Battle of Shaizar ( 1111 ) In the Battle of Shaizar in 1111 , a Crusader army commanded by King Baldwin I of Jerusalem and a Seljuk army led by Mawdud ibn Altuntash of Mosul fought to tactical draw but a withdrawal of Crusader forces . Background . Beginning in 1110 and lasting until 1115 , the Seljuk Sultan Muhammad I in Baghdad launched annual invasions of the Crusader states . The first year ' s attack on Edessa was repelled . Prodded by the pleas of some citizens of Aleppo and spurred by the Byzantines , the Sultan ordered a major offensive against the Frankish possessions in northern Syria for the year 1111 . The Sultan appointed Mawdud ibn Altuntash , governor of Mosul , to command the army . The composite force included contingents from Diyarbakir and Armenia under Sukman al - Qutbi , from Hamadan led by Bursuq bin Bursuq and from Mesopotamia under Ahmadil and other emirs . Edessa to Aleppo . At the approach of the large Muslim army , the small Frankish forces of the County of Edessa withdrew within the walls of their two major towns . Although the Seljuks moved with impunity though the lands of the Latin state , they were unable to make an impression on first Edessa and later Turbessel ( Tell Bashir ) . Soon the thwarted Seljuk host moved to Aleppo . At that city , the forces of Damascus led by Toghtekin joined Mawdud ' s army . Even though the majority of Aleppo ' s citizens were well disposed to the Seljuk army , the ruler of the city , Fakhr al - Mulk Radwan refused to open the city ' s gates . Radwan regarded the Sultan ' s army as a threat to his authority . Both Bursuq and Sukman al - Qutbi were ill and quarreled with each other . When Sukman ' s health failed , he withdrew from the army with his followers , but died before he got home . Bursuq also quit the army and took his contingent home . Anxious to receive Sukman ' s territories , Ahmadil left the army to press his claims with the Sultan . Aleppo to Shaizar . By this time Tancred had called up his Antiochene army and based it at the castle of Rugia near Jisrash Shughur , a bridge over the Orontes about 50 kilometers south of Antioch . Receiving a plea for help from the independent Munqidh rulers of Shaizar , Mawdud ' s army moved 120 kilometers south - southwest from Aleppo to camp outside that town . At Tancred ' s call for assistance , King Baldwin I brought both his own army from the Kingdom of Jerusalem and Count Bertrand ' s forces from the County of Tripoli . They were joined at Rugia by a contingent from Edessa under Count Baldwin . After uniting their forces , the Crusaders advanced first to the Christian - held town of Afamiya , then toward the Muslim host outside Shaizar . Battle . Mawdud ' s army " employed their normal harassing tactics , which were directed to the objects of cutting off supplies from the Franks , and of preventing their watering their horses in the Orontes . " The Christian host refused to be provoked into battle , but instead moved in a closed up array . When the Turkish horse archers pressed them too closely , they fought to push them back . Rather than a battle , the action was a constant running skirmish in which the Seljuks failed to stop the advance of Baldwin ' s army . The Franks camped near Shaizar but within two weeks they were forced to fall back on Afamiya because the Turks cut off their supplies . During the withdrawal , they were harassed again , but did not allow themselves to be drawn into a pitched battle . At this , Mawdud ' s warriors , discouraged by their lack of success and plunder , dispersed for home . The future poet and diplomat Usamah ibn Munqidh , then 16 years old , was a participant in the battle , and later reminisced about it in his " Kitab al - I ' tibar " . Results . This drawn battle , really a running skirmish , allowed King Baldwin I and Tancred to successfully defend the Principality of Antioch . No Crusader towns or castles fell to the Seljuk Turks during the campaign . The next major action in northern Syria was the Battle of Sarmin in 1115 .