High Middle Ages · Middle East · War
1104
Disaster at Harran
May 7, 1104
Bohemond of Antioch and Baldwin of Edessa, marching against a Turkish coalition near the Balikh River, were routed and Baldwin was taken captive. The defeat checked Crusader expansion in northern Syria and emboldened Muslim warlords who had been probing the new Frankish states. Baldwin spent four years in captivity before a ransom could be scraped together from the meagre treasuries of the Latin principalities.