Shayzar (Banu al-Daya)

Who he is

Name

Sabiq al-Din Uthman ibn al-Daya, or an heir (not pinned for 1 January 1200)

Title

Amir, lord of Shayzar

Since

Shayzar given to Sabiq al-Din by Saladin (after his entry into Syria in 1174; the year not pinned here); he held it, with Abu Qubays, at Saladin's death in 1193

Born

Not known

Family

The Banu al-Daya, sons of Nur al-Din's foster-mother (daya), were Nur al-Din's great amirs; Sabiq al-Din and his brothers were imprisoned by al-Salih Isma'il and joined Saladin. In 1233 the lord is Shihab al-Din, who surrenders Shayzar to al-Aziz of Aleppo on al-Kamil's orders.

Confidence

medium

Abu'l-Fida, RHC Or. I, pp. 141 (Sabiq al-Din made commander of Jabala in July 1188, 'lord of Shayzar'), 152 (fiefs at Saladin's death), 191 (the family and 1233).

Overlord

Holds by Saladin's grant; drawn in Aleppo's colour, but his allegiance that winter is not pinned.

What it holds

• Shayzar and its villages
• Abu Qubays

How it was acquired

Grant of Saladin.

Allies and rivals

Neighbours: al-Mansur of Hama, Ibn al-Muqaddam at Afamiya, the Nizaris of Masyaf.

How things stand that morning

The family holds Shayzar and (on the 1193 evidence) Abu Qubays on 1 January 1200; which member is lord is not pinned.

Wealth

The Orontes crossing and the gardens below the castle.

Military

Castle garrisons. No figures.

Threats

• Al-Mansur of Hama
• The Nizaris

Places of note

• Abu Qubays: Mountain castle west of the Ghab.

Where the sources disagree

• The assignment lists Shayzar under Hama; Abu'l-Fida treats it as a separate emir's fief, not al-Mansur's.

Evidence: The family's tenure 1174-1233 is clear; the individual lord in 1200 is not.

On the map: Small castle districts.

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.