Antioch

Cities of the Crusades

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Currently named Antakya and originally named Antioch-on-the-Orontes, Antioch was founded by Seleucus I Nicator in the 4th century BCE. Seleucus was one of Alexander the Great's general's and founder of the Seleucid empire. Antiochus appears frequently as a name among members of his family.

Cities of the Crusades: Antioch
Antioch, circa 1900
Antioch, circa 1911
Battle for Antioch

Antioch is important for Christians because Paul is recorded as having preached his first Christian sermon at a synagogue here and, according to Acts, followers of Jesus in this city were the first to call themselves Christians. As a consequence Antioch became an important center of Christian devotion and study, even serving as seat of one of the original four patriarchates (alongside Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Rome, testifying to its importance in the minds of Christians). Even today one the canonical Eastern Orthodox churches is named the Antiochian Orthodox Church, despite having moved its headquarter to Damascus.

Antioch was politically important as well, with a number of larger Roman buildings having been constructed here. Control of Antioch passed back and forth between the Romans, the Persians, the Byzantines, and the Muslims a number of times through history. Crusaders who captured it in 1098 made it the capital of their Principality of Antioch until they lost it in 1268 to the Mamluk Sultan Baibers. As well as killing most of the inhabitants, Baiber's destruction of the city was so extensive that it would never again be a major political, religious, or population center. Eventually its commercial role would be absorbed by the port city of Alexandretta (Iskenderun) but modern day Antakya remains capital of the Turkish province Hatay.