Nasr ad-Din Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Asad ad-Din Shirkuh (sometimes referred to as Nasr ad-Din ibn Shirkuh and al-Malik al-Qahir)Ibn Khallikan’s Biographical Dictionary Vol 1, Cosimo Inc. 2010 p.627 was the

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

Ayyubid emir of Homs from 1179 to 1186.

Accession

The

Zangid The Zengid dynasty was a Muslim dynasty of Oghuz Turkic origin, which ruled parts of the Levant and Upper Mesopotamia on behalf of the Seljuk Empire and eventually seized control of Egypt in 1169. In 1174 the Zengid state extended from Tripoli ...

Sultan

Nur ad-Din Zengi Nūr al-Dīn Maḥmūd Zengī (; February 1118 – 15 May 1174), commonly known as Nur ad-Din (lit. "Light of the Faith" in Arabic), was a member of the Zengid dynasty, which ruled the Syrian province (''Shām'') of the Seljuk Empire. He reig ...

had given the domain of Homs to

Shirkuh Asad ad-Dīn Shīrkūh bin Shādhī (; ar, أسد الدين شيركوه بن شاذي), also known as Shirkuh, or Şêrko (meaning "lion of the mountains" in Kurdish) (died 22 February 1169) was a Kurdish military commander, and uncle of Sal ...

in 1164. Five years later, on Shirkuh’s death, Nur ad-Din took the city back, but following his victory at the Horns of Hama in 1175,

Saladin Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سه‌لاحه‌دین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...

gave the domain of Homs to his son Muhammad ibn Shirkuh.Runciman S. Hunyadi Z., Laszlovszky J., The Crusades and the Military Orders: Expanding the Frontier of Medieval Latin Christianity, CEU Medievalia, 2001,p.62 He also gave him Palmyra and

ar-Rahba Al-Rahba (/ALA-LC: ''al-Raḥba'', sometimes spelled ''Raḥabah''), also known as Qal'at al-Rahba, which translates as the "Citadel of al-Rahba", is a medieval Arab fortress on the west bank of the Euphrates River, adjacent to the city of Maya ...

. Saladin thought so highly of Muhammad ibn Shirkuh that in 1185 (581) he planned to give him the major strategic domain of

Mosul Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second larg ...

in northern Iraq. However, the campaign to take the city from the Zengids was not successful, and he had to withdraw his forces, so Muhammad ibn Shirkuh received nothing.

Family

Muhammad ibn Shirkuh married a sister of Saladin, who was thus his own first cousin, known as Sitt Ash-Sham (‘The Lady of Syria’, i.e. not her given name). Her full name was Sitt Ash-Sham Zumurrud Khatun bint Najm d-Din Ayyub. When she married Muhammad ibn Shirkuh she was the widow of one of Saladin’s military commanders named Lajin, by whom he had a son named Husan ad-Din Umar b. Lajin.Necipoğlu G. (ed.) Muqarnas: An Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture vol. XI E>J> Brill, Leiden 1994 p. 47 Sitt Ash-Sham was famous for the scale and generosity of her charitable works. It is not clear whether she was or was not the mother of his heir Al-Mujahid, but it is generally assumed that she was not.

Death

Saladin fell ill while laying siege to Mosul in 1185 and was obliged to retreat back into Syria. As he began making arrangements for his succession, Muhammad ibn Shirkuh saw an opportunity to expand his domains. He hurried away to Homs and made arrangements with certain notables in Damascus for them to surrender their city to him in the event of Saladin’s death. Before any of his plans could be put into effect, however, Muhammad ibn Shirkuh died suddenly in Homs on 4 March 1186 (10 Dhu’l Hijja 581). The cause of his death was apparently excessive drinking.Humphreys, R.S. From Saladin to the Mongols: The Ayyubids of Damascus 1193-1260, SUNY Press 1977 p.58 He was succeeded in Homs by his thirteen-year-old son Al Malik Al-Mujahid Asad ad-Din Shirkuh II. Widowed a second time, his wife Sitt ash-Sham outlived him by more than thirty years and died in 1220 (616) in Damascus.

References

{{Ayyubid dynasty 1186 deaths 12th-century Kurdish people 12th-century Ayyubid rulers Muslims of the Crusades Kurdish rulers Sunni Muslims 12th-century Syrian people Year of birth unknown