The siege of Edessa in October–November 1146 marked the permanent end of the rule of the Frankish Counts of Edessa in the city on the eve of the Second Crusade. It was the second siege the city had suffered in as many years, the first siege of Edessa having ended in December 1144. In 1146, Joscelyn II of Edessa and Baldwin of Marash recaptured the city by stealth but could not take or even properly besiege the citadel. After a brief counter-siege, Zangid governor Nūr al-Dīn took the city. The population was massacred and the walls razed. This victory was pivotal in the rise of Nūr al-Dīn and the decline of the Christian city of Edessa.
Battle of Edessa in 1146, illustrated by Jeanne Montbaston (1337), Bibliothèque Nationale de France
The Second Crusade (1147–1150) was the second major crusade launched from Europe. The Second Crusade was started in response to the fall of the County of Edessa in 1144 to the forces of Zengi. The county had been founded during the First Crusade (1096–1099) by King Baldwin I of Jerusalem in 1098. While it was the first Crusader state to be founded, it was also the first to fall.
Illustration of the Battle of Inab, by Jean Colombe from the Passages d'outremer by Sébastien Mamerot, c. 1473–1474.
St Bernard in stained glass, from the Upper Rhine, c. 1450
The Siege of Lisbon by D. Afonso Henriques by Joaquim Rodrigues Braga (1840)
Zengid soldiers, armed with long swords and wearing Turkic military dress: the aqbiya turkiyya coat, tiraz armbands, boots and sharbush hat. Manuscript Kitab al-Aghani, 1218–1219, Mosul.