City · Ayyubid Egypt under the boy sultan al-Mansur · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Fustat

The old Arab capital on the Nile, two miles south-west of Cairo's walls and still the commercial heart of Egypt: the river port where the grain boats, the Red Sea spice cargoes from Qus and the goods for Alexandria land, with warehouses, sugar refineries, glass and pottery kilns and paper-makers.

Much of it was burned in November 1168 when the vizier Shawar set it alight to keep it from King Amalric, and parts are still in ruins; the riverside quarters and the old Roman fortress of Babylon (Qasr al-Sham') with its churches are lived in. It holds the mosque of Amr, the Coptic patriarch's church (the Hanging Church, al-Mu'allaqa), the Ben Ezra synagogue whose store-room keeps the Geniza papers, the Nilometer on Roda island, and to the east the Qarafa cemetery with Saladin's madrasa by the tomb of al-Shafi'i.

Who holds it

Name
The sultan al-Mansur; the governor (wali) of Misr not pinned
Title
Royal city
Since
1198
Confidence
medium

Lord in 1200

The sultan, through the governor of Misr (Fustat), the qadi and the market inspector; names not pinned.

How things stand that morning

Held in al-Mansur's name; busy and quiet.

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, whose patriarch John VI (1189-1216) keeps his seat at the Hanging Church; Melkites; Jews, Rabbanite and Karaite, whose leading figure Moses Maimonides, physician to al-Qadi al-Fadil and to al-Afdal, lives here; merchants from Yemen, the Maghrib and Syria.

Fairs and markets

No fairs; daily markets and the river traffic, busiest after the flood when the boats can reach every province.

Militia

None; the governor's police and the garrisons of Cairo.

Walls and castle

No complete wall since the burning of 1168; Saladin's planned wall joining Fustat to Cairo is unfinished. The old Roman fortress of Babylon encloses the Coptic churches.

Trade and crafts

The grain trade of Upper Egypt; the spice and pepper trade arriving from Qus (the Karimi and Jewish India merchants keep warehouses here); sugar refining; glass, pottery, paper, textiles; boat-building on the river and on Roda.

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. From late 1200The famine and plague of 1200-1202 strike Fustat and Cairo hardest, with mass death and the eating of corpses described by Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi.Depends on: The failure of the 1200 flood. Stopped by: Nothing in play can stop the flood failing; relief can soften it.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Well known from the Geniza and the chronicles; the officials of 1200 are not pinned.

On the map: A seed for the old city and Roda; its burnt quarters and gardens ran up towards Cairo.

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.

Sources and studies

  1. Wikipedia: Pope John VI of Alexandria
  2. Ibn Jubayr, Travels (journey of 1183-1185), tr. R. J. C. Broadhurst (1952); from the researcher's knowledge, not re-read for this record

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.