Al-Adil I Ahmad ibn Ayyub

Early years

Al-Adil was the son of Najm al-Din Ayyub and the younger brother of Salah al-Din . He was born in June 1145 , possibly in Damascus . He was an officer in the army of Nur al-Din Zengi during the third and last campaign of his uncle Shirkukh in Egypt ( 1168 - 1169 ). After the death of Nur al-Din in 1174, al-Adil ruled Egypt on behalf of his brother Saladin and mobilized huge resources of this country in support of his brother's campaign in Syria and his war against the crusaders ( 1175 - 1183 ). He was the governor ( emir ) of Aleppo ( 1183 - 1186 ), but returned to rule Egypt during the Third Crusade ( 1186 - 1192 ). As governor of the northern provinces ( 1192 - 1193 ), after the death of Salah ad-Din, he crushed the rebellion of Izz al-Din in Mosul (March 1193 ), and also became governor of Damascus.

Salah al-Din's struggle for inheritance

The key issue in the ruling Ayyubid family after the death of Salah al-Din was the question of whether power should remain in the hands of the sons of Salah al-Din or could be transferred by the principle of seniority, that is, al-Adil. Salah ad-Din during his lifetime demanded that all emirs swear allegiance to his son al-Afdal , but after the death of the Sultan, some of his sons did not recognize the power of al-Afdal ^[2] . In the ensuing controversy, al-Adil often found himself in a position of conscientious mediator between al-Afdahl and his brother al-Aziz , trying to maintain peace. ^[2] In the end, al-Adil came to the conclusion that al-Afdal was unable to rule the state, and he supported al-Aziz. Al-Afdal was sent into exile ^[3] . The death of al-Aziz in 1198 after falling from a horse on a hunt resumed dynastic disputes. Al-Afdal was invited back to Egypt to act as regent at the twelve-year-old successor of al-Aziz al-Mansour . Al-Afdal teamed up with his brother al-Zahir to try to expel al-Adil from Damascus ^[3] . Despite the unsuccessful defense of Damascus ( 1199 ), al-Adil defeated al-Afdal at the Battle of Bilbeis in January 1200 . During the ensuing civil strife, al-Adil was able to defeat various combinations of his relatives and in 1201 was recognized as a sultan.

Board

After his victory, al-Adil was proclaimed a sultan and wisely ruled Egypt and Syria for almost two decades, promoting trade and maintaining good relations with the crusader states ( 1200 - 1217 ). Significant assistance in the management of the state was provided to him by the son of al-Kamil ^[4] .

Al-Adil's reign as a whole was aimed at consolidation, not expansion. The Sultan was already finishing his fifth decade, and by this time the country was almost constantly at war for two decades. His first concern was the restoration of the Sultan treasury, which was almost empty due to the active construction of his brother al-Mansur, the war with the crusaders and the struggle within the dynasty itself. Al-Adil carried out currency and tax reforms ^[4] . The effectiveness of these measures can be judged by the relatively quick recovery of Egypt after the earthquake of 1200 and the floods of the Nile between 1199 and 1202 . Drought and famine threatened with grave consequences, but a number of measures, including sending soldiers to earthworks, allowed the Sultan to ensure social and political stability, as well as economic recovery ^[4] .

Countering the new crusade was al-Adil's second main concern, and to this end, he called for increased trade with European states, hoping that if the trading cities of the Mediterranean were interested in peaceful trade, they would be less likely to support the new crusade. But these calculations were destroyed by maritime raids of the crusaders on Rosetta in 1204 and Damietta in 1211 ^[4] .

The third problem of the Sultan was to maintain his hegemony in the areas of Ayyubids, without resorting to force. He turned out to be an experienced diplomat and was able to avoid any clashes after 1201 . Of particular importance was the marriage of his daughter Daifa Khatun and the son of Salah ad-Din, Az-Zahir Gazi in 1212 , which marked the end of the rivalry between the two branches of the clan ^[5] . Al-Adil also embarked on a program to restore fortifications in his possessions, and the massive citadel of Damascus was one of his most notable achievements in this regard ^[6] .

Al-Adil's territorial ambitions were concentrated far from the main centers of the Ayyubid state, in southern Anatolia and northern Iraq . He managed to occupy a significant part of the former Zengid possessions, except for Mosul and Sinjar, as well as the vicinity of Lake Van ^[6] . He captured Akhlat in 1207 and destroyed the state of the Shah-Armenids .

One of the main objects of al-Adil's foreign policy was an attempt to avoid launching a new crusade. However, in September 1217, a new crusader army landed in Acre . Al-Adil was completely unprepared for this attack and, despite his seventy-two years, began to hastily gather his forces in Palestine and personally stood at the head of the army. The campaign in Palestine did not bring him any noticeable success, and in August 1218 he received shocking news that a second crusader army had landed in Egypt and attacked Damietta ^[7] . Al-Adil fell ill and died during the campaign (August 1218 ), and he was succeeded by his son al-Kamil.

The rule of al-Adil predetermined the development of the Ayyubid state for many years to come. After him, the title of the Sultan remained in the hands of representatives of the senior male line of the dynasty. His descendants controlled the land from the Mayafarikkin fortress in the far northeast to Egypt.

• Nicolle, David . The Second Crusade. - Osprey Publishing, 2008.