A History of the Crusades-Vol 2 by Steven Runciman

Moslems
never again dared to take the offensive against him. But his forces were too
small for him to capture Tripoli itself, with its great fortifications on the
peninsula of al-Mina. After exacting a heavy tribute in money and horses, he
returned to Tortosa, to plan his next campaign.
    After spending the following months in
establishing himself in the neighbourhood of Tortosa, he set out in the spring
of 1103 to conquer the Buqaia, a necessary move if he wished to isolate Tripoli
and himself expand towards the Orontes. His attempt to surprise the fortress of
Tuban, at the north-eastern entrance to the valley, failed; but undaunted, he
settled down to besiege Qalat al-Hosn, the tremendous castle that dominated the
whole plain, which his troops had occupied for a week in 1099. These castles
belonged to Janah ad-Daulah of Homs, who could not afford to lose them. He
prepared an army for their rescue. But, as he came out of the great mosque of
Homs, after praying for victory, he was murdered by three Assassins. His death
caused disorder in his city. Raymond at once raised the siege of Qalat al-Hosn
and marched eastward to profit by it. Public opinion attributed the murder to
agents of Ridwan, who had never forgiven Janah for having attacked him three
years before, when he was engaged against the Franks of Antioch. But Janah’s
widow, who was Ridwan’s mother, terrified by Raymond’s approach, sent to Aleppo
to offer Ridwan the city. Janah’s counsellors did not support her, but instead
summoned Duqaq of Damascus to their rescue. Duqaq hastened up in person from
the south with his atabeg Toghtekin and took over the government, which he
entrusted to Toghtekin. Raymond was not in a position to fight against him, and
withdrew to the coast.
    When he returned to Tortosa he learnt that a
Genoese squadron of forty vessels had put into Lattakieh. He at once hired its
help for an attack on Tripoli. The attack failed; so the allies moved southward
and captured the port of Jebail, or Gibelet, the Byblos of the ancients. The
Genoese were rewarded with one-third of the town. But Raymond was determined to
conquer Tripoli itself. During the last months of 1103 he set up a camp in the
suburbs of the city and began to construct a huge castle on a ridge, some three
miles inland. Shortly before, to please the Byzantines, he had tried to divert
Tancred from Lattakieh. In return they provided him from Cyprus with materials
and with skilled masons. By the spring of 1104 it was completed and Raymond was
in residence. He called it Mount Pilgrim; but to the Arabs it was known as
Qalat Sanjil, the castle of Saint-Gilles.
     
    1103: Death of
Raymond
    Tripoli was now in a state of permanent siege,
but it remained inviolate. Raymond controlled the land approaches, but he
lacked permanent sea-power. With their great hoards of wealth the Banu Ammar
could still maintain a large merchant-fleet and bring in provisions to the city
from the Egyptian ports to the south. But Raymond’s castle menaced their
freedom. In the late summer they made a sortie and burnt the suburbs up to its
walls; and Raymond himself was injured by a burning roof which fell on him.
Early next spring Fakhr al-Mulk was induced to arrange a truce with the
Christians, by which he abandoned the suburbs to them. The negotiations were
hardly concluded, when Raymond, who had never fully recovered from his bums six
months before, fell mortally ill. He died at Mount Pilgrim on 28 February 1105.
The gallant adventures of his later years had quite restored his fame. He was
mourned as a great Christian knight who had preferred the hardships of the Holy
War to all the pleasures of his native land.
    This tribute was deserved. For Raymond, unlike
his fellow-Crusaders now settled in the East, who were of small account in
their home-countries, had possessed a rich heritage in Europe. Though he had
sworn never to return to it, yet he had kept some control over its government.
His death created a problem