The Karasunkur-Aqqush defection to the Mongols and al-Nuwayri's stand, 712/1312

Name: The Karasunkur-Aqqush defection to the Mongols and al-Nuwayri's stand, 712/1312
Start: 1312
Location: Tripoli (al-Sham)

فرار كراسنكر وأقوش إلى المغول وصمود النويري، ٧١٢هـ/١٣١٢م

1312 CE · 712 AH

Tripoli (al-Sham)

When al-Nasir, stung by two depositions, set about eliminating the senior amirs who could threaten his rule, the governor of Aleppo, Shams al-Din Karasunkur, saw that his only hope of survival was flight and tried to win over amirs including the na'ib of Tripoli, perhaps to provoke an insurrection in Syria. Al-Nuwayri, claiming amicable relations with the governor, sought to dissuade him from following Karasunkur — he recounts the conversation and his arguments — but the amir nevertheless fled to the Mongols together with Damascus's governor Jamal al-Din Aqqush al-Afram and tried to induce al-Nuwayri and the amirs of Tripoli to join him; al-Nuwayri relates how he persuaded all but one to stay and induced them to renew their oath of allegiance to the sultan ¹.

Depth

At a glance

Era: The Mongol and Post-Mongol Era
Region: Levant & Iraq

In time

The Crusades, Ayyubids and Mamluks · The Mongol and Post-Mongol Era

In space

Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph

Summary

When Sultan al-Nasir set about eliminating the senior amirs, Aleppo's governor Shams al-Din Karasunkur fled to the Mongols in 712/1312 together with Damascus's governor Jamal al-Din Aqqush al-Afram — having first tried to win over Syrian amirs including the na'ib of Tripoli. Al-Nuwayri sought to dissuade the governor, recounting their conversation and his arguments, then how he persuaded all but one of Tripoli's amirs not to follow and induced them to renew their oath of allegiance to the sultan ¹.

At the centre of events

The Encyclopaedia of Islam notes that at Tripoli al-Nuwayri stood at the centre of great events: the defectors courted him, and though he could not prevent the flight he contained the damage and renewed the amirs' loyalty ¹.

Connections

Explore the connections

Had participant: al-Nuwayri· Shams al-Din Karasunkur· Jamal al-Din Aqqush al-Afram
Occurred at: Tripoli (al-Sham)
During the reign of: al-Mustakfi I

People and things also explored

Al-Nuwayri arrives at Tripoli as sahib diwan al-insha', Safar 710/July 1310· Al-Nuwayri in the audition sessions: Sahih al-Bukhari under Wazira bint al-Munadhdha, 715/1315· The second copy of the Nihaya: eighteen volumes in under ten months, 721-722/1321-1322· Al-Nuwayri's death at Cairo, 21 Ramadan 733/5 June 1333· The Iwan al-Bahri dream: al-Nuwayri still at the Nasiriyya, 13 Dhu al-Qa'da 729/8 September 1329· Ibn Abbada has al-Nuwayri flogged and confiscates his property, c. 710/1310· Al-Nuwayri joins the exiled al-Nasir at al-Karak, Rabi' II 709/September 1309· Composition of the Nihaya begins: volume one dated 714/1314

Sources

Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition (Leiden: Brill, 1954–2008), 13 volumes , vol. 8 p. 158

Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “The Karasunkur-Aqqush defection to the Mongols and al-Nuwayri's stand, 712/1312”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/nuwayri-karasunkur-712/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-09.

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Al-Nuwayri arrives at Tripoli as sahib diwan al-insha', Safar 710/July 1310

Al-Nuwayri reached Tripoli in Safar 710 (July 1310) as sahib diwan al-insha', head of the correspondence office, replacing the senior official Taj al-Din al-Tawil, mustawfi al-dawla (d. 711); a few months later the same year he was appointed nazir al-jaysh in place of the lately deceased Najm al-Din al-Qasir. He travelled extensively during his time at Tripoli, as he had in Upper Egypt and Damascus, and stayed until 712/1312, witnessing the governor of Damascus's defection to the Mongols.