The Seljuk campaign on the Crusaders (1111) was a military campaign that took place in Upper Mesopotamia and Levant, led by Mas'ud ibn Muhammed against the Crusaders and their states.
In 1110, Tancred, regent of Antioch, seized the fortresses of Atharib and Zardana from the Seljuks of Aleppo. Sidon also fell to Baldwin I of Jerusalem, and Sigurd I of Norway. This sparked panic, prompting Muslim rulers to seek peace from the Crusader leaders in exchange for tribute. Fakhr al-Mulk Ridwan, Sultan of Aleppo, paid 32,000 dinars, along with horses and clothing. The governor of Tyre paid 7,000 dinars, Sultan ibn Munqidh, Emir of Shaizar, paid 4,000 dinars, and Ali al-Kurdi, ruler of Hama, paid 2,000 dinars. However, this humiliation and submission angered the Muslim population, especially in Aleppo. Having lost hope in Ridwan, they decided to seek support from the Abbasid Caliph Ahmad al-Mustazhir Billah. A delegation of merchants, scholars, and Sufis, led by a Sharif, traveled to Baghdad.
On Friday, February 17, 1111, the people of Aleppo arrived in Baghdad. They publicized their cause in the city, and scholars and others met with them. They went to the Sultan's Mosque and appealed to him for help, breaking the minbar and disrupting the Friday prayer. Sultan Muhammad I Tapar eventually promised to send an army to fight the Crusaders, but no action was taken throughout the week. The following Friday, February 24, the people of Aleppo, along with a group from Baghdad, went to the Palace Mosque in the Caliph's residence. They forcibly entered the mosque and broke the Caliph's enclosure and the pulpit, disrupting Friday prayer once again. Caliph al-Mustazhir Billah sent a message to Sultan Muhammad I requesting that he address the problem. The Sultan declared jihad and ordered the emirs to prepare an army to fight the Crusaders. Ibn al-Qalanisi mentioned that these events coincided with the return of Ismah Khatun, the Caliph's wife and the Sultan's sister, from her visit to Isfahan. However, the demonstrations marred her return and angered the Caliph. He wanted to punish the demonstrators, but the Sultan calmed him down and told him he would call the emirs to jihad. Ibn al-Qalanisi also mentioned that the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos offered an alliance with the Seljuks against the Crusaders.
The Seljuk army initially consisted of soldiers and troops of Mawdud ibn Altuntakin, the Emir of Mosul. Later, Ahmadil ibn Ibrahim ibn Wahshudan, the Emir of Maragheh, joined them, followed by Sokmen al-Kutbi, the Shah of Ahlat. Subsequently, Abu al-Hayja ibn Musak, the Emir of Erbil, Ilghazi ibn Artuq, the Emir of Mardin, the Beykeji emirs, Bursuq II ibn Bursuq, the Emir of Hamadhan, and Zahir al-Dawla Tughtekin, the Emir of Damascus, were invited. All joined except Ilghazi, who sent his forces under the command of his son Ayaz to act in his place, and Bursuq, who had not yet arrived. Tughtekin gathered troops from Homs, Hama, and Rafaniyah and marched north to meet the Seljuk army. The Sultan placed this army under the nominal command of his son Ghiyath al-Din Mas'ud, while the actual command remained with Mawdud, the Emir of Mosul, who accompanied Prince Mas'ud.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
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