Al-Ashraf defeats Kaykawus of Rum near Buza'a, 615 AH (1218)

Among the events of 615 AH, Sibt ibn al-Jawzi relates in Mir'at al-zaman that al-Malik al-Ashraf Musa ibn al-Adil defeated the sultan of Rum, Kaykawus, on Friday 12 Rabi' II near Buza'a in the district of Aleppo. ²

Al-Ashraf had gathered the armies of the Jazira and of Aleppo and entered Frankish territory "to distract them from Damietta", camping before Safitha and Hisn al-Akrad. The sultan of Rum then set out, meaning to descend on Aleppo, and al-Afdal came down from Sumaysat to join him; together they took Ra'ban and Tell Bashir. Al-Ashraf turned back from Safitha to Aleppo, but the sultan of Rum had reached Manbij before him and some of his troops had pushed on to Buza'a. ²

Al-Ashraf camped outside Aleppo and sent ahead the champions Ibn Khutlukh and Sunqur al-Halabi with a band of well-known fighters; then he moved and camped at Bab Buza'a, with the Bedouin in front of him. The Rum army came to the Sajur; "vanguard met vanguard, with the Bedouin in front, and they broke the Rum". The sultan of Rum went back to his country and al-Afdal to Sumaysat. Sibt ibn al-Jawzi says: "Most of the damage done to them was by the Bedouin." ²

Al-Ashraf recovered Ra'ban and Tell Bashir and gave them to Tughril Atabak, and sent Sayf al-Din ibn Kahdan and al-Mubariz ibn Khutlukh to Damietta to reinforce al-Kamil. Al-Salih Mahmud ibn Artuq, lord of Amid, had the Friday sermon read for the Rum sultan and dropped al-Adil's name. ³

Among the deaths of the year, Sibt ibn al-Jawzi says that when Kaykawus returned home from "the rout at Aleppo" he accused some of his amirs of failing in the fight and punished them most cruelly, then died in Shawwal of that year; his brother Ala' al-Din Kayqubad, who had been imprisoned, succeeded him. He describes Kaykawus as "the one who made the Franks covet Damietta", a judgement that is the author's own. ⁴