Al-Muzaffar Ghazi, a son of al-Adil, held Mayyafariqin in the first half of the thirteenth century. Coins, his rebellion against al-Ashraf and negotiations with the Seljuks reveal the changing limits of his power.

Modern houses, trees and a slender white minaret in Silvan, with broad dry rocky hills behind the town
Silvan, historically Mayyafariqin and known in Kurdish as Farqîn, photographed by Dûrzan cîrano on 23 June 2010. The photograph provides modern geographical context; it does not identify al-Muzaffar’s palace or reconstruct the medieval skyline. © Dûrzan cîrano · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0. Reused at web resolution without creative changes.

A prince in a city with a much older history

Al-Muzaffar Shihab al-Din Ghazi was al-Adil’s son and al-Ashraf Musa’s brother. Emin Dalmiş places him in the administration of Akhlat and Mayyafariqin under al-Ashraf. [1] Mayyafariqin is modern Silvan, on the Diyarbakir–Bitlis route. Ahmet Savran’s city history describes its earlier role as a Marwanid capital and its subsequent changes of rulers. [2] Al-Muzaffar’s career belongs within this long regional history; the town was not created by the Ayyubids.

Several names on a coin reveal several levels of authority

Dalmiş studies four examples assigned to Ghazi’s administration at Akhlat, dated 618 AH, or 1221–1222. The legends include al-Muzaffar Ghazi and al-Ashraf Musa, while the other side names the Abbasid caliph al-Nasir and al-Kamil Muhammad. [1] Such combinations make the coins valuable evidence for political relationships. A local ruler’s name did not necessarily announce independence from every other authority. These examples also place his activity after al-Adil’s death in 1218, beyond a biography confined to his father’s lifetime.

The rebellion and the loss of Akhlat in 1224

Önder Kaya explains that al-Muazzam Isa encouraged Ghazi to rebel against al-Ashraf. When al-Ashraf moved against Akhlat, Kokburi of Erbil attacked Mosul and al-Muazzam prepared to enter the Jazira. The expected support did not secure Ghazi’s position. In 621 AH/1224 he surrendered Akhlat to al-Ashraf, who removed his other territories while leaving him Mayyafariqin. [3] This was a substantial contraction of power. Membership of the same ruling family did not guarantee cooperation or an unchanged territorial settlement.

Copper coinage and the limits of its chronology

Stephen Album’s checklist groups Ghazi’s copper fals under type 860. It identifies an Akhlat issue dated 618 AH and Mayyafariqin issues dated between 618 and 641 AH. Album cautions that dates are rarely legible and that the sequence of at least seven types remains undetermined. [4] The catalogue therefore supports identifiable mints and a range of issues, rather than a year-by-year reconstruction of his finances. Coin production alone cannot establish uninterrupted prosperity, an efficient bureaucracy or universal public support.

Mayyafariqin faced the Seljuks as well as Mongol pressure

Savran describes a Seljuk expedition against Mayyafariqin in 639 AH/1241. With Mongol pressure increasing, the Abbasid caliph intervened in the dispute. Ghazi sent the city’s judge with an embassy to Kaykhusraw II and offered recognition of his overlordship; an agreement ended the siege. Savran also records a Mongol demand for submission and dismantling of the walls, answered evasively. [2] Negotiation and competing claims mattered alongside military defence. These episodes should be distinguished from the later Mongol siege faced by Ghazi’s successor.

A scholarly connection and the next generation

Affaf Khogali-Wahbi lists al-Muzaffar among Ibn Arabi’s students and dates his death to 642 AH/1244. [5] This supplies a named intellectual connection without inventing the details of his childhood education. Album lists the succeeding al-Kamil Muhammad as Ghazi’s son, beginning in 642 AH/1244. [4] He is a different man from Ghazi’s brother al-Kamil, the ruler of Egypt. Album’s preceding heading prints 1242 beside 642 AH; that inconsistent conversion should not be repeated as a secure death date.

Sources and further reading

  1. Emin Dalmiş, Eyyûbîlerin Ahlat Dönemi Sikkeleri, Ortaçağ Araştırmaları Dergisi 4.2 (2021), p. 215. DOI: 10.48120/oad.1006271.
  2. Ahmet Savran, Meyyâfârikīn, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi 29 (2004), pp. 511–512; regional history and the Seljuk siege.
  3. Önder Kaya, el-Melikü’l-Eşref, Mûsâ, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi 29 (2004), pp. 64–66; Ghazi’s rebellion and 1224 settlement.
  4. Stephen Album, Checklist of Islamic Coins, third edition (2011), p. 109, type 860; author’s free research edition distributed in 2020.
  5. Affaf Khogali-Wahbi, Hadith and Sufism in Damascus, 627/1230–728/1328, King’s College London PhD (1994), p. 43, section 2.1.9.
  6. Dûrzan cîrano, Farqîn, 23 June 2010; Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.