Al-Afdal ibn Salah ad-Din (Arabic: الأفضل بن صلاح الدين, "most superior"; c. 1169 – 1225, generally known as Al-Afdal (الأفضل), was one of seventeen sons of Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and thus of Kurdish descent. He succeeded his father as the second Ayyubid emir of Damascus. His career as a ruler was chequered and punctuated by repeated armed conflict with other prominent members of his family.
Contents
Biography
Early life
Al-Afdal was one of the Ayyubid commanders at the Battle of Arsuf, when Saladin was defeated by Richard I of England and the forces of the Third Crusade.
When Saladin died in 1193, al-Afdal inherited Damascus, but not the rest of his father's territories; Egypt was claimed by his brother al-Aziz, where he was already installed as governor, and Aleppo by another brother az-Zahir. As his father was dying, al Afdal summoned all the emirs then at Damascus to swear allegiance to him. Al-Afdal was in theory the head of the Ayyubid dynasty, but he was not able to exert any level of authority over his siblings, and soon proved that he had little ability as a ruler.