| 1202 CE Quakes |
Abu Shama's account has many similarities with fellow Damascene Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi indicating that the two men
either shared a source or Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi was one of Abu Shama's sources (perhaps his primary source).
Ambraseys and Melville (1988:185) state that
Abu Shama quotes the testimony of
al-'Izz Muhammad b. Taj al-umana' (d. 643/1245) which could be a common source
however since Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi was ~17 years old and living in Damascus when the earthquake struck, it would seem that
he included personal experience and would not have relied on only one source.
Ambraseys and Melville (1988:187) later suggest that
Abu Shama used Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi as a source and added testimony from al-'Izz Muhammad b. Taj al-umana' who was
a descendant of Ibn 'Asakir and a continuator of the latter's Biographical history of Damascus (Cahen, 1940)
while adding
It is clear that the first part of Sibt b. al-Jauzi's 597 H. account also follows al-'Izz.
Under 598 H., al-'Izz records the effect of the shock in north Syria and in Damascus,
with some minor details additional to those provided by 'Abd al-Latif [al-Baghdadi].
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