The battle of al-Qaymun, 615 AH (1218)

Among the events of 615 AH in Mir'at al-zaman, Sibt ibn al-Jawzi records that al-Malik al-Mu'azzam Isa met the Franks at al-Qaymun in Jumada II and defeated them. The battle took place during the Frankish siege of Damietta, a few days before the death of his father al-Adil. ^{3 4}

The Franks landed before Damietta in Rabi' I 615. Al-Adil, at Marj al-Suffar, sent the troops he had with him to his son al-Kamil in Egypt, "and al-Mu'azzam stayed on the coast with the army of Syria facing the Franks". ⁵ Al-Adil had summoned al-Mu'azzam and told him to dismantle the fortress of al-Tur that he had built, so that its men and equipment could be used to defend Damietta; al-Mu'azzam hesitated for some days, then agreed, and moved its contents to Jerusalem, Ajlun, al-Karak and Damascus. ⁵

Sibt ibn al-Jawzi writes: "In Jumada II al-Mu'azzam met the Franks at al-Qaymun and was given victory over them." He killed a great many of them, captured a hundred Templar knights and brought them into Jerusalem "with their banners reversed". ³ Elsewhere he gives the day: "Thursday 5 Jumada II — some say Wednesday." ⁴

Two or three days later al-Adil died at Aliqin on Friday 7 or 8 Jumada II; a carrier pigeon was sent to al-Mu'azzam at Nablus, who came and kept the death secret, as told in the death of al-Adil. ^{4 6} Among the deaths of the previous year (614), in his notice on Badr al-Din Muhammad ibn Abi al-Qasim al-Hakkari, one of al-Mu'azzam's senior amirs, Sibt ibn al-Jawzi says he "fell as a martyr at al-Tur", that he had always wished for martyrdom, and that he built a madrasa for the Shafi'is in Jerusalem. ⁷