Imad ad-Din Zengi
In 1031 Edessa was given up to the Byzantines under George Maniakes by its Arab governor. It was retaken by the Arabs, and then successively held by the Greeks, the Armenians, the Seljuq dynasty (1087), the Crusaders (1098), who established there the County of Edessa and kept the city until 1144, when it was again captured by Imad ad-Din Zengi, and most of its inhabitants were allegedly slaughtered together with the Latin archbishop (see Siege of Edessa). These events are known to us chiefly through the Armenian historian Matthew, who had been born at Edessa. In 1144 the city had an Armenian population of 47,000. In 1146, the city was briefly recaptured by the crusaders and lost after a few days. In the words of Steven Runciman, "the whole Christian population was driven into exile [and t]he great city, which claimed to be the oldest Christian commonwealth in the world, was left empty and desolate, and has never recovered to this day."