Arwad
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Arwad (Arabic: أرواد) – formerly known as Arado (Greek: Άραδο), Arados (Greek: Άραδος), Arvad, Arpad, Arphad, and Antiochia in Pieria (Greek: Αντιόχεια της Πιερίας), also called Ruad Island – located in the Mediterranean Sea, is the only island in Syria. The town of Arwad takes up the entire island. It is located 3 km from Tartus, Syria's second-largest port. Today, it is mainly a fishing town. It is also believed that Arados was an old name for Bahrain.
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[edit] History
The island was settled in the early 2nd millennium BC by the Phoenicians. Under Phoenician control, it became an independent kingdom called Arvad or Jazirat (the latter term meaning "island"). The city has been cited[1] as one of the first known examples of a republic in the world, in which the people, rather than a monarch, are described as sovereign. In Greek it was known as Arado or Arados. The city also appears in ancient sources as Arpad and Arphad.[2] The city was renamed Antiochia in Pieria by Antiochus I Soter. The island was important as a base for commercial ventures into the Orontes valley.
The Island was mentioned twice in The Holy Bible, The Prophet Ezekiel on the Phoenician City of Tyre, ch. 27:
| “ | The inhabitants of Sidon and Arvad were thy rowers: thy wise men, O Tyre, were in thee, they were thy pilots | ” |
| “ | The men of Arvad with thine army, were upon thy walls round about, and valorous men were in thy towers; they hanged their shields upon thy walls round about; they have perfected thy beauty. | ” |
[edit] Crusades history
- See also: Franco-Mongol alliance
During the time of the Crusades, the island of Ruad was used as bridgehead or staging area by the Crusaders, as they attempted to retake Tortosa after they lost the city in 1291.
In the end of 1300, a message came from the Mongol leader Ghazan asking to coordinate operations, inviting the Cypriots to meet him in Armenia.[3] The Cypriots then prepared a land-based force of approximately 600 men: 300 under Amalric of Lusigan, son of Hugh III of Cyprus, and similar contingents from the Templars and Hospitallers.[3] The men and their horses were ferried from Cyprus to a staging area on the island of Ruad, a mile off the coast of Tortosa.[4][3] From there, they had a certain amount of success attacking Tortosa (some sources say they engaged in raids, others that they captured the city), but when the hoped-for Mongol reinforcements were delayed (sources differ on whether the delay was caused by weather or illness), the Crusaders had to retreat to Ruad.[5][6] When the Mongols still did not appear, the majority of the Christian forces returned to Cyprus, though they left a garrison on Ruad which was manned by rotating groups of different Cypriot forces. Pope Clement V formally awarded the island to the Knights Templar, and it was the last piece of land that the Crusaders maintained in the Holy Land, as they were fighting a losing battle against the Muslims.
A few months later, in February 1301, the Mongols did arrive with a force of 60,000, but could do little else than engage in some raids around Syria. Kutluka (Qutlugh-Shah for the Mongols, Cotelesse in Frank sources) stationed 20,000 horsemen in the Jordan valley to protect Damas, where a Mongol governor was stationed.[7] Soon however, they had to withdraw.
The garrison on Ruad Island was being manned by Templars at the time: 120 knights, 500 bowmen and 400 Syrian helpers, under the Templar Maréchal (Commander-in-Chief) Barthélemy de Quincy. In September 1302 a Mamluk fleet landed a force, starting the Siege of Ruad. The Crusaders finally had to surrender on September 26, 1302, following a promise of safe conduct.[8] The promise was not honoured, and all the bowmen and Syrian helpers were killed, and the Templar knights sent to Cairo prisons.[9]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Bernal, p. 359
- ^ Hazlitt, p. 53
- ^ a b c Schein, p. 811
- ^ Demurger, p. 147
- ^ "The Trial of the Templars", Malcolm Barber, 2nd edition, page 22: "In November, 1300, James of Molay and the king's brother, Amaury of Lusignan, attempted to occupy the former Templar stronghold of Tortosa. A force of 600 men, of which the Templars supplied about 150, failed to establish itself in the town itself, although they were able to leave a garrison of 120 men on the island of Ruad, just off the coast.
- ^ Demurger, p. 147
- ^ Jean Richard, p.481
- ^ Demurger, p.156
- ^ "Nearly 40 of these men were still in prison in Cairo years later where, according to a former fellow prisoner, the Genoese Matthew Zaccaria, they died of starvation, having refused an offer of 'many riches and goods' in return for apostatising"" The Trial of the Templars, Malcolm Barber, p.22
[edit] References
- Malcolm Barber, Trial of the Templars
- Martin Bernal, Black Athena Writes Back (Durham: Duke University Press, 2001), 359.
- Alain Demurger, The Last Templar
- Hazlitt, The Classical Gazetteer, p. 53.
- Newman, Sharan (2006). Real History Behind the Templars. Berkley Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-425-21533-3.
- Jean Richard, Les Croisades
- Sylvia Schein, "Gesta Dei per Mongolos"
