182 THS KNIGHTS TEMPLAHS. ΤΗΟΜΛΗ their retainers, amounting to six hundred men, should be con ίοΤΐΪΒβ. ducted in safety to the nearest fortress of the Christians. The terms were acceded to, but as soon as Benocdar had obtained possession of the castle, he imposed upon the whole garrison the severe alternative of the Koran or death. They chose the latter, and, according to the christian writers, were all slain.* The Arabian historian Schafi Ib'n Ali Abbas, however, in his life of Bibars, or Benocdar, states that one of the garrison named Effreez Lyoub, embraced the Mahommetan faith, and was eircuiiieised, and that another was sent to Acre to announce the fall of the place to his brethren. This writer attempts to excuse the slaughter of the remainder, on the ground that they had themselves first broken the terms of the capitulation, by attempting to carry away arms and treasure.-)-" By the death of so many knights of both orders," says Pope Clement IV., in one of his epistles, " the noble college of the Hospitallers, and the illustrious chivalry of the Temple, are almost destroyed, and I know not how we shall be able, after this, to find gentlemen and persons of quality sufficient to supply the places of such as have perished.J The year after the fall of Haphet, (A. D. 1267,) Benocdar captured the cities of Horns, Belfort, Bugras, and Sidon, which belonged to the order of the Temple; the maritime towns of Laodicea, Cabala, Tripoli, Beirout, and Jaffa, successively fell into his hands, and the fall of the princely city of Antioch was signalized by the slaughter of seventeen and the captivity of one hundred * Marin Sunut Terseli, lib. iii. pan) 12, cap. (Î, 7, 8. Contra. Mat. bell. sacr. apud Marlene, toni. v. col. ?42. See also Abulfed. liist. Arab, apml Wilkena, p. 223. Ve Oaifflrusy Hint, des Huns, torn. lv. p. Ml, + Michaiul, Extraites Arabes, p. (*68. χ He Verini, liv. iii. Preuve, lib. Sec also epiat. ccccii. apud Marlene thesaur, enee. toni, ii coi, 4*22.