Diplomatic Correspondence of Armenian King Levon I with Egyptian Sultan al-Malik al-Adil (1208–1209)

Abstract

According to the valuable information provided by two historians (Anonymous of Edessa and Kamal ad-Din Ibn al-Adim), in 605 AH (1208-1209), in response to the request of King Levon, al-Malik al-Adil sent letters to Kay Khosrov and al-Malik al-Zahir, persuading or forcing them, to make peace with the Armenian side. According to the reconciliation, established between parties, the Seljuks of Rum and the Ayyubids of Aleppo stopped their joint attack against Cilicia. Instead, the Armenian side had to fulfill some of the demands of the three countries of anti-Cilician alliance. In particular, King Levon had to hand over the fortress of Gaston (Baghras) to the Templars, not to interfere in the affairs of Antioch, and return the property left by Kay Khosrov in Cilicia . Of all these conditions, Levon fulfilled only the commitment to the Sultanate of Iconium.

As for the main demand, that is “not to interfere in the affairs of Antioch”, it is true, that such an attempt was not made during the next eight years (from 1208 to 1216), and there was a relative peace around the issue of Antioch. Levon I’s dream was accomplished in 1216, ending a 15-year long conflict in the northern Eastern Mediterranean. This was already the last stage of that conflict, in which all the aforementioned actor-states took part again, and diplomatic correspondence, including messages between al-Malik al-Adil and Levon the Great, this time also had a decisive role, greatly affecting the final result of the conflict. It clearly demonstrated, that Egypt-Cilician Armenia relations had been maintained during that period on the level of the monarchs, and that the correspondence of 1208-1209 was not an accidental or unique phenomenon.