Edessa
The Fall of Edessa
The last of those peaceful stretches came in the early 1140s, not least because of an alliance between Jerusalem and Damascus. His attention was drawn to Edessa in late 1144 when he learned that Joscelin had taken his entire army north to occupy a Turkish fortress that had been offered to him in alliance. He left only ordinary citizens in the city. When Zengi learned of this, in November, he marched at once.
He laid siege to Edessa at the end of November. The merchants and other townspeople did what they could; Edessa was well-fortified and could be expected to hold for a while. Joscelin returned at once, but his army was too small to meet Zengi in the field, so he holed up at Turbessel and send urgent pleas to Antioch and Jerusalem for help.
Jerusalem was ruled by Queen Melisend at the time, in the name of her young son, but she responded quickly. In contrast, Raymond at Antioch refused, pleading this and that excuse. The old animosity between the two men could not be overcome.
Then came the great shock: on Christmas Eve, one wall of Edessa fell to mining operations and the Muslim army charged into the city. No one had expected the city to fall so quickly, but the task of defense was simply too much to be left in the hands of civilians. Every attempt at counter-mining, every sortie, had failed. Joscelin had miscalculated badly by leaving the city bereft of soldiers.
There was a terrible slaughter. The citadel was closed, naturally, and the ordinary folk were killed by the thousands before Zengi himself got to the scene and put an end to it. Not through mercy but through pragmatism had the atabeg acted. He had no use for an empty city. He had no use either for the Franj. Although he stopped the massacre, he also ordered every Frank rounded up. All the men were killed on the spot. All the women were sold into slavery. And every Latin church was pulled down. Zengi had no doubt who his enemies were.
Joscelin was still helpless. The army of Jerusalem finally arrived, but without Antioch there was still little they could do, and they stayed in and around Turbessel.
The fall of Edessa caused a great sensation in both the Muslim and Christian world. In the West, the news was so distressing that it galvanized a new crusade: the Second Crusade. Within Islam, Zengi became a great hero, the first to destroy a Crusader state.