Muslim commander, politician, and Saladin's uncle (died 1169)
Shirkuh (Sherko)
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13th century European depiction of Adid abu Muhammad and Shirkuh (upper panel), with the arrival of Amalric at Constantinople (lower panel)
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Reign
| 18 January ? 23 March 1169
|
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Predecessor
| Shawar
|
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Successor
| Saladin
(Vizier)
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|
Born
| Dvin,
Armenia
|
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|
Asad ad-D?n Shirkuh bin Shadh?
|
|
Father
| Shadhi Bin Marwan
(
Kurdish
Chief)
|
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Religion
| Islam
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Asad ad-D?n Sh?rk?h bin Sh?dh?
(
Kurdish
:
???????? ?????
,
romanized:
Esed El-Din ?erko
;
Arabic
:
??? ????? ?????? ?? ????
), also known as
Shirkuh
, or
?erko
(meaning "lion of the mountains" in
Kurdish
) (died 22 February 1169) was a military commander in service of the
Zengid dynasty
, and uncle of
Saladin
. His military and diplomatic efforts in Egypt were a key factor in establishing the
Ayyubid dynasty
in that country.
Name
[
edit
]
Shirkuh is a Kurdish name which literally means "the lion (of the) mountain". Shirkuh is also the name of several villages in modern-day Iran. His Arabic honorific
Asad ad-Din
similarly means "the lion of faith". In
Latin
, his name was rendered as "Siraconus";
William of Tyre
, referring to the expedition of 1163, describes him as:
an able and energetic warrior, eager for glory and of wide experience in military affairs. Generous far beyond the resources of his patrimony, Shirkuh was beloved by his followers because of this munificence. He was small of stature, very stout and fat and already advanced in years. Though of lowly origin, he had become rich and risen by merit from his humble estate to the rank of prince. He was afflicted with
cataract
in one eye. He was a man of great endurance under hardships, one who bore hunger and thirst with an equanimity quite unusual for that time of life.
[1]
Origins and earlier career
[
edit
]
He was originally from a
Kurdish
village in
Armenia
near the town of
Dvin
. He was the son of Shadhi ibn Marwan, a
Kurdish
chief,
[2]
and the brother of
Najm ad-Din Ayyub
, the ancestor of the
Ayyubid dynasty
.
[3]
The family was closely connected to the
Shaddadid
dynasty, and when the last Shaddadid was deposed in Dvin in 1130, Shahdi moved the family first to
Baghdad
and then to
Tikrit
, where he was appointed governor by the regional administrator Bihruz. Ayyub succeeded his father as governor of Tikrit when Shahdi died soon after. When Shirkuh killed a Christian with whom he was quarrelling in Tikrit in 1138,
[4]
the brothers were exiled (Shirkuh's nephew Yusuf, later known as Saladin, was supposedly born the night they left). They joined
Nur ad-Din Zengi
's army, and Shirkuh served under
Nur ad-Din Zengi
who succeeded Zengi in
Mosul
. Shirkuh was later given
Homs
,
ar-Rahba
and other
appanages
by Nur ad Din Zengi as his vassal.
[5]
Ayyub served as governor of
Baalbek
and later
Damascus
, and the two brothers negotiated the surrender of Damascus to Nur ad-Din in 1154.
In 1163 Nur ad-Din was asked by
Shawar
to intervene in Egypt in a dispute between him and
Dirgham
over the
Fatimid
vizierate
. Nur ad-Din sent Shirkuh, and this was to be the first of three ventures Shirkuh made into Egypt, nominally on Nur ad-Din's behalf. On this first occasion, his nephew Saladin accompanied him as an advisor. Shawar was restored and Dirgham was killed, but after quarrelling with Shirkuh, Shawar allied with
Amalric I of Jerusalem
, who marched into Egypt in 1164 and besieged Shirkuh at
Bilbeis
[6]
(see
Crusader invasion of Egypt
). In response Nur ad-Din attacked the
Crusader states
and almost captured the
Principality of Antioch
.
Later career
[
edit
]
Shirkuh was invited back into Egypt by the Fatimid Caliph
Al-Adid
in 1167, to help defeat the
Crusaders
who were attacking Cairo.
[7]
Shawar once again allied with Amalric, who besieged Shirkuh in
Alexandria
until he agreed to leave; however, a Crusader garrison remained in Egypt and Amalric allied with the
Byzantine Empire
, planning to conquer it entirely. To destroy the garrison, Shawar switched alliances, from Amalric to Shirkuh. The Muslims fought a pitched battle with the Crusaders, who did not have the resources to conquer Egypt and were forced to retreat.
Shirkuh and his associates enjoyed widespread support among the civil elite In Egypt for religious reasons. Although the Fatimid rulers were Shiite, the majority of people remained Sunni Muslims.
[8]
In January 1169 Shirkuh entered
Cairo
and had the untrustworthy Shawar executed. When he reached Cairo with his armies he was welcomed by the Fatimid Caliph
Al-Adid
and treated with great honour.
[9]
He accepted the office of vizier, but died two months later on 22 March; as
Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad
describes, "it was the case that Asad ad-Din was a great eater, excessively given to partaking of rich meats. He suffered many bouts of indigestion and from
quinsy
, from which he would recover after putting up with great discomfort. He was taken severely ill, afflicted with a serious quinsy, which killed him on 22
Jumada II
564 [22 February 1169]."
Legacy
[
edit
]
He was succeeded as vizier by his nephew
Saladin
, who had served with him on his campaigns in Egypt. Saladin eventually succeeded Nur ad-Din as well, uniting Egypt and Syria, which enabled him to almost completely drive out the crusaders from Syria and Palestine. A number of historians have offered the view that Shirkuh's death was an important factor in allowing Saladin to consolidate his position as Sultan and as undisputed head of the Ayyubid family.
[10]
Although
Nur ad-Din Zengi
took back the domain of Homs on Shirkuh's death, in 1179 Saladin gave Homs to Shirkuh's son
Muhammad ibn Shirkuh
[11]
and his descendants continued to rule in Homs thereafter until the death in 1263 of his last descendant the emir,
Al-Ashraf Musa, Emir of Homs
. After this
Homs
was ruled directly as part of the
Mamluk Empire
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
William, Abp. of Tyre, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea, Volume 2, Octagon Books 1976, p.303
- ^
Chamakhi, Mustapha K. (21 June 2021).
Islam in all its States
. BoD - Books on Demand.
ISBN
978-2-322-25166-7
.
- ^
Lane Poole, Stanley, The Mohammedan Dynasties, Constable & Co. London 1894 p.77
- ^
Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary, vol.4, trams. Bn. Mac Guckin de Slane, Edouard Blot, Paris 1871 p.483
- ^
Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary, vol.4, trams. Bn. Mac Guckin de Slane, Edouard Blot, Paris 1871 p.484
- ^
Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary, vol.4, trams. Bn. Mac Guckin de Slane, Edouard Blot, Paris 1871 p.486
- ^
First Encyclopedia of Islam, E. J. Brill, Leiden 1993, vol. 7 p.382
- ^
Lev, Yaacov (1999).
Saladin in Egypt
. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill. p. 78.
ISBN
90-04-11221-9
.
- ^
Lane-Poole, Stanley, Saladin and the Fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, The Other Press, Kuala Lumpur 2007 p.86
- ^
Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary, vol.4, trams. Bn. Mac Guckin de Slane, Edouard Blot, Paris 1871 p.492
- ^
Runciman S. Hunyadi Z., Laszlovszky J., The Crusades and the Military Orders: Expanding the Frontier of Medieval Latin Christianity, CEU Medievalia, 2001,p.62
Sources
[
edit
]
- Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad
,
The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin
, ed. D. S. Richards,
Ashgate
, 2002.
- Halm, Heinz
(2014).
Kalifen und Assassinen: Agypten und der vordere Orient zur Zeit der ersten Kreuzzuge, 1074?1171
[
Caliphs and Assassins: Egypt and the Near East at the Time of the First Crusades, 1074?1171
] (in German). Munich: C.H. Beck.
ISBN
978-3-406-66163-1
.
- William of Tyre
,
A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea
, trans. E.A. Babcock and A.C. Krey.
Columbia University Press
, 1943.
- Steven Runciman
,
A History of the Crusades, vol. II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem
.
Cambridge University Press
, 1952.
- Vladimir Minorsky, "The Prehistory of Saladin", in
Studies in Caucasian History
,
Cambridge University Press
, 1957, pp. 124?132. (
available online
)
- Lyons, Malcolm Cameron; Jackson, D. E. P. (1982).
Saladin: The Politics of the Holy War
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN
0-521-31739-8
.