Kurdish Empire - History - Disintegration - Restoration of Unity

Restoration of Unity

In 1244-45, as-Salih Ayyub had seized Judea and Samaria from an-Nasir Dawud; he took possession of Jerusalem then marched on to take Damascus which fell with relative ease in October 1245. Shortly afterward, Sayf al-Din Ali surrendered his exposed principality, Ajlun and its fortress, to as-Salih Ayyub. The rupture of the alliance between the Khwarizmids and as-Salih Ayyub ended with the virtual destruction of the former by al-Mansur Ibrahim, the Ayyubid emir of Homs, in October 1246. With the Khwarizimid defeat, as-Salih Ayyub was able to complete the subjugation of southern Syria. His general Fakhr ad-Din went on to subdue an-Nasir Dawud's territories. He sacked the lower town of Karak, then besieged its fortress. Although he did not have the means to take it, an-Nasir Dawud was not strong enough to drive him away. A settlement was eventually reached whereby the latter would retain the fortress, but cede the remainder of his principality to as-Salih Ayyub. Having settled the situation in Palestine and Transjordan, Fakhr ad-Din moved north and marched to Bosra, the last place still held by as-Salih Ismail. During the siege, Fakhr ad-Din fell ill, but his commanders continued the assault against the city which fell in December 1246.

By May 1247, as-Salih Ayyub was master of Syria south of Lake Homs, having gained Banyas and Salkhad. With his fellow Ayyubid opponents subdued, except for Aleppo under an-Nasir Yusuf, as-Salih Ayyub undertook a limited offensive against the Crusaders, sending Fakhr ad-Din to move against their holdings in the Galilee. Tiberias fell on June 16, followed by Mount Tabor and Kawkab al-Hawa soon thereafter. Safad with its Templar fortress seemed out of reach, so the Ayyubids marched south to Ascalon. Facing stubborn resistance from the Crusader garrison, an Egyptian flotilla was sent by as-Salih Ayyub to aid in the siege and on October 24, Fakhr ad-Din's troops stormed through a breach in the walls and killed or captured the entire garrison. The city was razed and left deserted.

He returned to Damascus to keep watch on developments in northern Syria. Al-Ashraf Musa of Homs had ceded the important stronghold of Salamiyyah to as-Salih Ayyub the previous winter, perhaps to underline the patron-client relationship. This troubled the Ayyubids of Aleppo who feared it would be used as a base for a military take-over of their city. An-Nasir Yusuf found this intolerable and decided to annex Homs which he did in the winter of 1248. The city surrendered in August and an-Nasir Yusuf's terms forced al-Ashraf Musa to hand over Homs, but he was allowed to retain nearby Palmyra and Tell Bashir in the Syrian Desert. As-Salih Ayyub sent Fakhr ad-Din to recapture Homs, but Aleppo countered by sending an army to Kafr Tab, just outside of the city. An-Nasir Dawud left Karak for Aleppo to guarantee protection from an-Nasir Yusuf, but in his absence, his brothers al-Amjad Hasan and az-Zahir Shadhi detained his heir al-Mu'azzam Isa and then personally went to as-Salih Ayyub's camp at al-Mansourah in Egypt to offer him control of the Karak in return for holdings in Egypt. As-Salih Ayyub sent the eunuch Badr al-Din Sawabi to act as his governor in the city.