Azaz, the scene of a humiliating defeat…
1125 CE
Azaz, the scene of a humiliating defeat of the Emperor Romanos III in August 1030, had soon after been captured by the imperial forces under Niketas of Mistheia.
Joscelin I of Edessa had captured the city from the atabeg of Aleppo in 1118.
The Crusaders under Roger of Salerno had been severely defeated at the Battle of Ager Sanguinis the following year, and King Baldwin II of Jerusalem had been captured while patrolling in Edessa in 1123.
Released in 1124, Baldwin had almost immediately laid siege to Aleppo on October 8, 1124, capturing the the attention of il-Bursuqi, the Seljuq atabeg of Mosul.
Il-Bursuqi marches south to relieve the siege of Aleppo, which is nearing the point of surrender in January 1125 after a three-month siege.
Baldwin cautiously withdraws without a fight.
Il-Bursuqi now besieges the town of Azaz, to the north of Aleppo in territory belonging to the County of Edessa.
Baldwin II, Joscelin I, and Pons of Tripoli, with a force of eleven hundred knights from their respective territories (including knights from Antioch, where Baldwin is regent), as well as two thousand other foot soldiers, meet il-Bursuqi outside Azaz, where the atabeg has gathered his much larger force.
Baldwin pretends to retreat, thereby drawing the Seljuqs away from Azaz into the open where they are surrounded.
After a long and bloody battle, the Seljuqs are defeated and their camp captured by Baldwin, who takes enough loot to ransom the prisoners taken by the Seljuqs (including the future Joscelin II of Edessa).
Apart from relieving Azaz, this victory allows the Crusaders to regain much of the influence they had lost after their defeat at Ager Sanguinis in 1119.