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.

Saladin’s father, Ayyūb (in full Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb ibn Shādhī), for whom the Ayyubid dynasty is named, was a member of a family of Kurdish soldiers of fortune who in the 12th century took service under the Seljuq Turkish rulers in Iraq and Syria. Appointed governor of Damascus, Ayyūb, with his brother Shīrkūh, united Syria in preparation for war against the Crusaders. After his father’s death in 1173, Saladin displaced the Shiʿi Muslim Fatimid dynasty, further mobilized Muslim enthusiasm to create a united front against the Crusades, and made Egypt the most powerful Muslim state in the world at that time. The solidarity maintained under Saladin disappeared just before his death (1193): following his distribution of his territories among vassal relations who enjoyed autonomous internal administration of their provinces, the Ayyubid regime became a decentralized semifeudal family federation.

The strain of Frankish-Ayyubid relations was relaxed under the reigns of al-ʿĀdil and al-Kāmil, Saladin’s brother and nephew, and in 1229 Jerusalem was ceded to the Christians. Although Ayyubid factionalism had been quieted, al-Kāmil’s death in 1238 revived old family disputes, further weakening the dynasty. The Ayyubid decline in Egypt was completed with the Mamluk accession to power following the battle at Al-Manṣūrah (1250), but the dynasty persisted in some areas of Syria until 1260; in Ḥamāh, Ayyubid governance was in place, at least nominally, in the first half of the 14th century. The local Ayyubid dynasts survived with particular longevity at Ḥiṣn Kayfā, where, following the Mongol invasion in 1260, they continued to govern under Il-Khanid and later Turkmen suzerainty until the Ak Koyunlu conquest in the late 15th century.

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Egypt: The Ayyūbid dynasty (1171–1250)

The Ayyubids, zealous Sunni Muslims seeking to convert Shiʿis and Christians, introduced into Egypt and Jerusalem the madrasah, an academy of religious sciences. Culturally an extension and development of the Fatimids, the Ayyubids were great military engineers, building the citadel of Cairo and the defenses of Aleppo.