Part 102

Any man you send could bring me to you with a rope around my neck.' If he hears that, he will change his plan to come to you and will focus on something more important to him.749 Najm ad-Deen Ayub loved Noor ad-Deen Zangi very much and was very sincere and devoted to him, so Salah ad-Deen did what his father suggested. When Noor ad-Deen (may Allah have mercy on him) saw that this was the case, he changed his mind, and things were as Najm ad-Deen had said.750 At the beginning of 568 AH/1173 CE, after Noor ad-Deen returned from Azerbaijan and Armenia, he received a letter from the caliph appointing him over Mosul, Mesopotamia, Irbil, Khallat, Greater Syria, the land of Kilij Arslan and Egypt. In Shawwal of the same year, Salah ad-Deen set out with his army and besieged Kerak, and told Noor ad-Deen that he had set out in accordance with what had been agreed upon the previous year. Noor ad-Deen set out from Damascus and when he reached ar-Raqeem (in central Jordan) he received a letter from Salah ad-Deen telling him that his father in Egypt was sick, and he was afraid that if he died, the Egyptians would take this opportunity to seize the land and fortify themselves, so he had no choice but to return to Egypt.751 When Noor ad-Deen learned of that, he said, "Protecting Egypt is more important to us than anything else."752 Soon events confirmed Salah ad-Deen's fears. A major revolt was staged against him, led by the caliph's confidant Jawhar, then after that there was a huge conspiracy in which 'Amarah al-Yemeni and the remnants of the Rafidi Shiite madh-hab took part, as I have explained above. In 568 AH, Noor ad-Deen launched campaigns against the Crusaders. Al-Imad al-Isfahani was riding with alMalik al-'Adil and he said to him: How would you describe what has happened? His response was to praise him in a lengthy ode about Noor adDeen's defence of Harran. Incorporation of the eastern Maghreb Salah ad-Deen strove to consolidate the achievements he had made in Egypt by securing the borders of his country so that he would not be caught unawares. His efforts resulted in the incorporation of the eastern Maghreb. North Africa had been geographically connected to Egypt since the early Islamic conquests, so it was natural that Salah ad-Deen should turn his attention to incorporating this region in order to benefit from its resources, and to benefit from its good location for defending the western border of Egypt. In 568 AH/1173 CE, Salah ad-Deen sent a military force to the eastern Maghreb, led by Sharaf ad-Deen Qaraqoosh, the slave of al-Muzaffar Taqi ad-Deen 'Umar ibn Shahinshah ibn Ayub. He entered Tripoli, Barqah and some other areas of the eastern Maghreb, as far as Qabis, with the exception of al-Mahdiyah, Safaqas, Qafsah and Tunis.753 Incorporation of Yemen The incorporation of Yemen became part of Noor ad-Deen's plan that was aimed at uniting a single Islamic front to resist the Crusader invasion.754 Salah ad-Deen's policy in incorporating Yemen led to: i. Increased pressure on the supporters of the Fatimids, especially since the governor of Yemen,'Abdan-Nabiibn Mahdi was a Rafidi who had connections to the Fatimid caliph of Egypt. ii. Salahad-Deen managed to secure the southern border of Egypt. Incorporating Yemen, which was regarded as the key to the Red Sea in the south, guaranteed him military and commercial control of the southern region and reduced the possibility of any alliance between the Crusaders, who wanted to dominate the Red Sea ,and the Abyssinians, who were also Christians, so that he would not end up trapped between the Crusaders on the Mediterranean coast to the north and the Abyssinians on the coast of the Red Sea to the south. iii. At that time Yemen was going through a period of instability, caught between various political, religious and sectarian inclinations, especially between Zubayd and Sanaa. There emerged an impostor, 'Abd an-Nabi ibn Mahdi, who claimed that he was the awaited Mahdi. He gained control over Yemen and sermons were delivered in his name once he stopped the sermons in the name of the Abbasids. He gave himself the title of imam, and built a huge dome over his father's grave; he ordered the Yemenis to perform pilgrimage to this grave and forbade them to go on Hajj to Makkah. iv. Salah ad-Deen wanted to put an end to these transgressions and negative actions that posed a threat to Muslim unity, especially after the people of Yemen sent a message to him seeking his help to save them.755 Whatever the case, Salah ad-Deen sent an expedition, led by his older brother, Shams ad-Dawlah Turan Shah, who went to Makkah and performed 'Umrah, then moved on to Zubayd and seized control of it, then he went to Aden and seized control of it, and forbade the army from plundering it, saying: We have not come to destroy the land; rather we have come to bring prosperity to it and take control of it.