| Siege of Safed (1266) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Crusades | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Mamlūk Sultanate | Knights Templar | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Baybars I | ? | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| ? | 2,000+ | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| ? | 800–2,000 | ||||||
The siege of Safed (13 June – 23 July 1266) was part of the campaign of the Mamlūk sultan Baybars I to reduce the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The castle of Safed belonged to the Knights Templar and put up strong resistance. Direct assault, mining and psychological warfare were all employed to force the garrison to surrender. It was ultimately tricked into surrendering through treachery and the Templars were massacred. Baybars repaired and garrisoned the castle.
The main sources for the siege from the Muslim perspective are Ibn ʿAbd al-Ẓāhir's biography of Baybars, Badr al-Dīn al-ʿAynī's String of Pearls and to a lesser extent Ibn al-Furāt's History of Dynasties and Kingdoms. From the Christian perspective, there are the Gestes des Chiprois, Estoire d'Eracles, Annales de Terre Sainte and Maius chronicon Lemovicense.[1]
- ^ Marshall 1992, passim.