Isaac Komnenos, an imperial governor in the twelfth century, sets himself up in the capital as the emperor of Cyprus, and the authorities in Constantinople are either too weak or too busy to do anything about the usurper.

When an imperial fleet is eventually sent against Cyprus, Komnenos is prepared and, in league with Sicilian pirates, defeats the fleet and retains control of the island.

Komnenos, a tyrant and murderer, is unlamented when swept from power by the king of England, Richard I the Lion-Heart. 

Near East (1108 – 1251 CE): Ayyubid Cairo, Crusader Tyre, Nubian Resilience, and the Nicaean–Seljuk Shore

Geographic and Environmental Context

The Near East includes Israel, Egypt, Sudan, western Saudi Arabia, western Yemen, most of Jordan, southwestern Cyprus, and western Turkey (Aeolia, Ionia, Doria, Lydia, Caria, Lycia, and the Troad), plus Tyre in extreme southwest Lebanon.

• Anchors: the Nile Valley (Egypt–Sudan), the southern Levant (with Tyre as the Near East’s sole Levantine polity), Hejaz and western Yemen along Red Sea corridors, southwestern Cyprus, and western Anatolia’s Aegean littoral.

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Climate and Environmental Shifts

• The Medieval Warm Period (c. 950–1250) modestly lengthened growing seasons in the Nile Delta and Aegean valleys.

• Nile flood variability peaked in the late 12th century but recovered under Ayyubid hydraulic repairs.

• Red Sea monsoon timing underpinned predictable sailing between Yemen and Egypt.

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Societies and Political Developments

• Egypt (Fatimids → Ayyubids):

  • Fatimid rule ended in 1171; Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (Saladin) founded the Ayyubid dynasty, recentralizing Egypt, Syria, and the Hejaz under Sunni rule.

  • Cairo remained the capital; al-Azhar continued as a major center of learning.

• Sudan (Nubia):

  • Christian Makuria and Alodia endured south of Egypt under the Baqṭ framework; diplomacy and intermittent raids marked the frontier.

• Southern Levant (Tyre):

  • Tyre fell to the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1124, becoming a key Crusader port and artisanal hub (glass, textiles).

  • After 1187, Ayyubid–Crusader truces and wars alternated; by 1251, Tyre remained a principal Latin stronghold and brokerage point with Egypt and Cyprus.

• Western Arabia (Hejaz):

  • Mecca and Medina acknowledged Ayyubid suzerainty; Hajj caravans tied the Hejaz into Cairo’s fiscal–logistics system.

• Western Yemen:

  • Sulayhids waned after Queen Arwa (d. 1138).

  • Ayyubids conquered Yemen in 1174, then Rasulids (from 1229) established a durable sultanate centered on Aden/Zabid, allied to Red Sea trade.

• Southwestern Cyprus:

  • After 1191–1192, the Lusignan Kingdom of Cyprus controlled the island; its southwestern ports provisioned Crusader Syria and traded with Egypt (overtly or via truces).

• Western Anatolia (Aegean coast):

  • The Komnenian recovery (to 1180) secured the littoral; Myriokephalon (1176) checked Byzantine inland advances.

  • Post-1204, the Empire of Nicaea held the Ionian/Carian coast against the Seljuks of Rum and Latin enclaves; by 1251, Nicaea dominated the Aegean shore while interior Anatolia remained Turkish.

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Economy and Trade

• Cairo–Nile: grain, flax, and sugar surpluses financed the Ayyubid realm; waqf endowments sustained schools and hospitals.

• Red Sea–Indian Ocean: Aden/Zabid funneled spices, aromatics, cottons, and Indian goods to Aydhab and Qūṣfor Cairo; Yemen exported sāqiya-irrigated produce.

• Tyre: exported fine glassware, dyed textiles, and served as a transshipment port between Egypt, Cyprus, and Crusader Syria.

• Western Anatolia & Cyprus: wine, oil, timber, and manufactures moved through Ionian harbors and Cypriot ports, with Nicaean/Latin convoys policing lanes.

• Nubia: traded ivory, gold, and slaves for Egyptian grain and textiles.

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Subsistence and Technology

• Hydraulics: Ayyubids dredged canals and maintained barrages after flood failures; Yemeni terraces and sāqiyawheels stabilized highland yields.

• Institutions: Sunni education expanded via madrasas (Ayyubid patronage), while al-Azhar remained a major scholarly forum.

• Military–fiscal: Ayyubids balanced iqṭāʿ-like land assignments with cash pay; Nicaea fielded professional troops and revived shipyards.

• Shipbuilding: lateen-rigged merchantmen and galleys plied the Red Sea and Aegean.

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Movement and Interaction Corridors

• Nile corridor: Upper Egypt ⇄ Fusṭāṭ–Cairo ⇄ Alexandria.

• Red Sea: Aden/Zabid ⇄ Aydhab/Qūṣ ⇄ Cairo, keyed to monsoon cycles.

• Aegean littoral: Nicaean and Latin fleets contested Smyrna–Ephesus–Rhodes routes; southwestern Cyprus provisioned Levantine ports.

• Pilgrimage: Hajj caravans crossed the Hejaz; Coptic and Nubian pilgrimages linked Upper Egypt and Nubia.

• Tyre’s roadstead: remained Egypt’s key Levantine interface after 1187.

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Belief and Symbolism

• Sunni revival: Ayyubids strengthened Sunni law and institutions; jurists and Sufi networks expanded.

• Coptic and Nubian Christianity: persisted across the Nile and Sudan; Nubian cathedrals and monasteries retained regional influence.

• Latin Christianity: entrenched in Tyre and Cyprus; Latin and Greek rites met in contested ports.

• Judaism: communities in Cairo and Tyre sustained trade finance and scholarship.

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Adaptation and Resilience

• Hydraulic recovery in Egypt after the 1060s crises restored agrarian stability.

• Maritime redundancy: with much of the Levant in Latin hands after 1099, Tyre and Cyprus kept Egyptian–Aegean trade viable via truces and convoying.

• Frontier strategy: Byzantium (Nicaea) pivoted to coastal control; Seljuk iqṭāʿ funded cavalry in interior Anatolia.

• Hejaz–Yemen integration: monsoon schedules and Hajj logistics stabilized Red Sea commerce despite shifting overlords.

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Long-Term Significance

By 1251, the Near East formed a polycentric web:

• Ayyubid Cairo dominated Nile–Red Sea exchange and Sunni learning.

• Tyre—now Latin—anchored Levantine trade, linking Egypt and Cyprus to Crusader and Byzantine markets.

• Nubia remained a Christian buffer south of Egypt.

• Western Anatolia (under Nicaea) sustained Aegean commerce while the interior Turkified under Rum Seljuks.

• Western Yemen’s Rasulids secured Aden’s role in Indian Ocean trade.

These strands bound Nile, Hejaz–Yemen, Tyre–Cyprus, and the Aegean coast into a resilient system that would frame 13th-century confrontations and exchanges among Ayyubids/Mamluks, Crusaders, and Nicaea/Rum Seljuks.

Richard, after wintering in Sicily, had set sail en route to the Holy Land as a leader of the Third Crusade, but in April 1191 his fleet is scattered by storms off Cyprus.

Two ships are wrecked off the southern coast, and a third, carrying Richard's fiancee Berengaria of Navarre, seeks shelter in Lemesos (Limassol).

The wrecked ships are plundered and the survivors robbed by the forces of the usurper governor Isaac Komnenos, and the party of the bride-to-be is prevented from obtaining provisions and fresh water.

When Richard arrives and learns of these affronts, he takes time out from crusading, first to marry Berengaria in the chapel of the fortress at Lemesos and then to capture Cyprus and depose Komnenos.

The capture of Cyprus, seemingly a footnote to history, actually proves beneficial to the crusaders whose foothold in the Holy Land has almost been eliminated by the Muslim commander Saladin.

Cyprus will become a strategically important logistic base and will be used as such for the next hundred years.

Richard extracts a huge bounty from the Cypriots when he defeats Komnenos.

He then appoints officials to administer Cyprus, leaves a small garrison to enforce his rule, and sails on to the Holy Land.

The Cypriots revolt against their new overlords a short time later.

The revolt is quickly put down, but Richard decides that the island is too much of a burden, so he sells it to the Knights Templar, a Frankish military order whose grand master is a member of Richard's coterie.

Their oppressive, tyrannical rule makes that of the avaricious Komnenos seem mild in comparison.

The people again rebel and suffer a massacre, but their persistence leads the Templars, convinced that they will have no peace on Cyprus, to depart.

Control of the island is turned over to Guy de Lusignan, the controversial ruler of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, who evidently agrees to pay Richard the amount still owed him by the Templars.

More than eight hundred years of Roman rule ends as the Frankish Lusignan dynasty establishes a Western feudal system on Cyprus.

Guy de Lusignan lives only two years after assuming control in 1192, but the dynasty that he founds will rule Cyprus as an independent kingdom for more than three centuries.

In religious matters, Lusignan is tolerant of the Cypriot adherence to Orthodoxy, but his brother Amaury, who succeeds him, shows no such liberality.

The stage is hence set for a protracted struggle, which dominates the first half of the Lusignan period.

At issue is the paramountcy of the Roman Catholic Church over the Orthodox church.

Latin sees are established at Famagusta, Limassol, Nicosia, and Paphos; land is appropriated for churches; and authority to collect tithes is granted to the Latins.

Rashid ad-Din Sinan was born in Basra, Iraq and dies in Masyaf, Syria.

According to his autobiography, of which only fragments survive, Rashid had come as a youth to Alamut, the center of the Hashshashins, and received the typical Hashshashin training.

In 1162, the sect's leader Hassan ʿAlā Dhikrihi's Salām had sent him to Syria, where he proclaimed Qiyamah, which in Nizari terminology means the time of the Qa'im and the removal of Islamic law.

Based on the Nizari stronghold Masyaf, he controls the northern Syrian districts of Jabal as-Summaq, Maarrat Misrin and Sarmin.

His chief enemy, the Sultan Saladin, who has ruled over Egypt and Syria from 1174, had managed twice to elude assassination attempts ordered by Rashid and as he was marching against Aleppo, Saladin had devastated the Nizari possessions.

In 1176, Saladin had laid siege to Masyaf but had lifted it after two notable events that reputedly transpired between him and the Old Man of the Mountain.

According to one version, one night, Saladin's guards noticed a spark glowing down the hill of Masyaf and then vanishing among the Ayyubid tents.

Presently, Saladin awoke from his sleep to find a figure leaving the tent.

He then saw that the lamps were displaced and beside his bed laid hot scones of the shape peculiar to the Assassins with a note at the top pinned by a poisoned dagger.

The note threatened that he would be killed if he didn't withdraw from his assault.

Saladin gave a loud cry, exclaiming that Sinan himself was the figure that left the tent.

As such, Saladin told his guards to come to an agreement with Sinan.

Realizing he was unable to subdue the Assassins, he sought to align himself with them, consequently depriving the Crusaders of aligning themselves against him.

Rashid's last notable act occurs in 1192, when he orders the assassination of the newly elected King of Jerusalem Conrad of Montferrat.

Whether this happened in coordination with King Richard I of England or with Saladin remains speculation.

He dies in 1192 in Al-Kahf Castle.

He is succeeded by men appointed from Alamut, which will impose a closer supervision over Masyaf.

The Crusader army had proceeded after the Battle of Arsuf to Jaffa, which the Crusaders had taken and fortified on September 7, 1191 Jaffa, they hope, will be the base of operations in a drive to reconquer Jerusalem itself.

Sporadic negotiations between Richard the Lionheart and Saladin had been taken up as the winter of 1191–1192 approached, though without any immediate result.

The crusader army in November of 1191 had advanced inland towards Jerusalem.

Saladin on December 12 had been forced by pressure from his emirs to disband the greater part of his army.

Richard, learning this, had pushed his army forward, spending Christmas at Latrun.

The army then marched to Beit Nuba, only twelve miles from Jerusalem.

Muslim morale in Jerusalem is so low that the arrival of the Crusaders would probably have caused the city to fall quickly.

The weather has been appallingly bad, however cold with heavy rain and hailstorms; this, combined with the fear that the Crusader army, if it besieged Jerusalem, might be trapped by a relieving force, prompts the decision to retreat to the coast.

The German fraternity that had taken over a hospital in the town of Acre had begun to describe itself as the Hospital of St. Mary of the German House in Jerusalem.

The late Pope Clement III had approved it, and it adopts a rule like that of the original Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem.

Richard I of England, intent on recapturing Jerusalem from the Ayyubid Sultanate, had called on Conrad of Monferrat to join him on campaign, but he had refused, citing Richard's alliance with his vassal Guy of Lusignan.

He too had been negotiating with Saladin, as a defense against any attempt by Richard to wrest Tyre from him for Guy.

Richard is forced to accept Conrad as king of Jerusalem after an election in April by the barons of the remnant crusader states.

Richard unhappily consents to the request that Guy, who has managed to lose the support of nearly all the barons, be deposed and Conrad of Montferrat, Lord of Tyre, immediately be accepted as titular King of Jerusalem.

Guy receives no votes at all, but Richard sells him Cyprus as compensation.

Richard had sent his nephew Henry II of Champagne as his representative from Acre to Tyre, to inform Conrad, now in his mid to late forties, of his election as King of Jerusalem.

Conrad’s wife, Queen Isabella, who is pregnant, is late in returning from the baths to dine with him, so on April 28, he goes to eat at the house of his kinsman and friend, Philip, Bishop of Beauvais.

The bishop had already eaten, so Conrad returns home; on his way, he is stabbed at least twice in the side and back by two Hashshashin.

His attendants, who kill one of his attackers and capture the other, carry him home to receive the last rites before dying of his wounds.

Henry returns to Tyre two days later, ostensibly to help organize Conrad's coronation, but finds that a funeral is being prepared instead.

Immediately betrothed to the newly widowed Isabella, he will wed her just a week after Conrad's death.

The murder remains unsolved.

The surviving Hashshashin claims under torture that Richard is behind the killing, although this is impossible to prove.

Another suspect is Humphrey IV of Toron, Isabella's first husband.

Saladin's involvement has also been alleged, but as Conrad seems to have been undertaking negotiations with him to secure the kingdom, this seems less likely; also, Saladin himself has no love for the Hashshashin.

Ascalon, its fortifications earlier razed by Saladin, has been occupied and refortified during the winter months.

The spring of 1192 sees continued negotiations and further skirmishing between the opposing forces.

Richard moves south with his army to take the walled city of Daron, located on the border of Egypt and Palestine, in May 1192 but fails to progress further.

While celebrating victory at Daron, the Christians had gleefully tossed their Muslim prisoners from the top of a high wall to their deaths.