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Shirkuh
Asad ad-Dīn Shīrkūh bin Shādhī (; ), (died 23 March 1169) was a Kurdish Mercenary commander in service of the Zengid dynasty, then the Fatimid Caliphate and uncle of Saladin. His military and diplomatic efforts in Egypt were a key factor in establishing the Ayyubid dynasty in that country. Name The pronunciation and the meaning of Shirkuh is not quite clear: it could mean “the mountain lion” or possibly Shirguh (Sher-gue) in Kurdish “having the lion’s ear". His Arabic honorific ''Asad ad-Din'' similarly means "the lion of faith". In Latin, his name was rendered as "Siraconus"; William of Tyre, referring to the expedition of 1163, describes him as: an able and energetic warrior, eager for glory and of wide experience in military affairs. Generous far beyond the resources of his patrimony, Shirkuh was beloved by his followers because of this munificence. He was small of stature, very stout and fat and already advanced in years. Though of lowly origin, he had bec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crusader Invasion Of Egypt
Egypt was repeatedly invaded from 1163 to 1169 by King Amalric of Jerusalem, who wished to strengthen its position in the Levant by taking advantage of the weakness of the Fatimid Caliphate. The invasions began as part of a succession crisis in the caliphate, which began to crumble under the pressure of Muslim Syria ruled by the Zengids and the Christian Crusader states. While one side called for help from the emir of Syria, Nur ad-Din Zengi, the other called for Crusader assistance. As the war progressed, however, it became a war of conquest. A number of Syrian campaigns into Egypt were stopped short of total victory by the aggressive campaigning of King Amalric. Even so, the Crusaders generally speaking did not have things go their way, despite several sackings. A combined Byzantine–Crusader siege of Damietta failed in 1169, the same year that Saladin took power in Egypt as vizier. In 1171, Saladin became sultan of Egypt and the crusaders thereafter turned their attention to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saladin
Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known as Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from a Kurdish family, he was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, he spearheaded the Muslim military effort against the Crusader states in the Levant. At the height of his power, the Ayyubid realm spanned Egypt, Syria, Upper Mesopotamia, the Hejaz, Yemen, and Nubia. Alongside his uncle Shirkuh, a Kurdish mercenary commander in service of the Zengid dynasty, Saladin was sent to Fatimid Egypt in 1164, on the orders of the Zengid ruler Nur ad-Din. With their original purpose being to help restore Shawar as the vizier to the teenage Fatimid caliph al-Adid, a power struggle ensued between Shirkuh and Shawar after the latter was reinstated. Saladin, meanwhile, climbed the ranks of the Fatimid government by virtue of his military successes against Crusader assaults and his personal closeness to al-Adid. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amalric I Of Jerusalem
Amalric (; 113611 July 1174), formerly known in historiography as , was the king of Jerusalem from 1163 until his death. He was, in the opinion of his Muslim adversaries, the bravest and cleverest of the crusader kings. Amalric was the younger son of King Fulk and Queen Melisende and brother of King Baldwin III. Baldwin was crowned with Melisende after Fulk's death in 1143. Melisende made Amalric the count of Jaffa, and he took her side in her conflict with Baldwin until Baldwin deposed her in 1152. From 1154 Amalric was fully reconciled with his brother and made count of both Jaffa and Ascalon. In 1157 he married Agnes of Courtenay despite the misgivings of the Church and had two children with her, Sibylla of Jerusalem, Sibylla and Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, Baldwin. When his brother died in 1163, Amalric was obliged to leave Agnes in order to be recognized as king. He was crowned on 18 February. Amalric's reign was marked by a ceaseless struggle with the Muslim atabeg of Damascu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ayyubid Dynasty
The Ayyubid dynasty (), also known as the Ayyubid Sultanate, was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni Muslim of Kurds, Kurdish origin, Saladin had originally served the Zengid dynasty, Zengid ruler Nur al-Din Zengi, Nur al-Din, leading the latter's army against the Crusader invasions of Egypt, Crusaders in Fatimid Egypt, where he was made vizier (Fatimid Caliphate), vizier. Following Nur al-Din's death, Saladin was proclaimed as the first Sultan of Egypt by the Abbasid Caliphate, and rapidly expanded the new sultanate beyond Lower Egypt, Egypt to encompass most of Syria (region), Syria, in addition to Hijaz, Southern Arabia, 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. Mos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 Mayadin in Syria. Situated atop a mound with an elevation of , al-Rahba oversees the Syrian Desert steppe. It has been described as "a fortress within a fortress"; it consists of an inner keep measuring , protected by an enclosure measuring . Al-Rahba is largely in ruins today as a result of wind erosion. The original site, which was known as "Rahbat Malik ibn Tawk" after its Abbasid namesake and founder, was located along the Euphrates. It was viewed by Muslim armies, caravans and travelers as the key to Syria from Iraq and sometimes vice versa. Bedouin tribes often took control of it and used it as a launching point for invasions of northern Syria. Because of its strategic location, al-Rahba was frequently fought over by Muslim powers, incl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shawar
Shawar ibn Mujir al-Sa'di (; died 18 January 1169) was the ''de facto'' ruler of Fatimid Egypt, as its vizier, from December 1162 until his assassination in 1169 by the general Shirkuh, the uncle of the future Ayyubid leader Saladin, with whom he was engaged in a three-way power struggle against the Crusader Amalric I of Jerusalem. Shawar was notorious for continually switching alliances, allying first with one side, and then the other, and even ordering the burning of his own capital city, Fustat, just so that the enemy could not have it. Biography Descendant from the Banu Sa'd, Shawar was born in Egypt and became the vizier at the end of the Fatimid caliphate, while al-Adid was caliph. In the mid-12th century, the Fatimid caliphate was crumbling, and Egypt had descended into a condition of near anarchy. The official head of state was the Caliph, but the true power was the Egyptian vizier, and various Egyptian governors competed with each other for the position, often wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zengid Dynasty
The Zengid or Zangid dynasty, also referred to as the Atabegate of Mosul, Aleppo and Damascus (Arabic: أتابكة الموصل وحلب ودمشق), or the Zengid State (Old Anatolian Turkish: , Modern Turkish: ; ) was initially an '' Atabegate'' of the Seljuk Empire created in 1127. It formed a Turkoman dynasty of Sunni Muslim faith, which ruled parts of the Levant and Upper Mesopotamia, and eventually seized control of Egypt in 1169. In 1174, the Zengid state extended from Tripoli to Hamadan and from Yemen to Sivas. Imad ad-Din Zengi was the first ruler of the dynasty. The Zengid ''Atabegate'' became famous in the Islamic world for its successes against the Crusaders, and for being the ''Atabegate'' from which Saladin originated. Following the demise of the Seljuk dynasty in 1194, the Zengids persisted for several decades as one of the "Seljuk successor-states" until 1250. History In 1127, following the murder of Aqsunqur al-Bursuqi, ''atabeg'' of Mosul, the Seljuk Empire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 Turkoman member of the Zengid dynasty, who ruled the Syrian province () of the Seljuk Empire. He reigned from 1146 to 1174. He is regarded as an important figure of the Second Crusade. War against Crusaders Born in February 1118, Nur ad-Din was the second son of Imad al-Din Zengi, the Turcoman ''atabeg'' of Aleppo and Mosul, who was a devoted enemy of the crusader presence in Syria. After the assassination of his father in 1146, Nur ad-Din and his older brother Saif ad-Din Ghazi I divided the kingdom between themselves, with Nur ad-Din governing Aleppo and Saif ad-Din Ghazi establishing himself in Mosul. The border between the two new kingdoms was formed by the Khabur River. Almost as soon as he began his rule, Nur ad-Din attacked the Principality of Antioch, seizing several castles in the north of Syria, while at the same time he defeat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dirgham
Abu'l-Ashbāl al-Ḍirghām ibn ʿĀmir ibn Sawwār al-Lukhamī () () was an Arab military commander in the service of the Fatimid Caliphate. An excellent warrior and model cavalier, he rose to higher command and scored some successes against the Kingdom of Jerusalem as well as against internal rebellions. Despite his close personal ties to the viziers Tala'i ibn Ruzzik and his son Ruzzik ibn Tala'i, he joined Shawar when the latter rebelled against Ruzzik and seized the vizierate. Nine months later, Dirgham betrayed Shawar as well and expelled him from the capital, becoming vizier himself on 31 August 1163. Amidst yet another Crusader invasion in 1164, Dirgham clashed with Shawar, who had gained the support of Syrian troops led by Shirkuh. Deserted by most of his troops, Dirgham was killed sometime in May–August 1164 by Shawar's army. Life Dirgham was of Arab origin, and his '' nisbas'' of ''al-Lakhmī'' and ''al-Mundhirī'' possibly indicate descent from the pre-Islamic La ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fatimid Caliphate
The Fatimid Caliphate (; ), also known as the Fatimid Empire, was a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries CE under the rule of the Fatimids, an Isma'ili Shi'a dynasty. Spanning a large area of North Africa and West Asia, it ranged from the western Mediterranean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids traced their ancestry to the Islamic prophet Muhammad's daughter Fatima and her husband Ali, the first Shi'a imam. The Fatimids were acknowledged as the rightful imams by different Isma'ili communities as well as by denominations in many other Muslim lands and adjacent regions. Originating during the Abbasid Caliphate, the Fatimids initially conquered Ifriqiya (roughly present-day Tunisia and north-eastern Algeria). They extended their rule across the Mediterranean coast and ultimately made Egypt the center of the caliphate. At its height, the caliphate included—in addition to Egypt—varying areas of the Maghreb, Sicily, the Levant, and the Hej ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fatimid
The Fatimid Caliphate (; ), also known as the Fatimid Empire, was a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries CE under the rule of the Fatimid dynasty, Fatimids, an Isma'ili Shi'a dynasty. Spanning a large area of North Africa and West Asia, it ranged from the western Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids traced their ancestry to the Islamic prophet Muhammad's daughter Fatima and her husband Ali, the first Shia, Shi'a imam. The Fatimids were acknowledged as the rightful imams by different Isma'ili communities as well as by denominations in many other Muslim lands and adjacent regions. Originating during the Abbasid Caliphate, the Fatimids initially conquered Ifriqiya (roughly present-day Tunisia and north-eastern Algeria). They extended their rule across the Mediterranean coast and ultimately made Egypt the center of the caliphate. At its height, the caliphate included—in addition to Egypt—varying areas of the M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vizier (Fatimid Caliphate)
The vizier () was the senior minister of the Fatimid Caliphate for most of the Egypt in the Middle Ages#Fatimid period, Egyptian period of its existence. Originally it was held by civilian officials who acted as the chief civilian ministers of the caliphs, analogous to the vizier (Abbasid Caliphate), original model established by the Abbasids. When a vizier was not appointed, an "intermediary" () was designated instead. The enfeeblement of the caliph's power and the crisis of the Fatimid regime under Caliph Al-Mustansir Billah, al-Mustansir, however, led to the rise of military strongmen, who dominated the post from the 1070s until the caliphate's end. These "viziers of the sword" were also commanders-in-chief of the army who effectively sidelined the caliphs and ruled in their stead, often seizing power from their predecessors. The last vizier, Saladin, abolished the Fatimid Caliphate in 1171 (see Saladin in Egypt). History and powers During the Ifriqiyan period of the Fatimid Cal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
