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. The Dhayl (sequel) runs year by year from 1193 with obituaries and gives Damascus's view of al-Adil's rise, the famine of 1200 and the Ayyubid family war; its early part is drawn from Sibt ibn al-Jawzi. RHC Orientaux 4 and 5 translate the crusade-related parts of the Rawdatayn only.
About this source
- Title
- Kitab al-Rawdatayn fi akhbar al-dawlatayn al-Nuriyya wa'l-Salahiyya, with the Dhayl
- Author
- Abu Shama (Shihab al-Din Abd al-Rahman al-Maqdisi)
- Author's dates
- 1203 to 1267
- Written
- about 1240 to 1267, at Damascus
- Language
- Arabic
- Covers
- 1146 to 1193 (Rawdatayn); 1193 to 1266 (Dhayl)
- Kind
- Chronicle
The Internet Archive catalogue dates all RHC Orientaux volumes 1872; the physical volumes are 1872 to 1906. The Dhayl, the part that covers 1200, has no translation. The Arabic editions are not freely online.
Where to read it
Editions
- M. Hilmi M. Ahmad (ed.), Kitab al-Rawdatayn, 2 vols in 3 (Cairo, 1956 to 1962), Arabic (not freely online)
- M. Z. al-Kawthari (ed.), Tarajim rijal al-qarnayn al-sadis wa'l-sabi (al-Dhayl ala al-Rawdatayn) (Cairo, 1947), Arabic (not freely online)
Translations
- Recueil des historiens des croisades, Historiens orientaux, vol. 4 (Paris, 1898), French extracts of the Rawdatayn with Arabic
- Recueil des historiens des croisades, Historiens orientaux, vol. 5 (Paris, 1906), continued French extracts of the Rawdatayn