Duration of Kerbogha's Campaign: Reevaluating march to Antioch

AMMAN — Historians often underestimate the duration of the Kerbogha campaign against Crusaders, most historians based the start of the campaign on Heinrich Hagenmeyer’s dating of the siege of Edessa from May 4 to May 25, 1098. However, they do not take into consideration the time needed to reach Antioch from Mosul and Edessa.

Amin Maalouf suggests that the campaign began in the last days of April. While Maalouf’s estimate still underestimates the duration of the campaign, it remains the closest to a starting date of 31 March 1098. To understand the campaign’s ultimate failure, it is necessary to appreciate that it lasted substantially longer than historians have thought, which had a massive effect on troops’ expenses, which in turn led to large-scale desertions, said French historian Thomas Brossett.

Jay Rubenstein noted “Kerbogah’s great army at Antioch almost immediately began to fracture” after their arrival at Antioch in early June. Rubenstein therefore misses the fact that Kerbogha had already been campaigning for a minimum of 60 days when the coalition arrived at Antioch. 

"Dating the progress of the coalition is complicated, but the following section aims to recreate an estimated route and chronology for Kerbogha’s itinerary, which can be split into three phases: from Mosul to Edessa, the campaign in the Edessan region and from Edessa to Antioch," Brossett explained, adding that he challenged the claim that the campaign departed from Mosul at the beginning of May, showing that it departed on March 31 at the latest.

Then, the work on the second phase confirms Hagenmeyer’s dating of the siege of Edessa as lasting from May 4 to May 25 May 1098, adding that Muslim operations in the region of Edessa began earlier, on April 15 April, Brossett continued, adding that the work on the third phase consists of recreating the march from Edessa to Antioch, where the army arrived on June 6th.

The consensus among historians is that the largest armies could complete between 19 and 23 kilometres per day. Infantry of advancing Crusaders made 10 kilometres per day while cavalry was mobile completing 60-80 kilometres per day.

"Such estimates must be lowered for the Muslim coalition, for four reasons. First, the coalition was not solely composed of cavalry. Second, the coalition was an unusually large force, using a single road. Third, the coalition is reported to have gone slowly, being overcrowded by pack animals and wagons. Fourth, despite no day-to-day report being available for the coalition, an interesting comparison can be made with Ibn Jubayr’s detailed account of his travels in the region – from Mosul to Nuṣaybin in June 1184," Brossett highlighted.

Caravans were faster than a complex military convoy with its logistics. It seems reasonable to accept that the coalition covered a daily distance of no more than 30 kilometres.

The expedition started in Mosul, located 410 kilometres from Edessa, and taking into consideration the pace of the march which would not be more than 30 km daily, that means that the army needed two weeks to reach Edessa.

In addition, the coalition stopped near Mardin to gather Jaziran contingents, also accumulating a large quantity of pack animals, wagons, supplies and equipment., the historian elaborated.

"Therefore, the claim that the coalition’s campaign started in early May can be entirely rejected and Maalouf came the closest to the potential date by proposing that the campaign began in late April," Brossett said.

Since Hagenmeyer’s chronology of the First Crusade, historians have assumed the siege of Edessa to have lasted from May 4 to May 25 1098, using Fulcher of Chartres’s claim that the siege lasted three weeks

"In doing so, historians rejected two other potential durations, proposed by Albert of Aachen and Matthew of Edessa. Albert gives a duration of three days – 'triduo', but this has been rejected by John France, who prefers the eyewitness testimony of Fulcher," Brossett said, adding that France also rejects Matthew of Edessa’s 40-day siege.

Although Matthew and Fulcher were both eyewitnesses to the siege and so neither version can be favoured over the other. It is Edgington who likely solved the dating issue by claiming the coalition assaulted Edessa for three days, during a 21-day siege, within a longer campaign against the Edessan region lasting a total of 40 days.

Meanwhile, Kerbogha arrived in the region on 15 April and spent 20 days seizing harvests in the countryside.

During this period, Baldwin of Boulogne (died 1118) attacked the coalition and seized many pack animals and supplies.

"This led to the presence of huge numbers of pack animals in Edessa during the subsequent siege," Brossett said. 

Kerbogha’s route from Edessa to Antioch can be estimated with a better degree of precision using the average distance per day, mentioned above and evidence on both road networks existing in the period and written evidence of some locations where the coalition went. 

"Kerbogha’s force left Edessa on May 25 and should have reached the Euphrates in three days," the historian noted, adding that according to Bar Hebraeus and Michael the Syrian, a section of the coalition went to Baghras; which  makes sense if the objective was to complete the encirclement of Antioch, but it was not the main force’s itinerary.

The Muslim coalition finally reached Antioch on June 6th.

"Contrary to Yuval Harari’s claim, Kerbogha was not going 'at a leisurely pace'. On the contrary his troops approached fast covering 30 km per day," Brossett said. 

"Previous studies have given the impression that Kerbogha’s campaign was short, lasting either the 23 days of the siege of Antioch, or two months, from the start of the siege of Edessa. Providing a precise narrative of the events is crucial: We can now see that the campaign likely lasted a minimum of 89 days before the final defeat at Bridge Gate, during which Kerbogha’s troops covered 675 kilometres," Brossett underlined.

The harvesting season was part of the campaign as cart animals needed food and once the Muslim coalition arrived to Antioch they faced a problem that the area was deplete and without enough fodder for animals.