In 1146, Joscelyn II of Edessa and Baldwin of Marash recaptured the city by stealth but could not take or even properly besiege the citadel.

From a Frankish perspective, there is William II of Tyre; from the Syriac perspective, Michael the Syrian, Bar Hebraeus and the anonymous Chronicle of 1234; for the Muslims, Ibn al-Ḳalānisī of Damascus, Ḳamāl al-Dīn Ibn al-ʿAdīm of Aleppo, Ibn al-Athīr, Abū Shāma and the anonymous Būstān al-jāmiʿ; and for the Armenians, Gregory the Priest's continuation of Matthew of Edessa's Chronicle.

[4] He and his vassal Baldwin of Marash set out from Dülük with an army of cavalry and infantry in late October.

[6] They entered the city by night with the help of the citizenry, who let down ropes and ladders from the walls, and the incompetence of the Turkish garrison.

According to the Chronicle of 1234, Prince Raymond I of Antioch refused to help Joscelyn and Baldwin because "he was enraged with both of them for not acknowledging him as their overlord.

"[1] Historian Steven Runciman gives a more sympathetic reason for Raymond's refusal: "the expedition was ill-planned".

[2] During their brief second period of control of the city, which lasted a mere six days, the Franks engaged in looting of shops and houses, both of Muslims and Christians.

[4] Nūr al-Dīn, who had inherited Aleppo on Zangī's death, ceased his war with Raymond of Antioch ordered a levée en masse throughout his domains as soon as he learned of the fall of Edessa.

Joscelyn and a band of twenty knights escaped to the Water Tower, but were unable to defend it and fled in secret.

Michael the Syrian estimates the total number of dead from both sieges of Edessa at 30,000 with a further 16,000 enslaved.