The Turco-Mongols blockaded the harbour and attacked the fortifications with stone-throwing siege engines, while the defenders, numbering only about 200 knights, countered with arrows and incendiary projectiles.
The main sources for the siege are the Persian historians Sharaf ad-Din Ali Yazdi and Mirkhwand and the Arab Ahmad ibn Arabshah, who wrote in the service of Timur's successors.
[3] A knight, Brother Dominic de Alamania,[a] was then sent to the island of Chios, also belonging to the Genoese Maona, in order to persuade the local leaders not to ally with Timur.
[5][6] While Timur's forces ravaged the Anatolian countryside, targeting Turkish settlements, the Knights of Rhodes prepared the defence of Smyrna.
[b][4] Defensive preparations in the summer of 1402 were overseen by Admiral Buffilo Panizzatti,[c] with a view to strengthening the system of defence before the expected Turco-Mongol assault.
[4] In order to avoid the costs of a siege, Timur sent two envoys, the mirza Pir Muhammad and Sheikh Nur ed-Din, to the Knights commanding them to either convert to Islam or render him tribute (jizya).
[4] According to the Timurid historians, Timur ordered Malik Shah to construct a large wooden platform on piles to block the entrance to the harbour, which took three days.
Some ships that were approaching the city with aid turned back in the face of the siege engines, either because of the danger of stone projectiles or because the heads of the massacred were launched at them.
[11] Before withdrawing from Smyrna, Timur ordered the sea-castle demolished and the land castle guarding the acropolis, previously held by the Turks, strengthened.
The Genoese authorities on the island of Chios and the Ottoman prince İsa Çelebi both sent envoys to Timur at Ayasoluk offering to do homage.
[12] News of the loss of Smyrna had reached King Martin of Aragon, via Byzantine channels, by 28 February 1403, for on that day he wrote a letter deeply critical of Timur to Henry III of Castile.
[13][14] According to Andrea Redusio de Quero in his Chronicon Tarvisinum, Timur took great pride in the conquest of Smyrna, since it had resisted so many Ottoman attempts before.
[15] With Smyrna lost and the Ottoman state in shambles, Philibert de Naillac took the opportunity to occupy the site of ancient Halicarnassus further south on the Anatolian coast sometime between 1402 and 1408.