Battle of Tell Bashir

In the summer of 1108, Baldwin II of Edessa returned from captivity and confronted his former regent Tancred near Tell Bashir. Supported by the atabeg Jawali Saqawa, he engaged in a confused battle where the Turkish horsemen harassed the antiochine lines while the Burgundian knights of Baudouin charged the center. Tancred, overwhelmed, had to retreat towards Artah, paving the way for Baldwin's return to his capital.

From Harran (1104), Tancred administered Edessa in the name of the captive Baldwin. Upon his release, Baudouin claimed his county; Tancred refuses to restore a place that secures Antioch. To exert military influence, Baldwin allied himself with Jawali, rival of the Sultan of Mosul, and brought together knights from Champagne and Burgundy. The two armies meet under the walls of Tell Bashir, the lock of the upper Euphrates.

Baldwin deploys his knights in three close battalions, backed by the Turkish camp; Jawali covers the wings with mounted archers who wear down the Franks of Antioch and cut their communications. Tancred attempts a concentrated charge on the count's banner but comes up against the stakes and Latin infantrymen. When Jawali attacked the Antiochin rear with his heavy cavalry, Tancred chose to abandon the field to avoid encirclement.

Tancred, weakened by the combat, had to accept mediation from Baldwin I of Jerusalem at the beginning of 1109: Edessa returned to Baldwin II, while Tancred received compensation and retained some Syrian places. The crisis revealed the fragility of Frankish solidarity and encouraged neighboring emirs to exploit these rivalries, multiplying raids and sieges against the Euphratian border.