Page 342

342 A HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES 2. René Grousset, Histoire des croisades
et du royaume franc de Jerusalem, III (Paris,repr. 1948), 763; cf. vol. II
of this work, p. 598. 
and on the islet of Ruad (Aradus), opposite Tortosa, until 1303.2 It is true
that the fall of Acre was a disaster to the crusading movement in general
rather than to the kingdom of Cyprus in particular. No doubt the latter became
somewhat congested, with the Templars and the Hospitallers, the ecciesiastics
and baronage of Jerusalem, flocking to Cyprus together with the lesser refugees,
who tended to be a drain on the island's resources. On the other hand, Cyprus
was able to absorb a substantial part of the Syrian trade of Genoa and Venice,
while its monarch, relieved of his mainland preoccupations as king of Jerusalem,
could concentrate on the problems of his island realm, which were not wanting.
 A futile attack by the galleys of pope Nicholas IV and king Henry on the
Karamanian coast of Alaya ("Scandelore" or Candeloro) stung the Mamluk sultan
al-Ashraf Khalil into threatening that "Cy prus, Cyprus, Cyprus" should bear
the brunt of his reprisals. This danger was removed by al-Ashraf's assassination
in December 1293; and the growing Venetian and Genoese commercial activities
in the island brought to it increasing wealth, though at the cost of the
trading and other privileges which these republics exacted; those privileges
were to become a canker that would eventually destroy the integrity of the
kingdom. Meanwhile Genoa and Venice carried their mutual hostilities into
Cypriote waters and even onto Cypriote soil, as when in 1294 a Venetian fleet
destroyed the battlements of the Genoese fort at Limassol. 
 In 1300 Henry, in conjunction with the Templars and the Hospital lers, equipped
an expedition against Egypt and Syria which accom plished little more than
a series of marauding raids. Accompanying the expedition was one of the king's
brothers, Arnalric, titular lord of Tyre, who later in the same year was
on Ruad at the head of a small force de signed to take part with an army
of Ghazan, the Persian I1-khan, in combined operations against the Saracens.
The Mongols, who failed to arrive until February 1301, contented themselves
with raiding north ern Syria as far as Horns and then went home, whereupon
Amalric and his men returned to Cyprus, their purpose unfulfilled. 
 It would have been better for Cyprus, and especially for king Henry, had
Amalric never come back. For this disloyal prince, upon whom his brother
had conferred the dignities (now purely nominal) of lord of Tyre and constable
of the kingdom of Jerusalem, gradually