Al-Muzaffar Ghazi

Al-Malik al-Muzaffar Shihab ad-Din Ghazi ibn al-Adil Abu Bakr ibn Najm ad-Din Ayyub was the Kurdish Ayyubid ruler of Mayyafariqin (1220–1247). Al Muzaffar Ghazi was one of the sons of the Sultan Al-Adil, who ruled minor Ayyubid states in the Middle East while their father reigned in Egypt. Early years In 1211 (608) his father gave him Edessa and Saruj and he built a magnificent new gate for Edessa in the years which followed. In 1220-21 (617) he exchanged these cities with his brother Al-Ashraf, receiving Mayyafariqin and Akhlat instead. The brothers were so close that Al Ashraf, who had no children, also made Al Muzaffar Ghazi his viceregent and heir in his own domains. The year after this arrangement, their father Al Adil died in the middle of a Crusader invasion of Egypt, and his eldest son, Al-Kamil succeeded him. Al Ashraf went south to support his brother in the campaign against the Crusaders, and during his absence Al Muzaffar Ghazi rose in rebellion against him. In punishment he was deprived of the succession to Al Ashraf’s domains, and his own were reduced to Mayyafariqin. It appears however that apart from this incident the brothers were otherwise close allies. Anatolian Campaigns After this Al Muzaffar Ghazi took part loyally in a number of campaigns with his relatives against various other local rulers, extending the Ayyubid domains further into the mountainous regions of southeastern Anatolia. One of these, in 1230, was against Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu, the last Khwarezmshah, whose armies had taken the Ayyubid city of Akhlat. Al Muzaffar Ghazi brought forces to join a combined army of Ayyubid troops and the armies of the Seljuk ruler Ala ad-Din Kayqubad who had united against the Khwarezmian threat. At the battle of Yasi-chimen on 9 August 1230 (25 Ramadan 627) the Khwarezmian forces were routed, and the Ayyubids retook Akhlat.