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[English edition] الأيوبيّون سلالة حاكمة أسّسها صلاح الدّين بن أيّوب (واسمه في الغرب Saladin)، حكمت مصرَ ومنطقةَ سوريا وفلسطين المسلمة والجزءَ الأكبر من أعالي بلاد ما بين النّهرين واليمنَ، بداية من أواخر القرن السّادس الهجري/الثّاني عشر ميلادي، حتّى منتصف القرن السّابع الهجري/الثّالث عشر الميلادي. 1. تاريخ السّلالة الأيّوبيّة وُلِد الذي تسمّت الأسرة باسمه، أيّوب بن شاذي الّذي لا يعرَف شيء عن أسلافه، في قرية قريبة من مدينة دوين (Dvin/Dwin)، في أرمينيا. وكان ينتمي إلى بطن الرّوّادي من قبيلة الهَذْبانيّ الكرديّة، وفي بداية القرن السّادس/الثّاني…

[English edition] حكمت حلب الواقعة في شمال سوريا سلالات كثيرة منذ الفتح الإسلاميّ حتّى مجيء العثمانيّين عام 922 هـ/ 1516 م. تحتلّ المدينة المرتبة الثّانية في البلاد بعد دمشق ولها تاريخ يعود إلى القرن العشرين قبل الميلاد. واستفادت المدينة على مدى قرون من الزّمن من موقعها في ملتقى الطّرق بين أوروبّا وآسيا وبين البحر المتوسّط والعراق وبين الأناضول والجزيرة العربيّة. ينحدر اسم «حلب» حسب ما ورد في مرويّة شعبيّة راجت خلال العصور الوسطى من الفعل العربيّ (حلَب) لأنّ إبراهيم قد يكون حلب أغنامه هناك. وبذلك ربط هذا الأصل الأسطوريّ مدينة حلب بواحد من أرفع الأعلام …

(or Ḳiṛtāy ) al-ʿIzzī al-K̲h̲āzindārī , an author of the Mamlūk period about whom very little is known. His name would seem to indicate that he was a mamlūk of a k̲h̲āzindār or treasurer. Three fragments of his chronicle, called Taʾrīk̲h̲ al-Nawādir mimmā d̲j̲arā li ’l-awāʾil wa ’l-awāk̲h̲ir , have been preserved, the most interesting being that covering the years 626-89/1228-90 (Gotha A 1655), in which the author says that he was writing between 1293 and 1341. This latter part is not free from faults (chronological erro…

(present-day S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ K̲h̲uruz), the Classical Cyrrhus, capital of the Cyrrhestica, a stronghold in the north of modern Syria on the Sabun-suyu, a right-bank affluent of the Nahr ʿAfrīn. As a Seleucid colony, it took the name of a place in Macedonia and remained a stronghold under the Romans. Three ancient bridges, still visible, allowed crossing of the Sabun-suyu and the ʿAfrīn. Archaeological researches have revealed several monuments, including an amphitheatre. In the necropolis to the southeast of the town is an anci…

, Abū Naṣr Muḥammad b. al-Nāṣir, 35th ʿAbbāsid caliph, r. 622-3/1225-6. In 585/1189 he was designated by al-Nāṣir [ q.v.], as his father’s elder son, to succeed him, but in 601/1205, probably under the influence of the S̲h̲īʿī vizier Ibn Mahdī, the caliph changed his mind and made his heir his younger son ʿAlī, more favourable towards S̲h̲īʿism than the elder one, who was very attached to Sunnī orthodoxy. To explain and justify this decision, a letter was produced, signed by two witnesses, in which the prince Abū Naṣr Muḥammad asked his father to relieve him of the function of walī al-ʿahd …

, Nahr , the name given by the Arabs to the ancient Chalos river in northern Syria. This stream, whose valley makes a shallow notch in the plateau of the Aleppo region, rises at the foot of the last outliers of the Taurus, to the east of al-Rāwandān [ q.v.] in present-day Turkey. Fed by various springs, notably in the ʿAzāz region, it skirts Aleppo to the west, and to the south of this city receives the waters of the Blessed Spring (al-ʿAyn al-Mubāraka). After a course of some 110 km/70 miles, it peters out in the vicinity of Ḳinnasrīn [ q.v.] in a swampy depression called al-Matk̲h̲. This river, with…

, Ẓahīr al-Dīn Abū Manṣūr (d. 522/1128), Atabeg of Duḳāḳ, son of the Sald̲j̲ūḳid Tutus̲h̲ [ q.v.] and founder in Damascus of the Atabeg dynasty of Būrids or Börids (497-549/1104-54 [see būrids ]). He was a Turkish freedman of Tutus̲h̲, who appointed him governor of Diyār Bakr and Atabeg of Duḳāḳ before giving to him in marriage Duḳāḳ’s mother, Ṣafwat al-Mulk. When Tutus̲h̲ died in battle in 488/1095, he became regent for Duḳāḳ in Damascus, but his real reign did not begin till the death of the young Sald̲j̲ūḳ prince in 497/1104. Ṭug̲h̲tigin at first strove to pres…

(modern Tkish. Keysun; Grk. Kaison; Arm. Kesun; Frankish Cressum and variants), a place situated to the south of Besni [ q.v.], in eastern ¶ modern Turkey on the Keysun-çay, an affluent of the Sürfaz-çay, in the upper valley of the Euphrates. Considered in the 9th century A.D. as one of the marches of the Byzantine frontier, it commanded a col on the Besni road. Its fortress served as a base for the revolt of Naṣr b. S̲h̲abat̲h̲ [ q.v.] but was dismantled after Naṣr’s submission to al-Maʾmūn in 209/824-5. Kaysūm was re-occupied by the Byzantines ca. 958, and at the end of the 11th century…

(turc moderne Keysun; grec Kaison; arménien Kesun; franc Cressum et variantes), localité située au sud de Besni [ q.v.] à l’est de la Turquie actuelle sur le Keysun-çay, affluent du Sūrfazçay, dans la haute vallée de l’Euphrate. Considérée au IXe siècle comme l’une des marches de la frontière byzantine, elle commandait un col sur la route de Besni. Sa forteresse qui servit de base à la révolte de Naṣr b. S̲h̲abatli [ q.v.] fut démantelée après la soumission de ce dernier en 209/824-5. Réoccupée par les Byzantins vers 958, Kaysūm devint à la fin du XIe siècle la capitale du seigneur arméni…

, auteur d’époque mamlūke dont on connaît fort peu de choses. Son nom semble indiquer qu’il fut mamlūk d’un k̲h̲āzindār (trésorier). Trois fragments de se chronique intitulée Taʾrīk̲h̲ al-nawādir mimmâ d̲j̲arā li l-awāʾil ma l-awāk̲h̲ir sont conservés, le plus intéressant étant celui qui couvre les années 626-89/1228-90 (Gotha, A 1655) dans lequel l’auteur dit écrire entre 1293 et 1341. Cette dernière partie qui n’est pas exempte de défauts (erreurs chronologiques, anecdotes difficilement vérifiables, légendes qui se mêlent à la…

Ibn Abī Ṭayyiʾ Yaḥyā Abū Zakariyyā b. Ḥamīd al-Najjār (575–627/1179–80–1230) was a Shīʿī historian and poet from Aleppo whose important historical text, while mostly lost, is known to us through excerpts preserved by later writers. It is particularly interesting for its description of the Fāṭimid palaces in Cairo, the fall of that dynasty, the Twelver Shīʿīs of Syria and their places of pilgrimage, relations between Franks and Muslims, and the reign of Saladin and that of his son al-Ẓāhir Ghāzī (r…

Al-Malik al-Manṣūr Ibrāhīm b. Shīrkūh b. Nāṣir al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Shīrkūh, descendant of Asad al-Dīn Shīrkūh (uncle of Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn, known as Saladin, r. 564–89/1169–93), was an Ayyūbid prince of Homs (r. 637–44/1240–6) who distinguished himself in fighting the Khwārizmīs, Turkic warriors from Central Asia who, fleeing the Mongolian advance, had sought to spread westwards in northern Syria and the region of Homs. Designated heir apparent by his father, al-Mujāhid Shīrkūh (r. 581–637/1186–1240), he intervened after his father’s reign in the disputes amongst …

The Ayyūbids were a dynasty founded by Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn b. Ayyūb (Saladin), which ruled Egypt, Muslim Syria-Palestine, the greater part of Upper Mesopotamia, and Yemen from the end of the sixth/twelfth to the middle of the seventh/thirteenth century. 1. The history of a dynasty The family’s eponym, Ayyūb b. Shādhī, whose ancestors are unknown, was born in a village near Dwin (Dvin), in Armenia. He belonged to the Rawwādī clan of the Kurdish Hadhbānī tribe and, at the beginning of the sixth/twelfth century, entered the service of the Kurdish S…

Al-Malik al-ʿĀdil I, Sayf al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Ayyūb (r. 596–615/1200–18), sultan of Egypt, Syria-Palestine, and Upper Mesopotamia, belonged to the Ayyūbid dynasty founded by his older brother Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (Saladin, r. 569–89/1174–93). He was born in Baʿlabakk between 538/1144 and 540/1145 at a time when his father, Ayyūb, governed that city on behalf of the amīr of Aleppo, Zangī I (r. 522–41/1128–46). Like his father and brothers, he first entered the service of Zangī’s son Nūr al-Dīn (r. 541–69/1146–74), and he then played a leading role under the r…

Pre-Ottoman Aleppo, in northern Syria, was ruled by many dynasties from the Islamic conquest until the arrival of the Ottomans in 922/1516. The second city of the country, after Damascus, it has a history going back to the twentieth century B.C.E. For centuries, it benefited from its position at a crossroads between Europe and Asia, the Mediterranean and Iraq, Anatolia and Arabia. According to a popular legend in the Middle Ages, the name Aleppo (Ḥalab) came from the Arabic verb ḥalaba (to milk) because Abraham would have milked his flocks here. This origin myth thus linked…

Al-Malik al-Kāmil Muḥammad Abū l-Maʿālī, eldest son of al-Malik al-ʿĀdil I (r. 596–615/1200–18) and sultan of Egypt from 615/1218 to 635/1238, was born between 573/1177 and 576/1180. His career began in Jazīra in 595/1199, when his father entrusted to him the management of military operations in this region, and especially the following year as he put him in charge of the government of Egypt. His marriage to his cousin, Muʾnisa Khātūn, daughter of Saladin, was celebrated in Cairo that same year. …

Kamāl al-Dīn ʿUmar b. Aḥmad Ibn al-ʿAdīm (588–660/1192–1262) was an Aleppan historian and faqīh who belonged to a long-established family of Ḥanafī Sunnīs of Iraqi origin, the Banū l-Abī Jarāda. Members of this family had been famous in Aleppo from the fourth/tenth century as a result of their written works in the fields of literature, poetry, and law. Subsequently, the Banū l-Abī Jarāda, more commonly known as the Banū l-ʿAdīm, occupied almost without interruption the position of chief qāḍī (qāḍī l-quḍāt) of the city, a position often associated with the position of preacher (khaṭīb) i…

Bahāʾ al-Dīn Abū l-Maḥāsin Yūsuf b. Rāfiʿ b. Tamīm, called Ibn Shaddād, an Iraqi Shāfiʿī traditionist and jurist, was born in Mosul in 539/1145 and died in Aleppo in 632/1234, at the age of eighty-nine. 1. Life Having lost his father at an early age, he was brought up by his maternal uncles, the Banū Shaddād, whose name he kept. He is known especially for his close relationship to Yūsuf b. Ayyūb Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (Saladin, r. after Nur al-Din’s death 569–89/1174–93), as friend, counsel, and biographer. Ibn Khallikān (d. 681/1282), who was Ibn Shaddād’s student in Aleppo some years bef…

Ibn al-Shiḥna, Muḥibb al-Dīn Abū l-Faḍl Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Maḥmūd b. Ghāzī b. Ayyūb b. Ḥusām al-Dīn Maḥmūd b. Khutlū (d. 890/1485) was a historian, man of letters, administrator, and Ḥanafī qāḍī l-quḍāt (chief judge). He belonged to an important family from Aleppo and is especially known for his detailed topographical description of the city. Born in 804/1401–2 in Aleppo, Ibn al-Shiḥna died in Cairo at the age of 84. His name reflects his descent from an illustrious ancestor, the amīr Ḥusām al-Dīn Maḥmūd Ibn Khutlū, who had been appointed by the Zang…

Al-Malik al-Afḍal Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī Nūr al-Dīn b. Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn was the eldest son of Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (Saladin, r. 569–89/1174–93), whom he succeeded in Damascus from 589/1193 to 592/1196. Born in 565/1169–70, he became associated with power through his father as early as 579/1183, when the latter installed him in Cairo under the tutelage of the prince of Hama, al-Muẓaffar Taqī al-Dīn ʿUmar (r. 574–87/1178–91). However, the friction that arose between him and the latter led Saladin to reorganise his territori…