Ayyubids of Egypt and Syria 81Humanitatis, 1983); Julian Gardner, The Tomb and the
Tiara: Curial Tomb Sculpture in Rome and Avignon in the
Later Middle Ages(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992); Gail
Marzieh, Avignon in Flower, 1309–1403 (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1965); Guillaume Mollat, The Popes at
Avignon, 1305–1378,trans. Janet Love (London: T. Nel-
son, 1963); Andrew Tomasello, Music and Ritual at Papal
Avignon, 1309–1403(Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Research
Press, 1983).
Axum (Aksum)Axum was the capital city of the
ancient kingdom of ABYSSINIA, the region now known as
Eritrea and Abyssinia or Ethiopia, which covered an area
of the wedge-shaped, northernmost Abyssinian plateau
and included the port of Adulis from the fourth to the
seventh century, Axum was among the greatest powers in
AFRICA. Located near the Red Sea, its port Adulis was a
market for African slaves, IVORY, PAPYRUS, and GOLD,as
well as SPICESfrom India. Axum minted gold coins, and
had a sophisticated court where for awhile Greek was
spoken. Its economic and diplomatic ties stretched to
ARABIAand IRAN. Christianity was probably established
during the fourth century, during the reign of emperor
Ezana (ca. 325–ca. 360). Its Monophysite church
depended on the patriarch of ALEXANDRIA. The Byzantine
emperor Justin I (ca. 450–527) persuaded an emperor to
invade southern Arabia or Yemen, in 525, to stop the Per-
sian attempt to take control of the area. In 531, JUSTINIAN
I dispatched a mission to Axum to persuade the Ethiopi-
ans to circumvent the Persian SILKtrade by importing silk
from Ceylon through the Red Sea ports. Little came of
this plan. In the seventh century, Axum lost the Red Sea
ports to the Arabs, thus beginning a long economic
decline.
Further reading:Yuri M. Kobishchanov, Axum,ed.
Joseph W. Michaels and trans. Lorraine T. Kapitanoff
(University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press,
1979); S. C. Munro-Hay, Aksum: An African Civilisation of
Late Antiquity(Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,
1991); D. W. Phillipson, Ancient Ethiopia: Aksum, Its
Antecedents and Successors (London: British Museum
Press, 1998).
Ayn-Jalut, Battle of On September 3, 1260, the MAM-
LUKSof EGYPTdecisively defeated a Mongol army, led by a
general called “the Christian Turk Kit-buqa.” It took
place at a village in Galilee in Palestine called the Spring
of Goliath or Ayn-Jalut. The Mongols had recently taken
BAGHDAD, destroyed the ABBASIDcaliphate, and taken and
sacked the important cities of ALEPPOand DAMASCUSin
- Already distracted by a succession crisis back in
Mongolia, HULEGUthe new Mongol Khan of Persia, and
his forces had exhausted the grasslands of SYRIA. He was
forced to retire with the preponderance of his army to
winter on the steppes. Before he left, he demanded that
the Mamluks of Egypt submit to Mongol rule. They
refused and Hulegu dispatched a small army against them
in the late summer of 1260. The Mongols, unused to the
terrain and overconfident, were massacred by an over-
whelming force of Mamluks led by the sultan Qutuz (r.
1259–60). Hulegu remained distracted by conflict with
his northern neighbors, the Mongols of the Golden
Horde, in a fight over critical grazing rights and was
unable to avenge his loss. The destructive Mongol
advance was stopped. Besides being unable to advance
into Egypt they were soon driven out of Syria, at least
temporarily. The outcome of this battle has traditionally
been viewed as preserving Islam, but it was only the first
step in a long process of defending Syria from becoming
part of the Mongol Empire. This was the first time a
Mongol army was defeated, and these events marked the
beginning of the end of true military unity among the
Mongol Khans. They continued to raid Syria but were
never able to dispatch an army strong enough to capture
Egypt and reoccupy Syria more than temporarily again.
Further reading:Reuven Amitai-Preiss, Mongols and
Mamluks: The Mamluk-Ilkhanid War, 1260–1281(Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995); Bernard
Lewis, “‘Ayn Dja ̄lu ̄ t,” Encyclopedia of Islam,1.786–787.Ayyubids of Egypt and Syria They were a KURDISH
and SUNNI Muslim dynasty, founded by SALADIN, who
ruled over EGYPT, upper Mesopotamia or IRAQ, most of
SYRIA, and the Yemen by the late 12th and early 13th cen-
turies. The foundations of the rise of the dynasty were
laid by Ayyub ibn Shadi (d. 1173) and his brother
Shirkuh (d. 1169), who were very successful soldiers in
the anticrusader wars of the Zangids, Zengi (d. 1147) and
NUR AL-DINMUHAMMAD IBNZANGI(r. 1146–71).SALADIN AND THE
CONSOLIDATION OF POWER
Saladin, as had his father and uncle, became a soldier for
Nur al-Din. After several military successes for Nur al-
Din against Fatimid Egypt, victories over crusaders, and
the death of Nur al-Din in 1174, Saladin moved from mil-
itary command and duties as chief administrative officer
of the Egyptian caliphate to real control of Egypt and
Syria. In the meantime he had sent his brother to conquer
the Yemen in the southwestern part of the Arabian Penin-
sula. Ayyubid dominance of that region lasted until 1229,
when Salah al-Din conceded it to a local dynasty.
Back in Syria and Egypt, Saladin promoted the con-
cept of JIHADagainst the crusader kingdoms but concen-
trated more on building his own power. By 1186, he was
secure in Syria and Egypt, creating the most powerful
Muslim state in the area and a true threat to the survival
of the crusader states. He won a major victory over them
at the Battle of HATTINon October 2, 1187, and retook
most of the kingdom of JERUSALEM, including the capital