Siege of Caffa

Siege of Caffa
Part of Genoese–Mongol Wars
Date 1345–1347 Location Caffa Result Genoese victory
Belligerents
Republic of Genoa	Golden Horde Supported by Republic of Venice
Commanders and leaders
Simone Boccanegra[a] (1345) Giovanni I di Murta[b] (1345–47)	Jani Beg[c]
Strength
Several thousand	Several thousand
Casualties and losses
Heavy	Over 15,000 killed Thousands more died of the bubonic plague

The Siege of Caffa was a siege of the Genoese port town of Caffa by a large Crimean Tatar army under the Golden Horde, led by their Khan Jani Beg, which is known largely for its role in spreading a pandemic. The Mongol army allegedly threw the bodies of Mongol warriors who had died of plague over the walls of the besieged city, which is considered one of the earliest examples of biological warfare.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} In Gabriel de Mussis' writings, the Black Death was alleged to have reached Europe from the Crimea as the result of biological warfare during the siege.^[1][6][7]

Background

Caffa was established by Genoese traders in 1266 by a purchase agreement with the Khan of the Golden Horde.^[8][3]

Relations between the Genoese and the Mongol Golden Horde were strained. The khan of the Golden Horde, Toqta, was piqued at the Italian slave trade in Turkic slaves who were sold as soldiers to the Mamluk Sultanate. He arrested the Italian residents of Sarai (the Mongol capital), and besieged Caffa, which the Genoese resisted for a year, but in 1308 set fire to their city and abandoned it. Relations between the Italians and the Golden Horde remained tense until Toqta’s death in 1312.^[9][10][3]

Toqtai’s successor, Özbeg Khan, mended relations with the Geneose, which allowed Caffa to become a thriving city once again by the 1340s.^[11] However, the ascension of Özbeg Khan's son Jani Beg to the throne changed the political scene once more. The conversion of the Golden Horde Khans to Islam, led to them prosecuting Christians.

Siege

The Mongols under Jani Beg besieged Caffa in 1343 and the Venetian territory of Tana, the cause of which was a brawl between Italians and Muslims in Tana.^[12] The siege of Caffa lasted until February 1344, when it was lifted after an Italian relief force killed 15,000 Mongol troops and destroyed their siege machines.

Jani Beg renewed the siege in 1345, and cut off any supplies to the city, leading to miserable conditions within Caffa. However, a serious epidemic of bubonic plague devastated his forces, giving hope to the Italians, and he was forced to lift the siege in 1347. Before retreating though, in a final act of sabotage, Jani Beg used catapults to launch the plague-infested corpses of his dead soldiers over the fortified walls of Caffa.^[1][3] The Italians quickly dumped these bodies back into the sea, but the damage was done. To escape the plague epidemic, four Genoese ships, considered safe from the disease, sailed out from Caffa. These ships are believed to have brought the plague deep into Europe.^[2] The siege and despair of the city's citizens as the disease spread is vividly described by the Italian notary Gabriel de Mussis.^[1]

The Italians blockaded Mongol ports, forcing Jani Beg to negotiate for peace, and they were allowed to reestablish their colony in Tana in 1347.^[10]

Notes

1. As the 1st Doge of the Republic of Genoa
2. As the 2nd Doge of the Republic of Genoa
3. As the Khan of the Golden Horde

References

1. Wheelis, Mark (2002). "Biological Warfare at the 1346 Siege of Caffa". Emerging Infectious Diseases. 8 (9): 971–975. doi:10.3201/eid0809.010536. PMC 2732530. PMID 12194776. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
2. "Decameron Web | Plague". www.brown.edu.
3. Weapons of Mass Destruction: Nuclear weapons. ABC-CLIO. 2005. p. 173. ISBN 978-1-85109-490-5.
4. Pommerville, Jeffrey C. (2014). Fundamentals of Microbiology. Jones & Bartlett Publishers. p. 390. ISBN 978-1-4496-4796-4.
5. Termanini, Rocky (18 August 2020). Storing Digital Binary Data in Cellular DNA: The New Paradigm. Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-823458-7.
6. "de Mussi and the Siege of Caffa: Origin of a Biological Warfare Allegation - The Trench - Jean Pascal Zanders". JPZanders. 19 December 2021.
7. Frankopan, Peter. The Silk Roads. p. 183.
8. Khvalkov, I.E., The Colonies of Genoa in the Black Sea Region: Evolution and Transformation,European University Institute,[1] Department of History and Civilization,Florence, 8 September 2015
9. Balard, Michel; Veinstein, Gilles (1980). "Continuité ou changement d'un paysage urbain ? Caffa génoise et ottomane". Actes de la Société des Historiens Médiévistes de l'Enseignement Supérieur Public. 11: 79–131. doi:10.3406/shmes.1980.1361.
10. Grousset, René (1970). The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-1304-1.
11. Howorth, Sir Henry Hoyle (1880). History of the Mongols, from the 9th to the 19th Century ...: The Mongols of Persia. Longmans, Green, and Company.
12. Dols, MW. (1977). The Black Death in the Middle East. Princeton University Press.