Mleh, Prince of Armenia
 |
| Mleh I Մլեհ Ա | |
|---|---|
| Lord of Cilicia | |
| Lord of Armenian Cilicia | |
| Reign | 1170–1175 |
| Predecessor | Roupen II |
| Successor | Roupen III |
| Born | before 1120 |
| Died | May 15, 1175 Sis |
| Burial | Medzkar |
| Spouse | An unnamed daughter of Vasil of Gargar |
| Issue | Grigor (illegitimate child) |
| House | Roupenians |
| Father | Leo I |
Mleh I[1][2] (Armenian: Մլեհ), also Meleh I,[1] (before 1120 – Sis, May 15, 1175)[citation needed] was the eighth lord of Armenian Cilicia[1] (1170–1175).[citation needed]
The accomplishments during the reign of his elder brother, Thoros II, placed Cilicia on a firm footing.[1] But Mleh, whom Thoros II had expelled from Cilicia for converting to Islam, almost undid his brother's work.[1]
On the death of his brother, Mleh invaded Cilicia with the support of a contingent from Aleppo, which remained in his service and assisted him to drive out the Knights Templar and Greeks from the fortresses and, in 1173, the cities which they held in Cilicia.[3] Soon after the death of Nur ed-Din (the emir of Aleppo),[2] Mleh was overthrown by his nephew, Roupen III.[1]
His early life
[edit]Mleh was the fourth son of Leo I, lord of Armenian Cilicia.[citation needed] The name and the origin of his mother are not known with certainty.[citation needed] It is possible that she was a daughter of Count Hugh I of Rethel, or she might have been the daughter of Gabriel of Melitene.[citation needed]
In the early summer of 1137, the Byzantine Emperor John II Komnenos came to Cilicia with a full force on his way to take Antioch; his army successively took Seleucia, Korikos, Tarsus, Mamistra, Adana, Tel Hamdoun (now Toprakkale in Turkey) and Anazarbus.[1] Leo I and his two sons were imprisoned in Constantinople where Leo I died shortly afterwards, and Roupen was blinded and later murdered.[1] All Cilicia remained under Byzantine rule for eight years.[4]
One after another, Thoros reconquered Anazarbus, Adana, Sis (today Kozan in Turkey) and Pardzerpert (now Andırın in Turkey) from the Byzantines.[4]
In the service of Nur ed-Din
[edit]Mleh converted to Islam from Armenian Apostolic Christianity. This was to facilitate his plans with Nur ed-Din;[1] afterwards, he held Cyrrhus as a fief from the Emir of Aleppo.[3]
The young Roupen III was followed by Mleh's men and murdered.[1]
His rule
[edit]With Thoros's legitimate heir dead, Mleh embarked on a policy of conquest with cruel application of force.[1] He beleaguered the Hethumids at Lampron (now Namrun Kalesi in Turkey), but in spite of a long siege his attempt to take this stronghold failed.[1] He routed at Tarsus the assembled forces of the governor Konstantinos Kalamanos, and sent him to Nur ed-Din, who held Konstantinos for heavy ransom.[1]
On March 10, 1171, Amalric I left Acre for Constantinople where he made a treaty with the Emperor Manuel I Comnenos.[2] An expedition organized by the king after his return from Constantinople in 1171 was interrupted by Nur ed-Din's attack on Kerak (today Al Karak in Jordan).[3]
During 1171, Mleh attacked Count Stephen I of Sancerre in Cilicia while he travelled from the Holy Land to Constantinople.[2] Mleh finally succeeded in 1173 in securing Manuel I's recognition of him as “Baron of Cilician Armenia” with whom now all Byzantine affairs in Cilicia were to be conducted.[1]
On May 15, 1174, Nur ed-Din died; en event which brought an end to Mleh's source of power.[1] Vulnerable and without an ally, members of Mleh's own inner circle of Armenian nobles, took the initiative and murdered him in Sis in 1175.[1]
He was buried in Medzkar.[citation needed]
Marriage and child
[edit]Mleh married an unnamed daughter of Vasil of Gargar (a sister of the Catholicos Gregory).[citation needed]
He had one illegitimate child by his unknown mistress:[citation needed]
- Grigor (? – January 28, 1209/January 27, 1210 or after)[citation needed]
Footnotes
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Ghazarian, Jacob G. The Armenian Kingdom in Cilicia during the Crusades: The Integration of Cilician Armenians with the Latins (1080–1393).
- ^ a b c d Runciman, Steven. A History of the Crusades – Volume II.: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East: 1100–1187.
- ^ a b c Gibb, Sir Hamilton A. R. The Career of Nūr-ad-Dīn.
- ^ a b Vahan M. Kurkjian (April 5, 2005). "A History of Armenia". Website. Bill Thayer. Retrieved July 23, 2009.
Sources
[edit]- Ghazarian, Jacob G: The Armenian Kingdom in Cilicia during the Crusades: The Integration of Cilician Armenians with the Latins (1080–1393); RoutledgeCurzon (Taylor & Francis Group), 2000, Abingdon; ISBN 0-7007-1418-9
- Gibb, Sir Hamilton A. R. (1969) [1955]. "The Career of Nūr-ad-Dīn". In Setton, Kenneth M.; Baldwin, Marshall W. (eds.). A History of the Crusades, Volume I: The First Hundred Years (Second ed.). Madison, Milwaukee, and London: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0-299-04834-9.
- Runciman, Steven (1952). A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
External links
[edit]- The Barony of Cilician Armenia (Kurkjian's History of Armenia, Ch. 27)
- Smbat Sparapet's Chronicle