Greatest extent of the Ayyubid empire
under Saladin in 1188
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. In 1174, Saladin proclaimed himself Sultan following
the death of Nur al-Din. The Ayyubids spent the next decade
launching conquests throughout the region and by 1183, the
territories under their control included Egypt, Syria, northern
Mesopotamia, Hejaz, Yemen, and the North African coast up to the
borders of modern-day Tunisia. Most of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and
beyond Jordan River fell to Saladin after his victory at the Battle
of Hattin in 1187. However, the Crusaders regained control of
Palestine's coastline in the 1190s.
After the death of Saladin, his sons contested control over the
sultanate, but Saladin's brother al-Adil eventually established
himself as Sultan in 1200. In the 1230s, the Ayyubid rulers of
Syria attempted to assert their independence from Egypt and
remained divided until Egyptian Sultan as-Salih Ayyub restored
Ayyubid unity by taking over most of Syria, excluding Aleppo, by
1247. By then, local Muslim dynasties had driven out the Ayyubids
from Yemen, the Hejaz, and parts of Mesopotamia. After repelling a
Crusader invasion of the Nile Delta, as-Salih Ayyub's Mamluk
generals overthrew al-Mu'azzam Turanshah who succeeded Ayyub as
Sultan after his death in 1250. This effectively ended Ayyubid
power in Egypt and a number of attempts by the rulers of Syria, led
by an-Nasir Yusuf of Aleppo, to recover it failed. In 1260, the
Mongols sacked Aleppo and wrested control of what remained of the
Ayyubid territories soon after. The Mamluks, who forced out the
Mongols after the destruction of the Ayyubid dynasty, maintained
the Ayyubid principality of Hama until deposing its last ruler in
1341.
During their relatively short tenure, the Ayyubids ushered in an
era of economic prosperity in the lands they ruled 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 (schools) in their major cities.