A hotly contested battle (7 July 1426) fought near the village of Khirokitia (mod. Khoirokoitia, Cyprus) between Nicosia and Limassol, resulting in the crushing defeat of the 4,600 troops of King Janus of Cyprus by the 5,000 invading soldiers of the Mamluk sultan of Egypt, Barsbay.
The cause of the Mamluk invasion was the raiding mounted from Cyprus by Cypriot, Genoese, and Catalan corsairs, as well as an attack on the Syrian coast by Janus himself. In retaliation Barsbay had attacked Cyprus in 1424 and 1425. On 1 July 1426 he landed on Cyprus with a larger Mamluk force and proceeded to capture the town of Limassol. The Cypriot forces were defeated at Khirokitia, and Janus was taken prisoner; the Mamluks went on to capture and sack the capital, Nicosia (11 July), carrying off 6,000 captives. The king was ransomed for 200,000 ducats eight months later and returned to the island in May 1427, having agreed to become the sultan’s vassal, paying an annual tribute of 5,000 ducats.
-Alexios G. C. Savvides
See also: Cyprus
Bibliography
Hill, George, History of Cyprus, vol. 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1948).
Housley, Norman, The Later Crusades (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992).
Irwin, Robert, “Oi eioPoAiq tcov MapEAoiJKCov oTnv RoTipo,” in laropia rtjg Konpov, vol. 4, ed. Theodoros Papadopoullos (Lefkosia: Hidryma Archiepiskopou Makariou 3, 1995), pp. 159-176.
Kyrres, C., History of Cyprus (Nicosia: Nicocles, 1985).
Luke, Harry, “The Kingdom of Cyprus, 1369-1489,” in A History of the Crusades, ed. Kenneth M. Setton et al.,
2d ed., 6 vols. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969-1989), 3:361-395.
Of France’s relationship with the Byzantines during the Second Crusade (1147-1149), which is at odds with the disputes related by the French chronicler Odo of Deuil. Kinnamos’s history was the “official version” of Manuel’s reign and should be compared with the more critical account of Nike-tas Choniates. He died sometime after 1185.
-Rosemary Morris
Bibliography
Asdracha, Catherine, “L’image de l’homme occidental a Byzance: Le temoignage de Kinnamos et de Choniates,” Byzantinoslavica 44 (1983), 31-40.
The Deeds of John and Manuel Comnenus by John Kinnamos, trans. Charles M. Brand (New York: Columbia University Press, 1976).
Magdalino, Paul, The Empire of Manuel I Komnenos, 1143-1180 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1993).
World History
