Baalbek (Bahramshah)

Who rules

Name

Majd al-Din Bahramshah ibn Farrukhshah

Title

al-Malik al-Amjad, lord of Baalbek

Since

1182

Born

not pinned

Family

Ayyubid: great-nephew of Saladin

Confidence

high

Abu'l-Fida p. 152; Baalbek article

Overlord

None formally; follows the senior Ayyubid (al-Adil by 1203).

The realm that morning

Bahramshah holds Baalbek.

Threats

• Absorption by Damascus (it comes in 1229-1230).

Ruler

Al-Amjad Bahramshah (birth not pinned; a child in 1182); also a poet.

Consort and heirs

Not pinned for 1200.

Castles and towns

Baalbek citadel.

Economy

Bekaa grain, fruit and vines; the Damascus to Homs road. No figures.

Treaties and wars

None recorded that winter.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Possession clear; little else dated.

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 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