Aleppo (al-Zahir Ghazi)

Who rules

Name

Ghazi ibn Yusuf (al-Zahir Ghazi), son of Saladin

Title

Prince (malik) of Aleppo, al-Malik al-Zahir Ghiyath al-Din

Since

1186 (582 AH), when Saladin moved al-Adil from Aleppo to Egypt and gave Aleppo to al-Zahir; independent since Saladin's death in March 1193

Born

1172 or 1173 (568 AH), in Cairo; about 27 on 1 January 1200

Family

Ayyubid. Son of Saladin. Brothers include al-Afdal Ali (his ally that winter), the late al-Aziz Uthman of Egypt (d. 29 November 1198) and al-Zafir Khidr, who lost Bosra to al-Adil in 1196 for backing al-Afdal and took refuge with al-Zahir at Aleppo (Abu'l-Fida; no town of his own is recorded). His uncle al-Adil holds Damascus and is his enemy that winter; his cousin al-Mansur Muhammad of Hama is al-Adil's man.

Confidence

high

Abu'l-Fida (RHC Or. I, pp. 152, 158-162) and the Wikipedia summary. His wives and children on 1 January 1200 are not pinned: his son al-Aziz Muhammad by Dayfa Khatun, daughter of al-Adil, was born in 1213 after a marriage of 1212; older sons, including al-Salih Ahmad, later lord of Ain Tab, cannot be dated here to before 1200.

Overlord

None in practice. Saladin's sons acknowledged the senior Ayyubid ruler in the Friday sermon (khutba) and on the coins: al-Afdal in 1193-1196, then al-Aziz; that winter al-Zahir is in arms against al-Adil alongside al-Afdal, regent of Egypt for the boy sultan al-Mansur Muhammad. The caliph an-Nasir at Baghdad is named first in the khutba as everywhere.

What the realm holds

• Aleppo, its citadel and its district (direct)
• Harim, the frontier castle facing Antioch (direct; governor not pinned)
• Azaz (its citadel given by Saladin in 1183 to the amir Sulayman ibn Jandar; holder in 1200 not pinned), al-Atharib, Sarmin, al-Bab and Buza'a (direct; governors not pinned)
• Ain Tab and Ra'ban in the north (Ain Tab direct; Ra'ban Aleppan in 1218, 1200 not pinned)
• Darbsak in the Amanus, facing Leo's Baghras (Aleppan by Saladin's conquest of 1188 and in 1237; 1200 holder not pinned)
• Latakia and Jabala, the ports, ceded by al-Afdal in 1194; their harbours wrecked by al-Zahir in 1197 and Latakia's castle rebuilt
• Shughr-Bakas on the Orontes (taken by Saladin 1188; holder in 1200 not pinned)
• Tell Bashir, held by the Yaruqi Turkmen amir Badr al-Din Dildirim (see Dildirim)
• Sahyun and Bourzey, held by Nasir al-Din Mankurus ibn Khumartekin (see Mankurus of Sahyun)
• Shayzar and Abu Qubays, held by the Banu al-Daya (see Shayzar (Banu al-Daya))
• Afamiya and Kafartab, held by Izz al-Din Ibrahim ibn al-Muqaddam (see Ibn al-Muqaddam): coloured with Aleppo, but he holds of the sultan's house, not of al-Zahir

How it was acquired

Saladin took Aleppo from the Zengid Imad al-Din Zengi II in June 1183 and gave it first to his brother al-Adil, then in 1186 to al-Zahir. Saladin's conquests of 1188 added Latakia, Jabala, Sahyun, Bourzey, Shughr-Bakas and Darbsak. Latakia and Jabala, held by Taqi al-Din Umar until his death in 1191, came to al-Zahir from al-Afdal in 1194.

Allies and rivals

Allies that winter: his brother al-Afdal, regent of Egypt, with whom he besieged Damascus from June 1199. The alliance is strained: in 596 AH (from October 1199) al-Zahir accused al-Afdal of luring away a favourite mamluk and stopped fighting (Abu'l-Fida). Enemies: his uncle al-Adil in Damascus and al-Adil's sons; al-Mansur of Hama, al-Adil's sworn ally, who took Barin from Ibn al-Muqaddam's men during the siege. Neighbours: Bohemond III of Antioch (at peace with Aleppo since Saladin's truces; Bohemond probed Jabala and Latakia in 1197); Leo of Armenia, crowned king in January 1198, who holds Baghras; the Seljuk sultan of Rum, Rukn al-Din Sulayman II; the Nizaris of the Jabal Bahra.

The realm that morning

At first light on 1 January 1200 (about 12 Rabi' I 596 AH) the Aleppan field army is away in the south with al-Zahir. After quarrelling with al-Afdal the two brothers had drawn off from Damascus to Marj al-Suffar, where they stayed until the last days of Safar 596 (about mid-December 1199), then moved to Ras al-Ma' meaning to sit out the winter; they then gave up, al-Afdal going to Egypt and al-Zahir to Aleppo by the road of al-Qaryatayn (Abu'l-Fida). The day al-Zahir left Ras al-Ma' is not pinned; it falls around the turn of the year, since al-Adil, setting out after al-Afdal, entered Cairo on 21 Rabi' II 596 (9 February 1200).

Aleppo itself, its citadel and the frontier castles are held by his deputies. No fighting is recorded on Aleppo's own frontiers that winter.

Wealth

Aleppo is the market of northern Syria: the caravan roads from Iraq and the Jazira by way of Manbij and al-Bira, from Anatolia by Ain Tab, and to the Mediterranean through Latakia and the Antiochene ports. Its suqs, the cotton, grain and fruit of the Aleppo plain and the Amuq, salt from the Jabbul marsh, the tolls of the roads and the land tax of the villages pay the household and the amirs' grants (iqta'). The Aleppo mint strikes silver and gold.

Military

The prince's mamluks (later called the Zahiriyya), Kurdish and Turkish amirs holding iqta', the Yaruqi Turkmen of Dildirim, the garrisons of the citadel and of Harim, Azaz, Darbsak, Latakia and the other castles, and Turkmen and Bedouin auxiliaries. Abu'l-Fida speaks of 'the Aleppan army' at Damascus in 1199 but gives no figure.

Threats

• Al-Adil's counterstroke: once Egypt falls (February 1200) al-Zahir stands alone
• The quarrel with al-Afdal over the mamluk, which has already broken their common front
• Al-Mansur of Hama on the southern flank, holding Manbij and Qal'at Najm in Aleppo's rear
• Leo of Armenia on the Amanus frontier and the coming Antiochene succession (Bohemond III is old)
• Frankish raids on the coast at Latakia and Jabala

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. Early January 1200 (not pinned to the day)Al-Zahir and al-Afdal give up their winter camp at Ras al-Ma'; al-Zahir returns to Aleppo by al-Qaryatayn.Depends on: The decision to break up the coalition, which Abu'l-Fida reports without a date Stopped by: A renewed common plan with al-Afdal, or al-Adil catching the camp first
2. 9 February 1200 (21 Rabi' II 596)Al-Adil enters Cairo after routing al-Afdal and besieging him for eight days; al-Afdal goes to Salkhad. Al-Zahir then writes to his uncle (Abu'l-Fida; the terms of the letter are not in the passage read here). The khutba and coins in al-Adil's name everywhere follow only the peace of 598 AH (1202).Depends on: Al-Adil beating al-Afdal in Egypt Stopped by: Al-Afdal holding Egypt; al-Zahir coming south again in time
3. 1200 (17 February in the Wikipedia account; Abu'l-Fida puts it some time after the entry into Cairo)Al-Adil sets aside the boy sultan al-Mansur Muhammad and takes the title of sultan himself, which ends any claim of al-Zahir and al-Afdal to act for Saladin's grandson.Depends on: Al-Adil holding Cairo Stopped by: A rising of the Egyptian regiments for al-Mansur
4. From October 1200 (start of 597 AH)Fearing an attack by al-Adil, al-Zahir works on Aleppo's fortifications (Abu'l-Fida).Depends on: Al-Adil's hostility after he takes the sultan's title Stopped by: A settled peace with al-Adil
5. 597 AH (October 1200 to September 1201)On Izz al-Din ibn al-Muqaddam's death al-Zahir takes Manbij and Qal'at Najm from his brother Shams al-Din, takes Kafartab, besieges Afamiya, ravages the Ma'arra district and besieges Hama, where an arrow wounds him in the thigh; he and al-Afdal then besiege Damascus again. The settlement of 598 AH (1202) leaves al-Zahir acknowledging al-Adil.Depends on: Ibn al-Muqaddam's death and al-Adil's absence in Egypt Stopped by: Al-Adil coming north in force, or a firm peace in 1200

Where the sources disagree

• The assignment lists Manbij, Qal'at Najm and Ma'arrat al-Nu'man among Aleppo's dependencies. Abu'l-Fida, a prince of Hama's line writing from the family's records, says that at Saladin's death Hama, Salamiyah, al-Ma'arra, Manbij and Qal'at Najm remained with al-Mansur, that al-Mansur gave Manbij and Qal'at Najm to Ibn al-Muqaddam only after al-Adil took Egypt (in exchange for Barin), and that in 597 AH al-Zahir, failing to win al-Mansur over, ravaged the territory of al-Ma'arra, an attack on Hama's land. In the peace that followed al-Adil's coming north, the separate estate (mufrada) of al-Ma'arra, the villages al-Zahir had taken from Ibn al-Muqaddam, went to al-Mansur. On 1 January 1200 all three are therefore Hama's, and we have drawn them so.
• Wikipedia dates the end of the siege of Damascus to December 1199. Abu'l-Fida has the besiegers draw off to Marj al-Suffar, stay there until the end of Safar 596 (about mid-December 1199) and then move to Ras al-Ma' to winter before giving up: so on 1 January 1200 the coalition army may still be in the field south of Damascus.

Evidence: The prince, his family and the campaigns are thick in the Arabic chronicles (Ibn al-Athir, Abu Shama, Ibn Wasil, Ibn al-Adim's Zubdat al-halab, Abu'l-Fida). The governors of the lesser castles and the household officers are thin: we could not reach Ibn al-Adim or Ibn Shaddad's topography of Aleppo in this run, and we have named no officer the sources at hand do not name.

On the map: Aleppo's eastern edge fades into the steppe toward the Euphrates: Manbij and Qal'at Najm are Hama's that winter and are drawn as Hama's exclave. The coastal strip between Jabala and the Nizari castles is thinly evidenced. No raiding belt is drawn: no fighting on the Antiochene, Armenian or Hama frontiers is recorded for the winter of 1199-1200, and the war with al-Adil was fought round Damascus.

Primary sources for this realm

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 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 Anonymous Syriac Chronicle to 1234, Anonymous (a Syrian Orthodox writer, probably of Edessa) (about 1234 to 1240). An Edessene chronicle independent of Michael the Syrian in its later part, with a secular section reaching 1234 that gives the Jazira, Edessa, Harran, Mardin and Melitene about 1200 under al-Adil's sons and the Artuqids, the Seljuks of Rum, the Armenians of Cilicia and the Franks of Antioch, and a church section to 1207 on the Jacobite succession after Michael's death in 1199. Read online
• The Chronicle of Michael the Syrian (Michael the Great), Michael the Syrian, patriarch of Antioch 1166 to 1199 (about 1180 to 1195). The Jacobite patriarch's world chronicle, in parallel columns of church, secular and miscellaneous events, ending four years before 1200 and shortly before his own death on 7 November 1199, which left the Syrian Orthodox church with a disputed succession in 1200. 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 Chronography of Bar Hebraeus, Gregory Bar Hebraeus (Abu'l-Faraj) (about 1275 to 1286). A later compilation that for 1200 relies on Michael the Syrian and Ibn al-Athir, but adds the Jacobite church's own memory of the Jazira, Mosul, Melitene and the Artuqid and Zangid courts, and carries Michael's story past 1195: the Seljuk brothers' war in Rum, the Khwarazmian and Ghurid wars in the east, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah, and the caliph al-Nasir. 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
• The History of the Seljuks of Rum, Ibn Bibi (Nasir al-Din Husayn ibn Muhammad) (about 1281 to 1285, at Konya). The main Seljuk narrative for Rum begins with Kilij Arslan II's partition of the sultanate among his sons and his death (1192), Kaykhusraw I's first reign at Konya, his deposition in 1196 to 1197 by Rukn al-Din Sulayman II, Kaykhusraw's wanderings to Cilician Armenia, Aleppo and Constantinople, Sulayman's reduction of his brothers' towns (Tokat, Malatya, Amasya, and Ankara by 1204) and his Erzurum and Georgian campaigns. Read online

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