Usama

Who he is

Name

Izz al-Din Usama (al-Salahi)

Title

Lord of the fortresses of Kawkab and Ajlun (iqta')

Since

Builder of Ajlun castle in 1184 (Ajloun Castle article); holds Kawkab and Ajlun in the share-out of 1193 (Abu'l-Fida) and until his arrest in 608 AH (1211-1212). He is usually said to have been the governor of Beirut who abandoned it to the German crusade in October 1197 (not confirmed in the sources read here).

Born

not pinned

Family

not pinned

Confidence

high

Abu'l-Fida pp. 152 and 168; Ajloun Castle article.

Overlord

The Ayyubid prince of Damascus.

What it holds

• Ajlun castle and the Jabal Awf (Ajlun).
• Kawkab al-Hawa (Belvoir) above the Jordan (Belvoir).

How it was acquired

Built or granted under Saladin; confirmed in 1193.

Allies and rivals

A Salahi amir; later suspected by al-Adil. Neighbour of Safed and Tiberias.

How things stand that morning

Holds both castles.

Wealth

The iron of the Ajlun hills, the olives and grain of the Jabal Awf, the Jordan valley crossings.

Military

Ajlun (four corner towers, double gate, a moat about 16 m wide in its first form; enlarged only in 1214-1215) and Belvoir's concentric castle; garrisons of his own mamluks.

Threats

• Al-Adil's distrust of Saladin's old amirs (1211-1212).

Where the sources disagree

• Belvoir's slighting: Abu'l-Fida says Kawkab was razed by al-Adil's order after Usama's fall in 608 AH (1211-1212); the Belvoir Fortress article (Grove Encyclopedia) dates the slighting to 1219. Either way it stands in 1200.

Evidence: Abu'l-Fida names him for 1193 and 1211-1212; his part in 1199 is not recorded.

On the map: Castle districts are guesses round the castles.

Primary sources for Damascus

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 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 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
• The Road to Knowledge of the Dynasties of Kings, Taqi al-Din al-Maqrizi (about 1400 to 1440, at Cairo). A late compilation, but for Ayyubid Egypt it keeps lost material: for 596 to 598 AH it records al-Adil's entry into Cairo, the removal of the boy al-Mansur Muhammad, the oath to al-Kamil as heir, the appointments at Cairo, the low Niles of 1199 and 1200 and the famine and plague of 1200 to 1202 with grain prices, the reports of cannibalism and the death tolls, together with Yemen, the Hijaz and the Mecca emirate. Read online

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