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Islamic dynasty from 1171 to 1341
- 1341
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- North Africa
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Islamic dynasty from 1171 to 1341
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The Ayyubid dynasty (Arabic: الأيوبيون, romanized: al-Ayyūbīyūn), also known as the Ayyubid Sultanate, was a Sunni Muslim dynasty of Kurdish origin that founded the medieval Sultanate of Egypt, which was established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate. Saladin had originally served the Zengid ruler Nur al-Din, leading the latter's army against the Crusaders in Fatimid Egypt, where he was made vizier. Following the death of his Zengid suzerain Nur al-Din in 1174, Saladin was proclaimed as the first Sultan of Egypt by the Abbasid Caliphate, and rapidly expanded the new sultanate beyond Egypt to encompass most of Syria, in addition to Hejaz, Yemen, northern Nubia, Tripolitania and Upper Mesopotamia. Saladin's military campaigns set the general borders and sphere of influence of the sultanate of Egypt for the almost 350 years of its existence. Most of the Crusader states fell to Saladin after his victory at the Battle of Hattin in 1187, but the Crusaders reconquered the Syrian coastlands in the 1190s.
After Saladin's death in 1193, his sons contested control of the sultanate, but Saladin's brother al-Adil ultimately became sultan in 1200. All of the later Ayyubid sultans of Egypt were his descendants. In the 1230s, the emirs of Syria attempted to assert their independence from Egypt and the Ayyubid realm remained divided until Sultan as-Salih Ayyub restored its unity by subduing most of Syria, except Aleppo, by 1247. By then, local Muslim dynasties had driven out the Ayyubids from Yemen, the Hejaz, and parts of Mesopotamia. After his death in 1249, as-Salih Ayyub was succeeded in Egypt by his son al-Mu'azzam Turanshah. However, the latter was soon overthrown by his Mamluk generals who had repelled a Crusader invasion of the Nile Delta. This effectively ended Ayyubid power in Egypt. Attempts by the emirs of Syria, led by an-Nasir Yusuf of Aleppo, to wrest back Egypt failed. In 1260, the Mongols sacked Aleppo and conquered the Ayyubids' remaining territories soon after. The Mamluks, who expelled the Mongols, maintained the Ayyubid principality of Hama until deposing its last ruler in 1341.
Despite their relatively short tenure, the Ayyubid dynasty had a transformative effect on the region, particularly Egypt. Under the Ayyubids, Egypt, which had previously been a formally Shi'a caliphate, became the dominant Sunni political and military force, and the economic and cultural centre of the region, a status that it would retain until it was conquered by the Ottomans in 1517. Throughout the sultanate, Ayyubid rule ushered in an era of economic prosperity, and the facilities and patronage provided by the Ayyubids led to a resurgence in intellectual activity in the Islamic world. This period was also marked by an Ayyubid process of vigorously strengthening Sunni Muslim dominance in the region by constructing numerous madrasas (Islamic schools of law) in their major cities.
Medieval and early modern sources often refer to the Ayyubids as Kurds, their state as Dawlat al-Akrād 'Kurdish state', and their sultans as mulūk al-Akrād 'Kurdish kings'. Among the earliest examples are an Arabic inscription from Mecca from the reign of al-ʿĀdil, recorded by Taqi al-Din al-Fasi, which calls the Ayyubids Kurdish kings. And the Zaydi imam al-Mansur, who in 1204 praised the Ayyubid conquerors of Yemen as 'Kurds who never bowed to a tyrant' (مِنَ الكُرْدِ لَمْ تَخضَعْ لِطَاغٍ وإِن عَلا). Minhaj al-Siraj Juzjani's Ṭabaqāt-i Nāṣirī includes the Ayyubids under the heading The Kurdiyyah kings, and the Armenian historian Hethum of Corycus described the transfer of Egypt to "the Medians called Kurds".
Al-Khazraji's Tārīkh Dawlat al-Akrād 'the History of the Kurdish State', also given as Tārīkh Dawlat al-Akrād wa-l-Atrāk, uses Kurds for the Ayyubids and Turks for the Mamluks who succeeded them. An anonymous Mamluk chronicler titled his work Kitāb al-Ishāra fī l-Imāra wa-l-Wizāra wa-Tārīkh Dawlat al-Akrād, calling Saladin "the first of the Kurdish kings" and al-Ashraf "the last of the Kurdish kings in Egypt". Ibn Khaldun speaks of the Kurdish state that preceded the Mamluks, al-Maqrizi writes that the Kurds took over the kingdom of Egypt, and Ibn Iyas calls the reign of As-Salih Ayyub during the Seventh Crusade the Kurdish state. An Ottoman catalogue dedicated to the grand vizier Ibrahim Pasha refers to the Kurdish sultans of the Ayyubid state. Ottoman-era authors such as ʿAbd al-Qadir al-Tabari, Kâtip Çelebi and ʿAbd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi likewise call the Ayyubids Kurdish kings or the Kurdish state. The dynasty is also referred to as Ayyubid Kurds and "Kurdish rulers of Egypt".
The progenitor of the Ayyubid dynasty, Najm ad-Din Ayyub ibn Shadhi, belonged to the Kurdish Rawadiya, a branch of the Hadhbani tribe. According to Iranica, the Rawadiya were originally of Arab descent and became Kurdicized over time. In later periods, members of the Ayyubid dynasty sponsored genealogies showing that they were not Kurds, but rather descended from noble Arab lineages, including the Banu Umayya. While these genealogies are generally regarded as politically motivated constructions, the historian Vladimir Minorsky argued that they reflect an underlying historical reality. He suggested the Rawadiya Kurds to be descendants of the Arab general Rawwād al-Azdī, who governed Tabriz in the early 9th century, and whose lineage became Kurdicized in Azerbaijan. These groups later emerged as a principal clan within the Hadhbani confederation, with one branch eventually settling in Dvin, Armenia. According to this view, the later Arab genealogies of the Ayyubids preserve a genuine, though distant, memory of Arab origins. Hugh Kennedy notes that an Azdī Arab family called the Banū Rawwād settled in Azerbaijan in the early Abbasid period, but says it is not clear they were connected to the later Kurdish dynasty. Ismet Cheriff Vanly regarded them as two separate groups from different periods. Ibn Khallikan reported that historians agreed on the family's Kurdish origin, and that he found no source naming anyone before Shadhi, though an Ayyubid family member told him Shadhi was Marwan's son.
According to Yasser Tabbaa, an anthropologist specializing in medieval Islamic culture, the Ayyubid rulers who reigned in the late 12th-century were far removed from their Kurdish origins, and unlike their Seljuq predecessors and their Mamluk successors, they were firmly "Arabized". Arabic culture and language formed the main component of their identity instead of their Kurdish heritage.
Ayyub's ancestors settled in the town of Dvin, in northern Armenia. The Rawadiya were part of the political-military elite of the town. Circumstances became unfavorable in Dvin when Turks seized the town. Shadhi left with his two sons Ayyub and Asad ad-Din Shirkuh. His friend Mujahid ad-Din Bihruz—the military governor of northern Mesopotamia under the Seljuks—welcomed him and appointed him governor of Tikrit. After Shadhi's death, Ayyub succeeded him in governance of the city with the assistance of his brother Shirkuh. Together they managed the affairs of the city well, gaining them popularity from the local inhabitants. In the meantime, Imad ad-Din Zangi, the ruler of Mosul, was defeated by the Abbasids under Caliph al-Mustarshid and Bihruz. In his bid to escape the battlefield to Mosul via Tikrit, Zangi took shelter with Ayyub and sought his assistance in this task. Ayyub complied and provided Zangi and his companions boats to cross the Tigris River and safely reach Mosul.
As a consequence for assisting Zangi, the Abbasid authorities sought punitive measures against Ayyub. Simultaneously, in a separate incident, Shirkuh killed a close confidant of Bihruz on charges that he had sexually assaulted a woman in Tikrit. The Abbasid court issued arrest warrants for both Ayyub and Shirkuh, but before the brothers could be arrested, they departed Tikrit for Mosul in 1138. When they arrived in Mosul, Zangi provided them with all the facilities they needed and he recruited the two brothers into his service. Ayyub was made commander of Ba'albek and Shirkuh entered the service of Zangi's son, Nur ad-Din. According to historian Abdul Ali, it was under the care and patronage of Zangi that the Ayyubid family rose to prominence.
In 1164, Nur al-Din dispatched Shirkuh to lead an expeditionary force to prevent the Crusaders from establishing a strong presence in an increasingly anarchic Egypt. Shirkuh enlisted Ayyub's son, Saladin, as an officer under his command. They successfully drove out Dirgham, the vizier of Egypt, and reinstated his predecessor Shawar. After being reinstated, Shawar ordered Shirkuh to withdraw his forces from Egypt, but Shirkuh refused, claiming it was Nur al-Din's will that he remain. Over the course of several years, Shirkuh and Saladin defeated the combined forces of the Crusaders and Shawar's troops, first at Bilbais, then at a site near Giza, and in Alexandria, where Saladin would stay to protect while Shirkuh pursued Crusader forces in Lower Egypt.
Shawar died in 1169 and Shirkuh became vizier, but he too died later that year. After Shirkuh's death, Saladin was appointed vizier by the Fatimid caliph al-Adid because there was "no one weaker or younger" than Saladin, and "not one of the emirs obeyed him or served him", according to medieval Muslim chronicler Ibn al-Athir. Saladin soon found himself more independent than ever before in his career, much to the dismay of Nur al-Din who attempted to influence events in Egypt. He permitted Saladin's elder brother, Turan-Shah, to supervise Saladin in a bid to cause dissension within the Ayyubid family and thus undermining its position in Egypt. Nur al-Din satisfied Saladin's request that he be joined by his father Ayyub. However, Ayyub was sent primarily to ensure that Abbasid suzerainty was proclaimed in Egypt, which Saladin was reluctant to undertake due to his position as the vizier of the Fatimids. Although Nur al-Din failed to provoke the Ayyubids into rivalry, the extended Ayyubid family, particularly a number of local governors in Syria, did not entirely back Saladin.
Saladin consolidated his control in Egypt after ordering Turan-Shah to put down a revolt in Cairo staged by the Fatimid army's 50,000-strong Nubian regiments. After this success, Saladin began granting his family members high-ranking positions in the country and increased Sunni Muslim influence in Shia Muslim-dominated Cairo by ordering the construction of a college for the Maliki school of jurisprudence of Sunni Islam in the city, and another for the Shafi'i school, to which he belonged, in al-Fustat. In 1171, al-Adid died and Saladin took advantage of this power vacuum, effectively taking control of the country. Upon seizing power, he switched Egypt's allegiance to the Baghdad-based Abbasid Caliphate which adhered to Sunni Islam.
Saladin went to Alexandria in 1171–72 and found himself facing the dilemma of having many supporters in the city, but little money. A family council was held there by the Ayyubid emirs of Egypt where it was decided that al-Muzaffar Taqi al-Din Umar, Saladin's nephew, would launch an expedition against the coastal region of Barqa (Cyrenaica) west of Egypt with a force of 500 cavalry. To justify the raid, a letter was sent to the Bedouin tribes of Barqa, rebuking them for their robberies of travelers and ordering them to pay the alms-tax (zakat). The latter was to be collected from their livestock.
In late 1172, Aswan was besieged by former Fatimid soldiers from Nubia and the governor of the city, Kanz al-Dawla—a former Fatimid loyalist—requested reinforcements from Saladin who complied. The reinforcements had come after the Nubians had already departed Aswan, but Ayyubid forces led by Turan-Shah advanced and conquered northern Nubia after capturing the town of Ibrim. Turan-Shah and his Kurdish soldiers temporarily lodged there. From Ibrim, they raided the surrounding region, halting their operations after being presented with an armistice proposal from the Makurian king. Although Turan-Shah's initial response was hawkish, he later sent an envoy to Dongola, who upon returning, described the poverty of the city and of Nubia in general to Turan-Shah. Consequently, the Ayyubids, like their Fatimid predecessors, were discouraged from further southward expansion into Nubia due to the poverty of the region, but required Nubia to guarantee the protection of Aswan and Upper Egypt. The Ayyubid garrison in Ibrim withdrew to Egypt in 1175.
Throughout the 1170s, the Ayyubids continued to push west as well. Sharaf al-Din Qaraqush, a commander under al-Muzaffar Taqi al-Din Umar, led most of these expeditions on the frontier. He captured Siwa in 1172 and conquered Cyrenaica before 1174. He subsequently conquered Tripoli with an army of Turks and Kurds, joined by Arab troops from some of the region's Bedouin tribes. The exact date of Tripoli's capture is uncertain, but happened sometime in the 1170s or early 1180s. While some Ayyubid forces fought the Crusaders in the Levant, Qaraqush's forces went on to capture most of Ifriqiya (present-day Tunisia) from the Almohads by 1185–1186. By this point, Qaraqush had also entered into alliance with the Banu Ghaniya, led by Ali ibn Ghaniya, another enemy of the Almohads. The Almohad caliph Yaqub al-Mansur reconquered Ifriqiya from 1187 to 1188, defeating both of them. The Ayyubids made no further attempts to intervene in the Maghreb after this.
In 1173, Saladin sent Turan-Shah to conquer Yemen and the Hejaz. Muslim writers Ibn al-Athir and later al-Maqrizi wrote that the reasoning behind the conquest of Yemen was an Ayyubid fear that should Egypt fall to Nur al-Din, they could seek refuge in a faraway territory. In May 1174, Turan-Shah conquered Zabid and later that year captured Aden. Aden became the principal maritime port of the dynasty in the Indian Ocean and the principal city of Yemen, although the official capital of Ayyubid Yemen was Ta'iz. The advent of the Ayyubids marked the beginning of a period of renewed prosperity in the city which saw the improvement of its commercial infrastructure, the establishment of new institutions, and the minting of its own coins. Following this prosperity, the Ayyubids implemented a new tax which was collected by galleys.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Ayyubid dynasty”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.