Opening the Crusader castle (Al-Marqab).
In the year 1285 AD, the Mamluk naval army, led by Sultan Al-Mansur “Saif al-Din Qalawun,” was besieging the fortified Crusader castle (Al-Marqab) in the Levant, which was so strong that its walls were close to the clouds.
The siege continued for a month, and the Mamluk trebuchets struck the walls of the castle to no avail, until the 1,500 Mamluk engineers were able to find a loophole in one of the castle’s towers, represented by an old tunnel under this tower. They bombed the tower, and the Mamluk soldiers, led by the engineers, were able to enter the castle, and the Hospitaller Knights were surprised. The Crusaders attacked the Mamluks above their heads in the citadel, which caused great panic among the Crusaders, whose remnants withdrew to the south of the citadel, demanding a truce. It was expected that the Mamluk Bahri army would not have mercy on them, but the opposite happened, so Sultan Al-Mansur "Qalawun" issued an amnesty to the Crusader Hospitaller Knights, and allowed them to withdraw with their belongings to the city of (Tripoli).
Crusaders without harming them.
Western historians, led by historian James Watterson, considered that position the pinnacle of military ethics.
After opening the fortified Al-Marqab Castle and raising the Mamluk naval flag over it, and rewarding the Corps of Engineers who found the breach in the castle, Sultan Al-Mansur “Qalawun” handed over the task of protecting the castle and rebuilding it to 400 military engineers.
Sources :
- Knights of Islam and the Robe of the Mamluks, page 270.
- Honoring days and eras in the biography of King Al-Mansour - Part Two, pages 79 and 80.
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