become intimate. But Jawali’s
authority was very insecure; while Harran itself began to suffer severely from
raids by the Franks of Edessa, who devastated its fields and interrupted its
trade. It was clear that they intended soon to go farther.
    Both Soqman at Mardin and Jekermish at Mosul
were alarmed. Their common danger induced them to forget their quarrel and to
unite in an expedition against Edessa, to attack before they were attacked.
Early in May 1104 they marched together on Edessa; Soqman with a considerable
force of Turcoman light cavalry and Jekermish with a slightly smaller force
composed of Seldjuk Turks, Kurds and Arabs. Baldwin II heard that they were
massing at Ras al-Ain, some seventy miles from his capital. He sent for help to
Joscelin and to Bohemond, and suggested that they should turn the attack by
themselves making an attempt on Harran. Leaving a small garrison at Edessa he
made his way to Harran with a small company of knights and of Armenian infantry
levies. The Archbishop of Edessa, Benedict, accompanied him. Close to Harran he
was joined by