Beirut

Who holds it

Name

King Aimery and Queen Isabella (castellan not pinned)

Title

Royal town

Since

Late October 1197 (21 or 24 October in different accounts)

Confidence

medium

Recovered by the German crusade with Aimery; no lord before John of Ibelin, whose grant is dated between 1200 and 1205.

Lord in 1200

The king and queen (royal domain), pending the grant to John of Ibelin.

Overlord

King Aimery and Queen Isabella.

How things stand that morning

Royal; the frontier town facing the Gharb and the Shuf under the truce.

Wealth

Modest; no figures.

Military

The town defences and a royal garrison (not described in the sources used).

Threats

• The Ayyubid hills on three sides if the truce fails

Charter

Royal town; no burgess institutions recorded for 1198-1200.

Council

Not recorded.

Communities

Eastern Christians (Greek Orthodox, Maronites from the mountain), Franks newly settled, Muslims; the Druze of the Gharb in the hills behind (Ayyubid vassals). No Italian quarter recorded in 1200.

Fairs and markets

None recorded.

Militia

Not recorded.

Walls and castle

Walls and castle by the harbour; how much the Ayyubids had demolished before leaving in 1197 is not pinned. John of Ibelin's rebuilding and palace come later.

Trade and crafts

A harbour on the route between Tripoli, Cyprus and Acre; the plain's gardens; the trade with Damascus over the mountains depends on the truce. Details for 1200 thin.

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. Between 1200 and 1205 (not pinned)Granted to John of Ibelin in exchange for the constableship.Depends on: The king's decision. Stopped by: A breach with the Ibelins.

Where the sources disagree

• The date of the grant to John of Ibelin varies between c. 1200 and 1205 (see Kingdom of Jerusalem).

Evidence: Its recovery is well dated; its state and government in 1198-1200 are not recorded in detail.

On the map: The plain from the Dog River to Khaldeh; the Damour coast belongs to the same royal block in the lord record.

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.