Officers: prévôtés, bailiwicks, seneschals · Contested ground · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Coastal plain

The coastal plain south of the Frankish lordship of Arsuf is Ayyubid.

Jaffa, Richard's base in 1191-1192 and a Frankish county again until al-Adil stormed it in 1197, is held for the Ayyubids under the truce of 1198. Ramla and Lydda, the old market and cathedral towns on the Jerusalem road, were slighted by Saladin in 1191; Ascalon is a ruin; Gaza and Darum guard the road to Egypt along the coast. On 1 January 1200 this is the road along which al-Afdal's army retreats and al-Adil's will follow.

Who he is

Name
not named in the sources read
Title
Governors (walis) and iqta' holders of the coastal towns
Since
Ramla, Lydda, Gaza and Darum Muslim since 1187 (Ascalon was razed by Saladin in 1191 and its ruin confirmed by the treaty of 1192); Jaffa since al-Adil took it from the Franks in 1197.
Born
not pinned
Family
not pinned
Confidence
low

Abu'l-Fida p. 156 (al-Adil takes Jaffa, 593 AH); Jaffa article.

Overlord

Not pinned between Cairo and Damascus. The old province of Filastin seems to have belonged to the Egyptian share (al-Aziz appointed Jerusalem's governor in 1197), but al-Adil took Jaffa himself in 1197 and made the truce of 1198 for all the Ayyubid lands; drawn as contested.

What it holds

How it was acquired

Conquests of 1187 and 1197.

Allies and rivals

Facing Frankish Arsuf and Caesarea (jer) to the north; Egypt's Sinai frontier to the south-west (egy).

How things stand that morning

Ayyubid; quiet under the truce; armies on the march through it in January.

Wealth

Grain, cotton and orchards of the plain; the coastal road's caravans; no figures.

Military

The state of each town's walls in 1200 is not pinned; Ascalon has none.

Threats

  • A crusade landing on the coast (Jaffa is the Franks' road to Jerusalem).

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

  1. January 1200Al-Afdal's army retreats to Egypt along the coast road; al-Adil's army follows.Depends on: The break-up of the allies at Ra's al-Ma'. Stopped by: A battle in Palestine.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Ownership certain; governors and the state of the walls unrecorded in the sources read.

On the map: The coastal strip south of the Frankish lordship of Arsuf; the Rafah and al-Arish edge is left to egy.

Sources and studies

  1. Abu'l-Fida, Annals (al-Mukhtasar), Arabic text with French translation in Recueil des historiens des croisades, Historiens orientaux I (1872), pp. 150-172 (years 589-615 AH), read through archive.org search-inside
  2. Jaffa (English Wikipedia)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.