Titus

Titus of Amanus

 Titus of Amanus was a commander of the Templar Order during the 13th century. 

Biography

Titus in 1225

Titus - the brother of Bisol - was a commander of the Templar Order in the Holy Land, serving as commander of the fortress at Mount Amanus. He was the right-hand man of Grand Vizier of the Order Council Petruccio Manzini, and he was known for his brutality; in 1225, he infiltrated his own castle and killed one of the guards, warning his soldiers to be on their guard against both him and the enemy. Titus had dealings with the powerful Seljuk nobleman Karatoygar, agreeing to send his brother Shahzade Numan and his children Halime and Yigit Alp to Karatoygar for execution. However, these prisoners were freed by the Kayi Turkish warlord Ertugrul (with Bisol being killed in the process), creating a rivalry between the Kayis and the Templars. Shortly after, in front of Manzini, Titus made a show of executing the Seljuk sultan Kayqubad I's first assistant, a Khwarazmian commander, and the Caliph's alleged right-hand man, hoping to provoke the Muslims into retaliating in order to justify a crusade. As he was performing the executions, Titus was shocked to see his brother's body being brought into the castle by Seljuk soldiers, and he swore on his brother's grave that he would furiously fight against the Turkmens until the day he died. Karatoygar refused to let Titus conduct a headhunt on his soil, instead promising to deliver Ertugrul to deliver him alive as a "sacrificial ram". When Karatoygar's ambush failed, Titus angrily berated Karatoygar and told him that he would arrange for Ertugrul to be killed upon his arrival in Aleppo.

 

Titus in disguise

While disguised as a Muslim traveller, he came across Ertugrul and a few others at a campfire on the road to Aleppo, joining them and telling them of the Christians' plans for a Crusade, while claiming that he had been the survivor of a Templar attack. He then asked the others who they were, and one introduced himself as Ibn Arabi, while another introduced himself as Ertugrul of the Kayi tribe. Titus then excused himself, saying that he had to return to his wife, and he invited the others to visit his carpet shop in the Aleppo marketplace once they arrived. When they did, Titus planned to have them assassinated. Unfortunately for Titus, Ertugrul woke from a nightmare and was able to kill the first assassin, while the Templar mole Nasir killed the other assassin in the hallway to conceal their motives. Titus was furious, and, the next day, Titus came up with a new plan. At a meeting with Nasir, he advised Nasir to convince al-Aziz to let the Kayis have a piece of land on the skirts of Mount Amanus on the Levantine coast, where they would be near the Crusader castle and the Principality of Antioch. There, the Crusaders would have the opportunity to wipe out the entire tribe. While Karatoygar failed to ambush and kill Ertugrul at Kartal Tepesi, Titus made a new plan to ambush and kill the Kayis on their arrival in Aleppo.