The main purpose of this article is to place al-Malik al-Kāmil in the context of Islamic history. The article is divided into five parts, based on periods of Islamic history. The first part deals with the problem of Mohamad's succession and the concept of the caliphate that solved that problem. The second part presents the role of the ʿulamāʾ (i.e. the communi-ty of religious scholars) in the Umayyad and the Abbasid Caliphate and the relationship between the ʿulamāʾ and the caliphs. The third part is dedicated to the emergence of new sub-dynasties that rivalled the Abbasid caliphate. Special attention is paid to the development of the Caliph’s role and the emergence of alternative and previously unknown forms of go-vernment. In the fourth part the story of the Ayyubid dynasty is shortly presented and placed in the context of the political changes addressed in the third part. This part also addresses the concept of the sultanate, i.e. its origin and its basic characteristics. The fifth part briefly presents al-Malik al-Kāmil, focusing especially on his role in the political structure of that time and parts of his life that are strongly linked to previous events of Islamic history. At the end, the survey leads us to a small city called Damietta where in 1219 A.D., a 49-year-old al-Malik al-Kāmil who had become a sultan just a year before, stood in front of the Franks.
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