ABSTRACT
In the spring of 1124 Balak the Artuqid had Baldwin II and his fellow captives brought from Harran to Aleppo, where he was now taking extensive measures to cement his control. Balak expelled prominent adherents of the Nizari sect and confiscated their property, and married a daughter of Ridwan, thus associating himself with the earlier Saljuq rulers of the city. For Baldwin, co-operation with Dubays ibn Sadaqa offered a new strategic perspective. Writing many years later, Ibn al-Athir wrote that the Franks were ‘convinced that they could take the whole of Syria’, and he was not far wrong. Probably while he was still at Acre, Baldwin received news that al-Bursuqi had again invaded the principality of Antioch. The atabeg’s seizure of power in Aleppo was eased by abundant rainfall in the spring which produced excellent harvests, relieving the famine which had lasted from December until February.
