Bilbeis

Who holds it

Title

Seat of the governor of al-Sharqiyya

Since

Not pinned

Confidence

low

Lord in 1200

A governor of al-Sharqiyya for the sultan; name not pinned. The province's villages are held by iqta' holders.

How things stand that morning

Held for al-Mansur; it lies on the road by which both al-Afdal and al-Adil will come back from Syria.

Charter

None in the European sense: an Islamic city had no charter or commune. It was governed by the sultan's governor (wali) and police chief, the qadi and the market inspector (muhtasib).

Council

No council. The qadi, the notables (a'yan) and the heads of the crafts under the muhtasib speak for the townspeople; the Christian and Jewish communities answer through their own heads.

Communities

Muslims, Copts; Arab tribes on the desert edge (Bedouin of the Hawf).

Fairs and markets

No fairs; the caravan and army traffic of the Syrian road.

Militia

The garrison; the Bedouin of the Hawf provide guides and auxiliaries.

Walls and castle

Earth and brick walls, stormed in 1168; their state in 1200 not pinned.

Trade and crafts

Grain and flax of al-Sharqiyya; the Syrian caravan trade; horses and camels from the Bedouin.

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. Late January 1200Al-Afdal is routed by al-Adil near Bilbeis and flees to Cairo (place given in the French Abu'l-Fida as Es-Sa'ili).Depends on: Al-Adil's pursuit and the dispersal of al-Afdal's army. Stopped by: Al-Afdal holding the town and the road with the whole army.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Its strategic role is well recorded; its governor in 1200 is not pinned.

On the map: The province of al-Sharqiyya, roughly; its desert edge belongs to the Bedouin province.

Primary sources for Egypt

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

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