Talk:Battle of Shaizar

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Military history: Medieval / Crusades

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A fact from Battle of Shaizar appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 13 March 2008, and was viewed approximately 2,801 times (disclaimer) (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the Battle of Shaizar in 1111, between King Baldwin I of Jerusalem's Crusader army and a Seljuk army led by Mawdud bin Altuntash of Mosul, ended in a tactical draw?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2008/March.

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Comments

This was changed (not by me) from the original "Tactical draw" to "Crusader tactical victory." I have changed it again to "Tactical draw, Crusader strategic victory." Tactics refers to immediate events on the battlefield. Strategy refers to the larger picture, such as the aftermath. The immediate result on the battlefield was that the Crusaders camped near Shaizar for two weeks before being forced to withdraw when they could no longer get supplies to their camp. This implies a tactical defeat but since the Crusaders withdrew without any serious loss and neither side's army was hurt in a significant way, a tactical draw is an appropriate result. In the larger picture, Mawdud's army failed to capture any Crusader strongholds. This is the result the Crusaders hoped for when they initiated their threat to Shaizar. Therefore, a Crusader strategic victory is the result. I would also like to point out that when a title result is changed to "Crusader tactical victory" when the text still says "tactical draw" it makes the article appear unprofessional. The best way would be to cite an historical authority or historical evidence and put the reason for the change in a Commentary or Alternate History section. Djmaschek (talk) 03:54, 24 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Seeing as the Frankish forces fought the invading army to a standstill and it retreated with no gains, should this not just be simply "Crusader Victory"? The "draw" was the desired result for Balwin because he was resisting an outside initiative surely --Tefalstar (talk) 11:48, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]