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Polity

Ayyubid Dynasty

Ayyubid Dynasty (1171-1260 CE) - A major Islamic dynasty that succeeded the Fatimid Caliphate, controlling extensive territories in Egypt, Syria, and the Levant before being succeeded by the Mamluks.

Islamic

Overview

The Ayyubid Dynasty (1171-1260 CE) was a major Islamic dynasty that succeeded the Fatimid Caliphate, controlling extensive territories in Egypt, Syria, and the Levant before being succeeded by the Mamluks. It exemplifies successor state dynamics and Islamic state formation.

Formation

  • Formation Date: 1171 CE - Overthrow of Fatimid Caliphate
  • Formation Event: ayyubid formation 1171ce
  • Key Actors: Saladin (founder)
  • Context: Preceded by Fatimid Caliphate (909-1171 CE)
  • Formation Process: Overthrow of Fatimid Caliphate, expansion

Persistence

  • Key Periods:
    • Early Period (1171-1200 CE): Initial consolidation, expansion
    • Peak Period (1200-1260 CE): Peak expansion, military campaigns
  • Internal Developments:
    • Administrative systems
    • Military organization
    • Cultural achievements
  • Administrative Structure: Sultanate administration
  • Territorial Changes:
    • Expansion into Egypt, Syria, and Levant
    • Peak expansion (1200 CE)
  • Key Events:
    • Various military campaigns (Crusades, etc.)
    • Various cultural achievements
    • Succession by Mamluks (1260 CE)

Transformation

Dissolution

  • Dissolution Date: 1260 CE - Succession by Mamluks
  • Dissolution Event: ayyubid mamluk succession 1260ce
  • Dissolution Process: Succession by Mamluks
  • Successor States: Mamluk Sultanate (Egypt) (1250-1517 CE)

Predecessors

Successors

Concurrent Polities

  • Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258 CE) - Neighboring caliphate (nominal suzerainty)
  • Various Crusader states
  • Various Islamic polities
About this entry

A draft entry preserved from civilization.study. Evidence grade: strong. 1 of 2 listed sources are fully documented; the rest are names only. Method and sources

Links to Claims

Links to Patterns

Links to Events

  • Various military campaigns (Crusades, etc.)
  • Various cultural achievements
  • Succession by Mamluks (1260 CE)

Links to People

  • Various Ayyubid rulers

Links to Data

  • Islamic institutional data (if applicable)
  • Islamic military data (if applicable)

Notes

  • Source quality: Strong - well-documented in historical sources
  • Integration: Links to existing claim cards, patterns

Conflicts

Conflicts this polity is recorded in. Cards are generated from Civitas's war records; every one is a draft estimate and none is Official.

How to read the evidence badges
Primary text read
Civitas read the ancient or primary text for at least one figure on this card. Other figures may still be Wikipedia-compiled and are labelled.
Generic placeholder: an advancing line for a war or campaign. Not an image of this event.
war series · 1095 CE-1291 CE (conventional; convention cited to Tyerman 2006, book-level)

Crusades (1095-1291 CE, conventional span)

Series of Latin Christian expeditions and Levantine wars against Muslim polities; links Byzantine, Islamic and Latin spheres and drives Mediterranean naval and trade change.

Evidence: Primary text read Draft estimate

What the record says

  • Note Conventional span 1095 (Clermont) to 1291 (fall of Acre) follows standard histories (Tyerman 2006); dates NOT extracted from a machine-readable source this session.
  • Note No aggregate casualty total is asserted: no reliable published total was verified.
  • Primary text PRIMARY-SOURCE (read 2026-10-12): span ends sourced. Opening: Urban II's speech at the Council of Clermont, 1095 (Fordham Sourcebook, five versions). Close: Ludolph of Suchem on the fall of Acre, 1291 (Fordham): claims the Sultan had "six hundred thousand armed" and that "in Acre and the other places nearly a hundred and six thousand men were slain" - a fourteenth-century traveller's claim, not a measurement.

Confidence. medium (periodization); no casualty data.

Where it sits

Sources and evidence

No page-level citation is claimed for any source. Figures marked unverified come from a Wikipedia aggregator and are not for Official use.

Link to this conflict

Generic placeholder: crossed lines for a battle. Not an image of this event.
battle · 3-4 July 1187

Battle of Hattin (1187 CE)

Destruction of the field army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem; followed by Saladin retaking Jerusalem.

Evidence: Primary text read Draft estimate

What the record says

  • Note Dates 3-4 July 1187; outcome: Ayyubid victory.
  • Unverified (Wikipedia-compiled) Wikipedia-compiled (stub): Crusader army 18,000-20,000; Ayyubid army 20,000-40,000; Crusader losses "most of the army"; Ayyubid losses light.
  • Primary text PRIMARY-SOURCE (read 2026-10-12): Baha al-Din (Conder/Wilson transl. 1897) pp. 110-115: Saladin marched on 17 Rabi II 583 (Conder: June 26, 1187); took Tiberias on Wednesday the 21st; the armies met on the hill west of Tiberias on Thursday the 22nd and fought on Friday the 23rd (Conder gives July 2, 1187 for the Friday); Raymond of Tripoli fled early; Franks who climbed Hattin hill were surrounded with fires and surrendered; captives included the King, his brother and Renaud de Chatillon; an informant saw one soldier leading "more than thirty prisoners, tied together with a tent cord". No army totals given in the passage read.

Confidence. low-medium (strengths vary widely).

Where it sits

Sources and evidence

No page-level citation is claimed for any source. Figures marked unverified come from a Wikipedia aggregator and are not for Official use.

Link to this conflict

Art: Patterns of Civilization chronicle art, made with AI: illustrations, not historical evidence. Entries are drafts preserved from civilization.study. Method and sources.