Al-Adil's lands: Damascus, Kerak and the south

Who rules

Name

Sayf al-Din Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ayyub, al-Malik al-Adil

Title

al-Malik al-Adil Sayf al-Din, lord of Damascus, Kerak and Shawbak; senior prince of the Ayyubid house; sultan only from February 1200 or later

Since

Damascus since summer 1196; Kerak and Shawbak since Saladin's reign

Born

About 540 AH (1145-1146)

Family

Ayyubid: Saladin's younger brother

Confidence

high

Abu'l-Fida, Annals (RHC Or. I, pp. 150-172); Ibn al-Athir (Richards, Part 3); Wikipedia articles listed.

Overlord

None in practice; the caliph an-Nasir at Baghdad (outside) recognizes him as sultan only in 1207.

The realm that morning

Al-Adil holds his own lands firmly and dominates southern Syria after the failure of the siege; the enemy armies are leaving the Hauran; Palestine lies on the road to Egypt that he is about to take.

Threats

• A renewed coalition of Saladin's sons.
• The crusade being raised in France (Theobald III of Champagne chosen at Écry, 28 November 1199).
• Divided loyalties among the Salahi amirs of Palestine.

Ruler

Al-Adil, about 54; in person at Damascus or just leaving it that morning.

Consort and heirs

His wives are not named in the sources read. Sons: al-Kamil Muhammad (commanded the siege of Mardin, lifted it in 1199 and brought the Jazira troops to Damascus; al-Adil's lieutenant in Egypt by October 1200); al-Mu'azzam Sharaf al-Din Isa (born 1176 at Cairo; his father's deputy commanding Damascus by October 1200; Wikipedia gives his investiture as 1198 or 1200); al-Ashraf Musa (later lord of the Jazira; post in January 1200 not pinned); al-Awhad Najm al-Din Ayyub (holds Mayyafariqin and refuses it to al-Afdal in 1200); al-Fa'iz Ibrahim (governs east of the Euphrates by October 1200); al-Muzaffar Ghazi, al-Aziz Uthman, al-Salih Ismail and others, younger (birth dates not pinned). No succession rule: al-Adil will divide his lands among his sons.

Kin with land

Saladin's sons: al-Afdal (Salkhad; regent of Egypt), al-Zahir Ghazi (Aleppo: ale), al-Zafir Khidr (lost Bosra in 1196, now at Aleppo). The boy al-Mansur Muhammad, son of al-Aziz (sultan of Egypt: egy). Al-Mansur Muhammad of Hama (ale). Bahramshah of Baalbek and Shirkuh II of Homs (this sheet). Saladin's sister Sitt al-Sham lives at Damascus, a great patron.

Officers and household

Not well recorded for these years: al-Adil's vizier in 1200 is not pinned (Safi al-Din ibn Shukr serves as vizier by 1208-1209: Abu'l-Fida). The chief qadi of Damascus, Muhyi al-Din son of the qadi Zaki al-Din, recited the prayers at Saladin's reburial in December 1195 (Abu'l-Fida); his office in 1200 is not re-checked. The historian Imad al-Din al-Isfahani, Saladin's secretary, lives at Damascus. Al-Afdal's former vizier Diya' al-Din ibn al-Athir was smuggled out of Damascus in a chest in 1196 (Abu'l-Fida).

Great families

The Salahiyya (Saladin's own mamluks: Fakhr al-Din Jaharkas, Zayn al-Din Qaraja, Maymun al-Qasri, Izz al-Din Usama) and the Asadiyya (Shirkuh's) regiments; Kurdish amirs (the Hakkari house of Ibn al-Mashtub); Turkish amirs; the scholarly houses of Damascus (the Banu Asakir, the Hanbali Banu Qudama of al-Salihiyya, the qadi family of Ibn al-Zaki).

Castles and towns

Damascus, Bosra, Kerak, Shawbak (al-Adil's); Salkhad (al-Afdal's); Safed and Tiberias (Sa'd al-Din Mas'ud); Banyas and Subayba (Husam al-Din Bishara); Kawkab al-Hawa and Ajlun (Izz al-Din Usama); Toron, Hunin and Beaufort (garrisons); Contested Palestine: Jerusalem (Sarim al-Din Qutlugh, appointed by al-Aziz in 1197); Nablus (Maymun al-Qasri); Jaffa, Ramla, Lydda, Gaza, Darum (governors not named); Ascalon in ruins. Mount Tabor (1211), the Damascus citadel (1203), the Bosra towers (1202) and the castle of al-Salt (1220) do not yet exist.

Economy

Damascus's crafts and markets, the Ghouta's orchards, the grain of the Hauran and Galilee, olive oil and soap of Nablus and the hills, sugar and indigo in the Jordan valley, the caravan roads to Iraq, Egypt and the Hijaz, the pilgrim traffic to Jerusalem and Mecca, and the trade with the Frankish ports under the truce. A mint at Damascus. No figures.

Treaties and wars

Truce with Aimery of Jerusalem made in Sha'ban 594 (8 June to 6 July 1198; French Wikipedia: 1 July 1198) for five years (French Wikipedia) or five years and eight months (the usual figure, followed by jer): Beirut stays Frankish, Jaffa Ayyubid, Sidon and its district divided between the Franks and al-Adil. War with al-Afdal and al-Zahir since early 1199 (siege of Damascus, 10 June to about December 1199). The siege of Mardin by al-Adil and al-Kamil against the Artuqid lord (1198-1199) was lifted in 1199 (jaz).

Church relations

Muslim prince. The Eastern Christians (Melkite, Jacobite, Armenian, Georgian) keep their churches; the Holy Sepulchre is in Eastern hands with a few Latin clergy allowed since 1192; Latin pilgrims come under the truce. Jews have been readmitted to Jerusalem.

Coinage

Silver dirhams and gold dinars struck at Damascus; whose name they bore after November 1198 is not pinned.

The host

Al-Adil's mamluks, the iqta' cavalry of his amirs, Kurdish and Turkish contingents, the Jazira troops under al-Kamil; auxiliaries from the Bedouin. No numbers.

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.

In 1200

1. January 1200Al-Adil follows al-Afdal to Egypt; al-Zahir goes home to Aleppo by al-Qaryatayn.Depends on: The allies' quarrel holding. Stopped by: Reconciliation of the brothers.
2. 9 February 1200Al-Adil enters Cairo; al-Afdal returns to Salkhad.Depends on: Victory in battle near Bilbeis (al-Sa'ili in Abu'l-Fida). Stopped by: Defeat in Egypt.
3. 17 February 1200 (English Wikipedia) or later in 1200Al-Adil takes the title of sultan and sets aside al-Mansur.Depends on: Control of Cairo. Stopped by: Revolt of the Egyptian amirs.
4. 1200Al-Mu'azzam commands Damascus for his father (by October); Jaharkas replaces Husam al-Din Bishara at Banyas.Depends on: Al-Adil's victory. Stopped by: A new war.
5. Through 1200The truce with the Franks holds.Depends on: No crusade arriving in Syria. Stopped by: A crusade or a raid.

Later, on the likely course

1. 1201Al-Zahir and al-Afdal besiege Damascus again; Maymun al-Qasri of Nablus joins them; al-Adil advances only to Nablus.Depends on: Al-Adil's broken promises to al-Afdal. Stopped by: A generous settlement in 1200.

Where the sources disagree

• The brief asks whether Transjordan was held apart: the evidence (Abu'l-Fida) is that Kerak and Shawbak were al-Adil's own; the English Wikipedia Ayyubid article says al-Mu'azzam 'took possession of Karak and Transjordan' without a date. Treated as al-Adil's, inside the damascus realm.
• Jerusalem and Palestine: the assignment places them under al-Adil. Abu'l-Fida shows al-Aziz of Egypt appointing Jerusalem's governor (Sarim al-Din Qutlugh) in 593 AH (1197), so on 1 January 1200 Palestine proper belongs in law to the Cairo regency of al-Mansur and al-Afdal. With no record of its governors changing sides in 1199, and al-Adil's army about to march through, it is drawn as contested rather than damascus. Galilee, the Jordan castles and the castles behind Tyre and Sidon were Damascene (al-Afdal's in 1193, al-Adil's since 1196) and stay damascus.

Evidence: Princes and dates are well recorded in the Arabic chronicles; many governors and iqta' holders are not named, and the Palestinian lords' loyalties in 1199 are not recorded in the sources read.

On the map: The realm is drawn through the lord records and anchors; Salkhad is shown as al-Afdal's (realm egypt).

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 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
• The Complete History: the passages on the Maghreb and al-Andalus, Ibn al-Athir (about 1220 to 1231, at Mosul). The year entries for 595 to 597 of the Hijra (late 1198 to 1201) record the death of Yaqub al-Mansur, the accession of al-Nasir and the opening of Yahya ibn Ghaniya's war in Ifriqiya; the following years follow Yahya and the Ghuzz captain Qaraqush through Tripoli, Gabès and Mahdia to al-Nasir's reconquest in 1206, with the best eastern account of Qaraqush's career. Read online
• History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria, Mawhub ibn Mansur ibn Mufarrij and continuators (Various) (compiled in Arabic 1088 to 1094 from Coptic lives; continued for the patriarchs of 1102 to 1243 and later). The Coptic church's own record. 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

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