The earliest known account of this earthquake comes from the Damascene historian Abu Shama, who described a violent earthquake that struck on the night of 1 May 1212 CE. He reported that the shock caused damage in Cairo, Shubak, and al-Karak, and was felt most strongly at Ayla. Later Muslim authors generally repeated his account, though they omitted mention of Ayla and wrote instead that the earthquake caused destruction across Egypt, not just in Cairo.

A separate testimony by Patriarch Nektarios of Jerusalem records that Saint Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai suffered damage from an earthquake that struck at dawn on 1 May 1212 CE, preceded by foreshocks at sunset and midnight on the previous evening. Both he and Abu Shama noted an unusual atmospheric phenomenon before the main shock. Abu Shama described “a black wind accompanied by many falling stars,” whereas later Egyptian writers al-Maqrîzî and as‑Suyūṭī referred to “smoke” descending from the sky over Damascus. Nectarius added that aftershocks continued at Saint Catherine’s Monastery, and Ambraseys (2009: 338) reports that aftershocks lasted for a year, apparently based on one of his Greek sources.

Abu Shama’s mention of strong shaking at Ayla, together with reports of damage at Shubak, al-Karak, and Saint Catherine’s, suggests rupture along the Araba Fault and/or within the Gulf of Aqaba. Possible paleoseismic evidence from the southern Araba may correspond to this event, though distinguishing the effects of the 1068 CE Quake(s) from those of the 1212 CE Quake remains difficult. The Qatar Trench, however, appears to preserve well-dated evidence of the 1212 CE Quake, and additional indications may occur in Dead Sea sediments and as submarine landslides within the Gulf of Aqaba.