Caymont

Who he is

Name

Not pinned (perhaps Balian's son John of Ibelin)

Title

Lord of Caymont

Since

Granted to Balian of Ibelin under the settlement of 1192

Family

Balian of Ibelin died in 1193; his heirs are John and Philip of Ibelin; his widow is the dowager queen Maria Komnene.

Confidence

low

The treaty of 1192 gave Qaymun and its lands to Balian (Tel Yokneam article, from the Arabic sources); Saladin compensated him with the castle of Caymont and five other nearby places outside Acre (Balian of Ibelin article), whose succession table gives 'John of Ibelin?' after Balian. Nothing is recorded of the lordship between Balian's death and the thirteenth century, when it is listed in the royal domain and a last lord appears in 1253. Whether it went to Balian's heirs, to his widow, or back to the crown by 1200 is not pinned.

Overlord

King Aimery and Queen Isabella.

What it holds

• The hill and its village, the ruined castle, the lands round it (small).

How it was acquired

Granted in the treaty of 1192.

How things stand that morning

Frankish ground under the truce; holder not pinned.

Wealth

Small.

Military

A ruined or partly repaired fort (not pinned).

Threats

• On the edge of the Ayyubid Jezreel valley: the first place lost if the truce breaks.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Only the 1192 grant and later mentions are known.

On the map: Drawn as a disc for lack of known bounds.

Primary sources for Kingdom of Jerusalem

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Book of the Two Gardens, on the Reigns of Nur al-Din and Saladin, and its Sequel, Abu Shama (Shihab al-Din Abd al-Rahman al-Maqdisi) (about 1240 to 1267, at Damascus). The Rawdatayn ends with Saladin's death in 1193 and matters for 1200 as the store of Imad al-Din al-Isfahani's lost al-Barq al-Shami and of al-Qadi al-Fadil's letters, quoted at length, which describe the Ayyubid princes, the Jazira and the frontier a few years earlier. Read online
• The Chronicle of Ernoul and Bernard the Treasurer, Ernoul, squire of Balian of Ibelin, and later compilers (the 1187 core soon after the event; the whole in its present form 1227 to 1232). The Ibelin household's version of events in Outremer. Read online
• The Old French Continuation of William of Tyre (Eracles), Anonymous continuators, the earliest drawing on Ernoul (about 1220 to 1277; the first continuation (1184 to 1197, the Lyon Eracles) compiled about 1230 from material of the 1190s). For the Latin East at 1200 it narrates the aftermath of the Third Crusade: the truce of 1192, the succession to Jerusalem through Queen Isabella's marriages to Henry of Champagne (died September 1197) and Aimery of Lusignan, Aimery's rule as king of Jerusalem from 1198 while king of Cyprus, the German crusade of 1197 to 1198 and the recovery of Beirut and Sidon, the truce with al-Adil of 1198, the Antioch succession quarrel between Bohemond IV and Leo of Armenia, and the Pisan plot against Aimery. Read online
• Chronicle of Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Alberic of Trois-Fontaines (about 1227 to 1241, at the Cistercian abbey of Trois-Fontaines in Champagne). The widest net of any Latin chronicle for 1200, compiled from dozens of sources, many now lost. Read online
• The Chronicle of Smbat Sparapet (Sempad the Constable), Smbat Sparapet, brother of King Hetum I of Cilicia (about 1270 to 1276). The Cilician court chronicle, drawing on Matthew of Edessa for its early part and on family memory later. Read online
• The Eloquent Exposition of the Conquest of Jerusalem, Imad al-Din al-Isfahani (al-Katib) (about 1192 to 1193). Saladin's secretary's ornate account of the conquest of Jerusalem and the Third Crusade, ending with Saladin's death in 1193. Read online
• The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin, Baha al-Din Ibn Shaddad (after 1193, probably between about 1198 and 1228, at Aleppo). Ends with Saladin's death in March 1193 and so gives no event of 1200, but it is the formative portrait of the Ayyubid house of 1200: al-Adil, al-Afdal, al-Aziz and al-Zahir Ghazi as Saladin's lieutenants, the Mosul and Jazira campaigns, the war of Acre and the treaty of Jaffa of 1192. Read online
• Calendar of the Acts of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Various, calendared by Reinhold Rohricht (documents 1097 to 1291; calendar published 1893, Additamentum 1904). A chronological calendar of every charter, letter and treaty of the Latin East then known, with date, parties, witnesses and the edition where each is printed. Read online

7 more in the sources library for The Latin East and the Ayyubids.