Kurdish History Journal
Al-Nasir Yusuf ruled Aleppo from 1236 and Damascus from 1250 until the Mongol conquest in 1260. His career included a childhood regency, conflict and treaties with Egypt’s Mamluks, and a court whose material culture survives.
Read article →As-Salih Ayyub, Kurdish Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt 1240-1249, was the last effective ruler of the dynasty, who pioneered Mamluk armies and died resisting the Seventh Crusade.
Read article →Al-Adil II, Kurdish Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt 1238-1240, was the son of Al-Kamil whose brief incompetent reign ended when he was deposed by his brother As-Salih Ayyub.
Read article →Al-Kamil ruled Egypt from 1218 to 1238. His agreement with Frederick II combined territorial concessions and continued Muslim control of Jerusalem’s sanctuary, against a background of Ayyubid family rivalry.
Read article →Al-Mu'azzam Isa, son of Al-Adil I, ruled Damascus for the Kurdish Ayyubid Empire and controversially demolished Jerusalem's walls in 1219 to deny them to the Fifth Crusade.
Read article →Al-Ashraf Musa, son of Al-Adil I, was a Kurdish Ayyubid ruler who controlled the Jazira region and became Sultan of Damascus in 1229, a poet and patron of the Kurdish Empire.
Read article →Az-Zahir Ghazi (1172-1216), Kurdish Ayyubid son of Saladin, ruled Aleppo for 30 years as a builder, diplomat and warrior who made the city a jewel of the Kurdish Empire.
Read article →Al-Adil I rose from service under Saladin to become the senior Ayyubid ruler. His career links dynastic rivalry, diplomacy and major fortification projects, within a realm of family principalities.
Read article →Al-Aziz Uthman (c. 1172–1198 CE) was Saladin's son and first independent Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt. Discover his role in the Kurdish Empire's post-Saladin transition.
Read article →Al-Afdal ibn Salah ad-Din (c. 1169–1225 CE) was Saladin's eldest son and first Ayyubid ruler of Damascus. Discover his role in the Kurdish Empire's post-Saladin transition.
Read article →Saladin (1137–1193 CE) was the Kurdish founder of the Ayyubid Empire — the pinnacle of Kurdish geopolitical supremacy. He recaptured Jerusalem in 1187 and built an empire spanning Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and beyond.
Read article →Najm ad-Din Ayyub was the Kurdish father of Saladin and the man whose name defines the Ayyubid Kurdish Empire. Discover the patriarch of history's greatest Kurdish dynasty.
Read article →Shirkuh (d. 1169 CE) was the Hadhbani Kurdish uncle of Saladin whose conquest of Egypt made the Ayyubid Kurdish Empire possible. Discover the Lion of the Mountain.
Read article →Sultan ibn Mahmud (r. 1174–c.1199 CE) was the last ruler of the Kurdish Shaddadid dynasty, closing 248 years of Kurdish governance in Transcaucasia. Discover the final chapter.
Read article →Shahanshah ibn Mahmud (1164–1174 CE) was a Shaddadid Kurdish emir whose name — 'King of Kings' — echoed ancient Iranian imperial tradition. Discover his place in Kurdish history.
Read article →Fadl V ibn Mahmud (1155–1161 CE) was a Shaddadid Kurdish emir who continued the dynasty after Fakr al-Din Shaddad. Discover his place in the closing chapters of this great Kurdish dynasty.
Read article →Fakr al-Din Shaddad (1131–1155 CE) was the longest-reigning Shaddadid Kurdish ruler after the loss of Ani, governing 24 years as a Seljuk vassal in the Caucasus.
Read article →Fadl, also called Fadlun III or IV, recovered Ani after Georgian rule in the 1120s. Armenian narrative, modern scholarship and the cathedral’s surviving fabric illuminate a brief reign that ended around 1130.
Read article →Abu'l-Aswar Shavur II (1118–1124 CE) was the last Shaddadid Kurdish ruler of Ani before the Georgians took the city. Discover the final Ani chapter of this great Kurdish dynasty.
Read article →Manuchihr ibn Shavur ruled Ani during the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. Inscriptions, political histories and the mosque associated with his name illuminate Shaddadid patronage within a city shaped by Armenian and Islamic architectural traditions.
Read article →Fadlun ibn Fadl (1073–1075 CE) was a brief Shaddadid Kurdish ruler of Ganja during the turbulent post-Shavur I succession period. Discover his place in Kurdish history.
Read article →Anushirvan inherited Ganja as a minor in 1049, but his chamberlain’s proposed frontier concessions provoked a revolt. The surviving narrative explains a two-month reign through the actions of officials and urban notables.
Read article →Ashot ibn Shavur (1068–1069 CE) was a brief rival claimant to Shaddadid Kurdish power in Ganja during the contested post-Shavur I succession.
Read article →Fadl II ruled Ganja in 1067–1073, with an interruption during his captivity. Chronicles, a coin of his brother Ashot and a surviving gate clarify his place between Shaddadid family rule and Seljuk supremacy.
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