page_title: Second Battle of Sarvandik'ar
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Second Battle of Sarvandik'ar / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: English: The castle is Kızkalesi, also known as the castle of Corycus in Mersin or historically Tsovaberd (Ծովաբերդ), nowdays Turkey. Source: Boris Baratov Հայերեն: Ծովաբերդ ամրոցը պատմական Կիլիյան Հայաստանի Կոռիկոս քաղաքում, այժմ թուրքիայի տարածքում: Այժմ ամրոցը կոչվում է Կըզկալեսի (Kızkalesi)
context_page_description: The Second Battle of Sarvandik'ar was fought in 1276 A.D. between an army of the Mamluks of Egypt and a unit of Cilician Armenians, in a mountain pass that separates Eastern Cilicia and Northern Syria. The battle was part of the Armenian war effort against a much larger and better trained army that habitually raided the Cilician Plain and threatened to annihilate the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia.
context_section_description: Enraged by the audacity of the Armenian attack, sultan Baibars was reportedly about to launch a new expedition when he died in 1277 from a wound inflicted, according to some chroniclers, by an Armenian archer. According to other sources he died by accidentally drinking poisoned kumis intended to kill someone else. The Mongol Khan commended King Leo for the valor of the Armenians knights during the clash and sent him a beautifully crafted sword, offering to make him ruler of all the lands conquered by the Mongol armies in Mesopotamia. Leo II however, declined the offer, pleading justly that the responsibility of defending just one kingdom in the given conditions was already too difficult.
  The battle had shown that Cilician Armenia, though isolated from Europe and repeatedly raided, was not in complete defeat. The Kingdom of Cilician Armenia outlived, in fact, the Franks of Syria and Palestine and the Mongol Ilkhans. After the second clash of Sarvandik'ar, Cilician Armenia enjoyed a breathing spell of nearly 4 years. Hostilities between Mamluks and Mongols, and the latter's Armenian allies, soon broke out again, culminating in 1281 with the Second Battle of Homs that had renewed disastrous consequences for the Kingdom of Cilician Armenia. The struggle against the odds continued for nearly another century and the Armenians, ever fewer and continuously weakened by invasion, still succeeded in a few military encounters with the powerful Mamluk armies. Hethum II of Armenia and Leo IV of Armenia soundly defeated a Mamluk raiding force in the pass of Bagras in 1305.
  Nevertheless, Cilician Armenia was eventually left an isolated Christian island in a sea of Muslim states. Amidst failed Armenian pleas for help from Europe, the fall of Sis to the Mamluks in 1374 and the conquest of the fortress of Gaban in 1375, where the last king King Levon V had taken refuge, put an end to the kingdom.
caption: Fortress of Korycos, last stronghold of Armenian Cilicia, was handed over to the Lusignans of Cyprus
exif: {}