Hama

Who holds it

Name

al-Malik al-Mansur Muhammad

Title

Prince of Hama

Since

1191

Confidence

high

Lord in 1200

Al-Mansur Muhammad rules from the citadel.

How things stand that morning

Al-Mansur's seat on 1 January 1200; at peace that winter.

Charter

No charter: Muslim towns of Ayyubid Syria had no communal charters. The prince's governor, the qadi and the market inspector (muhtasib) govern, and the notables (a'yan) speak for the townsmen.

Council

No town council; the notables, the qadi and the governor deal with the prince.

Communities

Sunni Muslims; Christians (Melkite); Jews; Bedouin of the steppe trading at its markets.

Fairs and markets

No fairs in the Latin sense; trade runs through the daily markets (suqs) and the caravan seasons. No market days are recorded for 1200.

Militia

No recorded town militia in 1200; the garrison is the prince's or the castle-holder's.

Walls and castle

The citadel on its mound, fortified by Taqi al-Din (before 1191); town walls; the Great Mosque.

Trade and crafts

Irrigated gardens and orchards lifted by the norias; grain and cotton of the plain; a market for the steppe and for the Ghab.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Abu'l-Fida is a Hama prince writing about his own town; details of its institutions in 1200 are thin.

Primary sources for Hama

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 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