Starting from 1102, Fakhr al-Mulk had to face the continuous attacks of the Crusaders under Raymond, in which he recaptured Tartus in April 1102, and Byblos in April 1104. After the Battle of Harran in 1104, Fakhr al-Mulk asked Sökmen, the former Ortoqid governor of Jerusalem, to intervene; Sökmen marched into Syria but was forced to return home.
