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. Ibn al-Athir wrote at Mosul in the Zangid interest and is cool toward the Ayyubids; his dates are generally the best available.
About this source
- Title
- al-Kamil fi'l-tarikh
- Author
- Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir
- Author's dates
- 1160 to 1233
- Written
- about 1200 to 1231, at Mosul
- Language
- Arabic
- Covers
- creation to 1231
- Kind
- Chronicle
Tornberg's text remains the base; the Internet Archive item holds the set. RHC Orientaux translates only the passages touching the crusader lands. Richards's English is in copyright. Fagnan's French (Annales du Maghreb et de l'Espagne, 1898) covers the western passages. The Arabic text is also on shamela.ws (not linked here, unverified).
Where to read it
Editions
Translations
- Recueil des historiens des croisades, Historiens orientaux, vol. 1 (Paris, 1872), French extracts of the Kamil for the crusade period
- Recueil des historiens des croisades, Historiens orientaux, vol. 2 part 1 (Paris, 1887), continued French extracts of the Kamil
- D. S. Richards, The Chronicle of Ibn al-Athir for the Crusading Period, part 3: the years 589 to 629 (1193 to 1231) (Aldershot, 2008), English (not freely online)
About the source
Realms this source covers in 1200
- Ayyubid Egypt under the boy sultan al-Mansur
- Al-Adil's lands: Damascus, Kerak and the south
- Aleppo (al-Zahir Ghazi)
- Hama (al-Mansur Muhammad)
- Homs (Shirkuh II)
- The Ayyubid Jazira (al-Adil's, under al-Kamil)
- Mosul (Nur al-Din Arslan Shah)
- Sinjar (Qutb al-Din Muhammad)
- Jazirat ibn Umar (Sanjar Shah)
- Irbil (Gokbori)
- Mardin (the Artuqids of Mardin)
- Hisn Kayfa and Amid (the Artuqids of Hisn Kayfa)
- The Abbasid caliphate: al-Nasir's Iraq and Khuzistan
- The Khwarazmshah's realm
- The Ghurid sultanate
- The Eldiguzid atabegs of Azerbaijan
- Kingdom of Georgia
- The Seljuk sultanate of Rum
- Ahlat: the Begtimurids, heirs of the Shah-Armens
- Ayyubid Yemen under al-Mu'izz Isma'il
- The Almohad caliphate of Muhammad al-Nasir
- The Nizaris (the Assassins) of the Syrian mountains
- The Nizari Ismailis of Alamut