Ibn al-Muqaddam

Who he is

Name

Izz al-Din Ibrahim ibn Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik ibn al-Muqaddam

Title

Amir, lord of Afamiya (Apamea)

Since

Held Barin, Kafartab and Afamiya at Saladin's death in 1193

Born

Not known

Family

Son of Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn al-Muqaddam, Nur al-Din's amir, Saladin's governor of Damascus and emir of the Syrian pilgrimage, killed at Arafat in 1188 (583 AH). His brother Shams al-Din Abd al-Malik succeeds him in 597 AH.

Confidence

high

Abu'l-Fida, RHC Or. I, pp. 126-140 (the father), 152, 158-161.

Overlord

Holds by Saladin's grant, of the sultan's house rather than of al-Zahir.

What it holds

• Afamiya (Apamea) with its citadel
• Kafartab
• Twenty-five villages in the district of al-Ma'arra
• A claim to Barin, lost on 22 September 1199

How it was acquired

Saladin's grants: Kafartab and nearby villages went to his father in 1178-1179; the rest by 1193.

Allies and rivals

Enemy of al-Mansur of Hama, who took Barin while al-Adil was besieged in Damascus; his standing with al-Zahir that winter is not recorded, and al-Zahir will strip his heir in 1201. Al-Adil will later protect him.

How things stand that morning

On 1 January 1200 he holds Afamiya, Kafartab and his villages; Barin is in al-Mansur's hands. He is coloured with Aleppo because his castles lie in al-Zahir's sphere and his enemy that winter is al-Adil's ally; this is a map convenience, not a recorded allegiance. His lieutenant at Afamiya in 1201 is Karakush (Qaraqush), who may already hold the post (not pinned).

Wealth

Afamiya's lands over the Ghab and the olive villages of the Ma'arra district.

Military

The garrisons of Afamiya and Kafartab under lieutenants. No figures.

Threats

• Al-Mansur of Hama
• Al-Zahir of Aleppo

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. After 9 February 1200 (not pinned)Al-Adil orders Barin returned to him; al-Mansur gives him Manbij and Qal'at Najm instead, which he accepts.Depends on: Al-Adil's supremacy Stopped by: Al-Adil's defeat
2. 597 AH (October 1200 to September 1201)He dies; his brother Shams al-Din Abd al-Malik inherits Manbij, Qal'at Najm, Afamiya and Kafartab and loses all but a pension to al-Zahir's attacks.Depends on: His death Stopped by: His survival

Places of note

• Kafartab: Fortress town about 4 km north-west of Khan Shaykhun; coordinates approximate.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Abu'l-Fida gives his lands and the siege of Barin with dates.

On the map: His twenty-five villages are scattered and cannot be drawn individually.

Primary sources for Aleppo

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 Complete History, Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir (about 1200 to 1231, at Mosul). The widest Muslim narrative for the years 596 to 597 AH (1199 to 1201): al-Adil's entry into Cairo and his taking of the sultanate from his nephew al-Mansur Muhammad early in 1200, the quarrels of the Ayyubid princes at Damascus, Aleppo and Hama, the Nile failure and the great famine of Egypt, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah and the Jazira under Gokbori and the Artuqids, Baghdad under the caliph al-Nasir, the Khwarazmshah Tekish's death in 1200 and Muhammad's accession, the Ghurid wars in Khurasan, the Eldiguzids and Georgia, the Almohads in the west, and the Seljuks of Rum in passing. Read online
• The Cream of the History of Aleppo, Kamal al-Din Ibn al-Adim (about 1240 to 1260). The annals of Aleppo. Read online
• The Dispeller of Anxieties, on the History of the Ayyubids, Jamal al-Din Ibn Wasil (about 1272 to 1285, at Hama). The fullest Ayyubid dynastic history, written at Hama with access to the family's own tradition and to Ibn al-Athir, Ibn Abi Tayy and Sibt ibn al-Jawzi. Read online
• The Mirror of Time, on the History of Notables, Sibt ibn al-Jawzi (Shams al-Din Yusuf) (about 1240 to 1256, at Damascus). A Damascene preacher's year-by-year chronicle with obituaries, written by a grandson of the Baghdad scholar Ibn al-Jawzi, so it carries both the Baghdad view (the caliph al-Nasir and his court) and the Damascus view (al-Adil's court, the famine refugees of 1200, prices, the plague of 1201). Read online
• The Anonymous Syriac Chronicle to 1234, Anonymous (a Syrian Orthodox writer, probably of Edessa) (about 1234 to 1240). An Edessene chronicle independent of Michael the Syrian in its later part, with a secular section reaching 1234 that gives the Jazira, Edessa, Harran, Mardin and Melitene about 1200 under al-Adil's sons and the Artuqids, the Seljuks of Rum, the Armenians of Cilicia and the Franks of Antioch, and a church section to 1207 on the Jacobite succession after Michael's death in 1199. Read online
• The Chronicle of Michael the Syrian (Michael the Great), Michael the Syrian, patriarch of Antioch 1166 to 1199 (about 1180 to 1195). The Jacobite patriarch's world chronicle, in parallel columns of church, secular and miscellaneous events, ending four years before 1200 and shortly before his own death on 7 November 1199, which left the Syrian Orthodox church with a disputed succession in 1200. 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

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