Crusaders capture Tripoli

July 12, 1109

After a siege stretching seven years and outliving the count who had begun it, the Lebanese port fell to a coalition of Franks, Genoese, and Provencals. The fourth and final crusader state, the County of Tripoli, was sliced from its coastal hinterland. Its famous library, reputed to hold a hundred thousand Arabic manuscripts on philosophy, science, and law, was largely destroyed in the sack that followed the city's fall.