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| 1174–93 |
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| SALADIN, FOUNDER OF THE AYYUBID DYNASTY. Though the Muslim sources have memorialized him as a holy warrior and a champion of the faith, his great accomplishment was the reunification of Nur al-Din's domain, which had been distributed to his relatives and lieutenants at his death. In several campaigns (1174–85) Saladin asserted his authority over Damascus, Aleppo, and Mosul. Once he had consolidated his position in the interior, he turned his attention to the Crusader kingdoms, which he nearly eliminated. | 1 |
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| 1191 |
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| Execution of SHIHAB AL-DIN AL-SUHRAWARDI, a Muslim philosopher and theologian, in Aleppo, on charges of heresy. His main contribution to Islamic thought was to help turn philosophy away from a strictly rational method and toward a more mystical investigation of the universe. Over the following centuries, Sufism owed an incalculable debt to his theories. | 2 |
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| 1193–1249 |
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| The AYYUBID DYNASTY, the successors of Saladin, in Egypt and Syria. Like the kingdom of Nur al-Din earlier in the century, Saladin's lands were parceled out among his family and closest aides. Three of his descendants—al-Adil Sayf al-Din (1200–1218), al-Kamil Muhammad (1218–38), and al-Salih Ayyub (1240–49)—were able to reimpose unity on his former domain and check the ambitions of their rivals and relatives. Yet power remained broadly diffused within the state, and local princes retained a large degree of autonomy and influence, particularly in Syria. | 3 |
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| 1204 |
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| Death of MOSES MAIMONIDES (b. 1135), the greatest scholar and philosopher of medieval Judaism. During his lifetime he was court physician to Saladin and leader of the Jewish community in Egypt. His philosophical work (Guide of the Perplexed) represented an ambitious attempt to clarify the basic doctrines of Judaism and to define the differences that set it apart from Islam and Christianity. His daring synthesis of Jewish scripture and Aristotelian philosophy outraged most contemporary Jewish theologians, who preferred a more literal and conservative interpretation of the sources. | 4 |
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| 1218–21 |
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| Crusaders landed in Egypt and briefly occupied Damietta before being driven out. | 5 |
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| 1240 |
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| Death of IBN AL-’ARABI (b. 1165), one of the giants of Sufism and the Islamic philosophical tradition. He was an extremely productive author whose work made a lasting impression on the orthodox orders of Sufism. The central idea of his writings was the fundamental unity of all existence. Born in Spain, he emigrated to Damascus, where he lived until his death. | 6 |
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| 1244 |
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| Invasion of Syria by the Khwarazmians, bands of freebooters and unemployed soldiers. They had once served the Khwarazm-shahs of central Asia, until the Mongols overran their kingdom in 1220. Wandering westward ahead of the Mongol advance, they settled in Anatolia before entering Syria and sacking Jerusalem (1244). Ayyubid forces finally defeated and scattered them in 1246. | 7 |
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| 1250–1517 |
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| THE MAMLUK EMPIRE. The mamluks were the Turkish and Circassian military slaves who formed the mainstay of the late Ayyubid army. Turkish slaves had served in Middle Eastern armies for more than three centuries, but none had dared to dispense with dynastic facades and hold power in their own right. The Mamluks maintained legitimacy at first through Ayyubid puppets and then, after 1261, through the presence of an Abbasid caliph, descended from a refugee of the caliphal family following the sack of Baghdad by the Mongols. | 8 |
| The Mamluks organized themselves into military households in which young slaves, usually purchased from the lands north of the Caspian Sea and, later, from the Caucasus, were trained as soldiers, brought up as Muslims, and eventually set free. Militarily, they fought as cavalry and gained a wide reputation for their bravery and ferocity. Their political system functioned effectively, but was hardly a model of stability. Most sultans were sooner or later murdered in the constant factional disputes that plagued the empire. The administration operated essentially as a spoils system, in which provinces, as well as political and fiscal posts, were distributed among the leaders of the reigning Mamluk coalitions. Mamluk solidarity was reinforced by their cultural isolation within the society. Unlike the general population, they spoke Turkish far better than Arabic, and they were largely unfamiliar with local customs. | 9 |
| The Mamluks could not have ruled for so long without the cooperation of the local Arabic-speaking notables. Drawn from a small circle of leading families, these men occupied high places in the administrative and fiscal hierarchy, monopolized the upper reaches of the religious establishment, and served as mediators between the Mamluks and the society at large. | 10 |
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| 1250–1382 |
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| The Bahriyya Sultanate of the Mamluk Empire. During this period, the Mamluk Empire became the leading Muslim state in the world. One of its major accomplishments was the integrating of the Syrian provinces more fully into the imperial political system. | 11 |
| As the Mamluks came to rely increasingly on the Caucasus as their chief recruiting grounds, ethnic tensions between Turkish and Circassian Mamluks steadily mounted. The most notable sultans from this line were al-Zahir Baybars (1260–77), al-Mansur Kalavun (1279–90), and al-Nasir Muhammad (1293–94, 1299–1309, and 1310–41). | 12 |
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| 1260 |
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| THE MONGOL INVASION OF SYRIA (See 1258–60). Mongol forces took Aleppo and Damascus and penetrated deep into Palestine. A Mamluk army confronted and defeated them at the Battle of Ayn Jalut (Sept. 3). The victory preserved the Mamluk Empire and set a limit on Mongol expansion in the Middle East. Nevertheless, a state of enmity continued between the Mamluks and the Ilkhans until a peace agreement was reached in 1323. The Mongols launched several invasions of Syria, notably in 1281 and 1299. | 13 |
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| 1261 |
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| Coronation in Cairo of the fugitive Abbasid prince al-Mustansir as caliph and nominal head of state. The Mamluk state, in which the sultans retained all real power, thereby asserted itself as the premier Muslim state in the world. The status of the state was further enhanced when, soon afterward, the sharif of Mecca transferred his allegiance to Cairo. In consequence the Mamluks became the guardians of the Holy Cities of the Hijaz, a tremendous boon to their prestige and honor. | 14 |
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| 1276 |
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| Mamluk expedition to Nubia (See 1250–1500). Over the next century, the Mamluks tried to incorporate Nubia as a province within the empire by manipulating the Nubian political system and installing puppet rulers on the throne. Although the sultans were able to gain suzerainty over the kingdom, their control was always indirect at best, and it grew feebler in the course of the 14th century. | 15 |
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