 The capture of Shayzar was the culmination of a long, drawn out process beginning with the Banu Munqidh's nominal assignment to the land by the Mirdasid emir of Aleppo in 1025, and accelerating with the weakened grip of Byzantine rule in northern Syria in the 1070s.Under the reign of Emir Ali ibn Muqallad (r. 1059–1082), the Banu Munqidh reached their territorial peak with the emirate extending from the Mediterranean port of Latakia to Apamea.The Seljuk conquest of Syria in 1085 and subsequent struggles with local Muslim lords reduced the Munqidh emirate to Shayzar and its environs.