Al-Malik al-Kamil takes Amid, 630

In 630 AH al-Malik al-Kamil besieged Amid and took it from its ruler, al-Malik al-Masʿud. He bombarded it with catapults. When al-Masʿud saw that he was defeated, he came out with a cloth around his neck, and he was placed under guard and the city was handed over to al-Kamil. Al-Kamil demanded that he surrender the fortresses. He handed them all over except the fortress of Kayfa, and al-Kamil tortured him in various ways, for al-Kamil had hated him. The chronicle describes al-Masʿud as dissolute, one who seized women by force, until five hundred free women, daughters of people, were found in his palace ¹.

With the taking of Amid, the greatest city of Diyar Bakr and its most famous fortress, al-Kamil added to his sultanate the great fortresses that remained to the Artuqids. Most of al-Jazira then came under the Ayyubids. In the previous century it had been the field of contention among the sultans of Rum, the Zangids and the Artuqids ¹.