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- Ayyubid dynasty, Sunni Muslim dynasty, founded by Saladin (Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn), that ruled in the late 12th and early 13th centuries over Egypt and what became Upper Iraq, most of Syria, and Yemen.
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Apr 30, 2024 · Ayyubid dynasty, Sunni Muslim dynasty, founded by Saladin, that ruled in the late 12th and early 13th centuries over Egypt and what became Upper Iraq, most of Syria, and Yemen. It is known for displacing the Fatimid dynasty in Egypt and for creating a united Muslim front against the Crusades.
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- Overview
- The Mamluk dynasty
Mamluk, slave soldier, a member of one of the armies of slaves established during the Abbasid era that later won political control of several Muslim states. Under the Ayyubid sultanate, Mamluk generals used their power to establish a dynasty that ruled Egypt and Syria from 1250 to 1517. The name is derived from an Arabic word for slave.
The use of Mamluks as a major component of Muslim armies became a distinct feature of Islamic civilization as early as the 9th century CE. The practice was begun in Baghdad by the ʿAbbasid caliph al-Muʿtaṣim (833–842), and it soon spread throughout the Muslim world. Moreover, the political result was almost invariably the same: the slaves exploited the military power vested in them to seize control over the legitimate political authorities, often only briefly but sometimes for astonishingly long periods of time. Thus, soon after al-Muʿtaṣim’s reign the caliphate itself fell victim to the Turkish Mamluk generals, who were able to depose or murder caliphs almost with impunity. Although the caliphate was maintained as a symbol of legitimate authority, the actual power was wielded by the Mamluk generals; and by the 13th century, Mamluks had succeeded in establishing dynasties of their own, both in Egypt and in India, in which the sultans were necessarily men of slave origin or the heirs of such men.
This process of usurping power was epitomized by and culminated in the establishment of the Mamluk dynasty, which ruled Egypt and Syria from 1250 to 1517 and whose descendants survived in Egypt as an important political force during the Ottoman occupation (1517–1798). The Kurdish general Saladin, who gained control of Egypt in 1169, followed what by then constituted a tradition in Muslim military practice by including a slave corps in his army in addition to Kurdish, Arab, Turkmen, and other free elements. This practice was also followed by his successors. Al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Ayyūb (1240–49) is reputed to have been the largest purchaser of slaves, chiefly Turkish, as a means of protecting his sultanate both from rivals within the Ayyubid dynasty and from the crusaders. Upon his death in 1249 a struggle for his throne ensued, in the course of which the Mamluk generals murdered his heir and eventually succeeded in establishing one of their own number as sultan. Thenceforth, for more than 250 years, Egypt and Syria were ruled by Mamluks or sons of Mamluks.
Historians have traditionally broken the era of Mamluk rule into two periods—one covering 1250–1382, the other, 1382–1517. Western historians call the former the “Baḥrī” period and the latter the “Burjī,” because of the political dominance of the regiments known by these names during the respective times. The contemporary Muslim historians referred to the same divisions as the “Turkish” and “Circassian” periods, in order to call attention to the change in ethnic origin of the majority of Mamluks, which occurred and persisted after the accession of Barqūq in 1382, and to the effects that this change had on the fortunes of the state.
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Egypt Since the Pharaohs
There is universal agreement among historians that the Mamluk state reached its height under the Turkish sultans and then fell into a prolonged phase of decline under the Circassians. The principal achievements of the Turkish Mamluks lay in their expulsion of the remaining crusaders from the Levant and their rout of the Mongols in Palestine and Syria; they thereby earned the thanks of all Muslims for saving Arabic-Islamic civilization from destruction. It is doubtful, however, that such a goal figured in their plans; rather, as rulers of Egypt they were seeking to reconstitute the Egyptian Empire. The Mamluks also sought to extend their power into the Arabian Peninsula and into Anatolia and Little Armenia; to protect Egypt’s rear, they strove to establish their presence in Nubia.
To consolidate their position in the Islamic world, the Mamluks revived the caliphate, which the Mongols had destroyed in 1258, and installed a caliph under their surveillance in Cairo. Their patronage of the rulers of the holy cities of Arabia, Mecca and Medina, served the same purpose. Spectacular success in war and diplomacy was underpinned economically by the Mamluks’ support of industries and crafts as well as by their restoration of Egypt as the principal trade and transit route between the Orient and the Mediterranean.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
The Ayyubid or Ayyoubid Dynasty was a Muslim dynasty of Kurdish [1] origins which ruled Egypt, Syria, Yemen (except for the Northern Mountains), Diyar Bakr, Mecca, Hejaz and northern Iraq in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The Ayyubids are also known as Ayoubites, Ayyoubites, Ayoubides, or Ayyoubides.
The Ayyubid dynasty was a Muslim dynasty of Kurdish origin, founded by Saladin and centered in Egypt. The dynasty ruled much of the Middle East during the 12th and 13th centuries CE. The Ayyubid family, under the brothers Ayyub and Shirkuh, originally served as soldiers for the Zengids until they supplanted them under Saladin, Ayyub’s son.
The first rulers of the sultanate hailed from the mamluk regiments of the Ayyubid sultan al-Salih Ayyub (r. 1240–1249 ), usurping power from his successor in 1250. The Mamluks under Sultan Qutuz and Baybars routed the Mongols in 1260, halting their southward expansion.
May 27, 2024 · Saladin (born 1137/38, Tikrīt, Mesopotamia [now in Iraq]—died March 4, 1193, Damascus [now in Syria]) was a Muslim sultan of Egypt, Syria, Yemen, and Palestine, founder of the Ayyūbid dynasty, and the most famous of Muslim heroes.
Apr 9, 2023 · The founder and greatest ruler of the Ayyubid Empire was Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, who is commonly known in Western history as Saladin. His dynasty is best known for fighting against...
