al-Afdal

Who he is

Name

Ali ibn Yusuf (al-Afdal), eldest son of Saladin

Title

al-Malik al-Afdal Nur al-Din, guardian and commander of the armies (atabeg) of Egypt for his nephew al-Mansur

Since

January 1199 (reached Bilbeis 5 Rabi' I 595, 5 January 1199, then Cairo)

Born

About 1169-1170 (565 AH); about thirty on 1 January 1200

Family

Ayyubid. Eldest son of Saladin; full brother of al-Zahir Ghazi of Aleppo; brother of the late al-Aziz Uthman and of al-Zafir Khidr (deprived of Bosra in 1196). His family lived at Salkhad, which he had held since 1196.

Confidence

high

Abu'l-Fida, RHC Or. I, pp. 155, 157, 158, 159; Wikipedia, al-Afdal. Ruler of Damascus 1193-1196, when al-Aziz and al-Adil took it from him and left him Salkhad in the Hauran.

Overlord

Rules in the name of his nephew the sultan; recognises the Abbasid caliph

What it holds

• The regency of Egypt, its army and its treasury, in his nephew's name
• Salkhad (Sarkhad) in the Hauran, his own appanage since 1196, where his family had lived; written up on the dam sheet, which anchors it as Egyptian ground because it is held for him

How it was acquired

Called from Salkhad by the Egyptian amirs after al-Aziz's death on al-Qadi al-Fadil's advice; left on 27 Safar 595 (29 December 1198) and reached Bilbeis on 5 Rabi' I (5 January 1199) (Abu'l-Fida).

Allies and rivals

Allies: his brother al-Zahir of Aleppo (estranged since the quarrel over the mamluk), the Asadiyya under Sayf al-Din Yazkuj, the Kurdish amirs. Rivals: al-Adil and his sons; the Salahiyya under Jaharkas, who refused his regency and went to Syria.

How things stand that morning

Out of Egypt. He and al-Zahir withdrew from Damascus to Marj al-Suffar, stayed until the last days of Safar 596 (about mid-December 1199), and moved to Ras al-Ma' meaning to sit out the winter; then they gave up, he for Egypt, al-Zahir for Aleppo (Abu'l-Fida). Cairo and the boy sultan are held for him by deputies whose names are not pinned.

Wealth

The revenues of Egypt while he holds the regency; Salkhad's revenues of his own.

Military

The field army of Egypt: the Asadiyya, the Kurds, part of the sultan's guard and the provincial amirs; weakened by the Salahiyya's defection and by six months before Damascus. His siege record: broke into Damascus and was thrown out; failed to take it.

Threats

• Al-Adil's pursuit into Egypt
• The desertion of Egyptian amirs, who hold their iqta's in Egypt and can deal with al-Adil
• His quarrel with al-Zahir

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. January 1200Returns to Egypt; his amirs disperse to their villages to graze their horses; al-Adil follows and enters Egypt.Depends on: The coalition's break-up and al-Adil's pursuit. Stopped by: Keeping the army together or making peace with al-Adil first.
2. Late January 1200Defeated near Bilbeis (Es-Sa'ili in the French Abu'l-Fida) and flees to Cairo.Depends on: Meeting al-Adil with only part of his army. Stopped by: Gathering the regiments in time.
3. Early February 1200Surrenders Cairo after an eight-day siege for the promise of Mayyafariqin, Hani and Samosata; al-Adil enters on 9 February (Abu'l-Fida). Al-Afdal goes to Salkhad; Mayyafariqin is refused him by al-Adil's son al-Awhad, and he is left with Samosata and Saruj.Depends on: The defeat and the siege. Stopped by: A relief from al-Zahir or the Cairo garrison holding out.

Places of note

• Salkhad (Sarkhad), his own town since 1196: His appanage in the Hauran (dam's sheet).
• Bilbeis, where the army met him on 5 January 1199: The army's mustering place on the Syrian road.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Abu'l-Fida dates his journey to Egypt to the day and narrates the siege and its end; the day he left Ras al-Ma' is not given.

On the map: The regency covers all of Egypt (realm record); he has no Egyptian domain of his own to draw.

Primary sources for Egypt

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Book of the Two Gardens, on the Reigns of Nur al-Din and Saladin, and its Sequel, Abu Shama (Shihab al-Din Abd al-Rahman al-Maqdisi) (about 1240 to 1267, at Damascus). The Rawdatayn ends with Saladin's death in 1193 and matters for 1200 as the store of Imad al-Din al-Isfahani's lost al-Barq al-Shami and of al-Qadi al-Fadil's letters, quoted at length, which describe the Ayyubid princes, the Jazira and the frontier a few years earlier. Read online
• The Chronicle of Ernoul and Bernard the Treasurer, Ernoul, squire of Balian of Ibelin, and later compilers (the 1187 core soon after the event; the whole in its present form 1227 to 1232). The Ibelin household's version of events in Outremer. Read online
• The Complete History, Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir (about 1200 to 1231, at Mosul). The widest Muslim narrative for the years 596 to 597 AH (1199 to 1201): al-Adil's entry into Cairo and his taking of the sultanate from his nephew al-Mansur Muhammad early in 1200, the quarrels of the Ayyubid princes at Damascus, Aleppo and Hama, the Nile failure and the great famine of Egypt, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah and the Jazira under Gokbori and the Artuqids, Baghdad under the caliph al-Nasir, the Khwarazmshah Tekish's death in 1200 and Muhammad's accession, the Ghurid wars in Khurasan, the Eldiguzids and Georgia, the Almohads in the west, and the Seljuks of Rum in passing. Read online
• The Cream of the History of Aleppo, Kamal al-Din Ibn al-Adim (about 1240 to 1260). The annals of Aleppo. Read online
• The Dispeller of Anxieties, on the History of the Ayyubids, Jamal al-Din Ibn Wasil (about 1272 to 1285, at Hama). The fullest Ayyubid dynastic history, written at Hama with access to the family's own tradition and to Ibn al-Athir, Ibn Abi Tayy and Sibt ibn al-Jawzi. Read online
• The Mirror of Time, on the History of Notables, Sibt ibn al-Jawzi (Shams al-Din Yusuf) (about 1240 to 1256, at Damascus). A Damascene preacher's year-by-year chronicle with obituaries, written by a grandson of the Baghdad scholar Ibn al-Jawzi, so it carries both the Baghdad view (the caliph al-Nasir and his court) and the Damascus view (al-Adil's court, the famine refugees of 1200, prices, the plague of 1201). Read online
• The Old French Continuation of William of Tyre (Eracles), Anonymous continuators, the earliest drawing on Ernoul (about 1220 to 1277; the first continuation (1184 to 1197, the Lyon Eracles) compiled about 1230 from material of the 1190s). For the Latin East at 1200 it narrates the aftermath of the Third Crusade: the truce of 1192, the succession to Jerusalem through Queen Isabella's marriages to Henry of Champagne (died September 1197) and Aimery of Lusignan, Aimery's rule as king of Jerusalem from 1198 while king of Cyprus, the German crusade of 1197 to 1198 and the recovery of Beirut and Sidon, the truce with al-Adil of 1198, the Antioch succession quarrel between Bohemond IV and Leo of Armenia, and the Pisan plot against Aimery. Read online
• The Road to Knowledge of the Dynasties of Kings, Taqi al-Din al-Maqrizi (about 1400 to 1440, at Cairo). A late compilation, but for Ayyubid Egypt it keeps lost material: for 596 to 598 AH it records al-Adil's entry into Cairo, the removal of the boy al-Mansur Muhammad, the oath to al-Kamil as heir, the appointments at Cairo, the low Niles of 1199 and 1200 and the famine and plague of 1200 to 1202 with grain prices, the reports of cannibalism and the death tolls, together with Yemen, the Hijaz and the Mecca emirate. Read online

15 more in the sources library for The Latin East and the Ayyubids.