Ayyubid dynasty

So we're saying the most fun Civ to play is Malians.

followed by Ayyubids, Mongols, then followed by Ottomans, and then Jin Dynasty, which are almost complete opposites as far as who's enjoyable to play against.

I think part of that is that Jin Dynasty is like the cute, fun civ that doesn't play very strong, but it's fun to play with and lose, and it's fun to beat up on.

And if you do lose to them, you're happy.

We've got a few anniversaries.

On September 7th, 1191, a crusader army under King Richard I, or the Lionheart, defeated Saladin's Ayyubid forces at the Battle of Arsuf, one of the major military engagements of the Third Crusade.

You can read more about that battle at the newsletter if you are so inclined.

On September 2nd, 1822, this is Brazilian Independence Day.

And Al-Azhar, the mosque finished in 972, the one building where Cairo's whole population had gathered every Friday since the city's founding, the mosque built specifically to be this dynasty's own showcase, loses its Khutba, too.

Under the Ayyubid state Saladin founds, only one mosque in Cairo is permitted to host the Friday sermon, and Al-Azhar, with its Shiite origins, isn't it.

For roughly 95 years, there's no congregational Friday prayer inside the mosque the Fatimids built to be the center of their religious authority.

It comes back.

Before the Ottomans, the Mamelukes had it.

The Mamelukes took it from the Ayyubids.

The Ayyubids took it from the Crusaders.

So Sultan Salahuddin Ayyubi had defeated the Crusaders.

Then his successors ruled the city of Jerusalem for nearly 50 years.

His prime minister was a Jewish man called Hazdai ibn Shaprut, right? And likewise, a man born in Kartaba in Spain called Musa bin Maimun, also known as Maimonides in Jewish history, the second Moses, He lived in Egypt and he was the private physician to Sultan Salahuddin Ayyubi and his brother Malik al-Afdal.

So now what am I trying to prove here? I'm trying to explain how the Jewish people flourished for over a thousand years in the Muslim domains.

whether that's Ottoman domains, whether that's the Umayyads in Spain, whether that's the Ayyubids in Egypt and much of the Middle East, whether it's the Abbasids in Iraq, you name it.

They're attacking an Egyptian city that is part of an Egyptian kingdom, although part of a larger sultanate and political economic network that stretches across the Middle East.

First things first, when the Crusaders show up on their shores, how prepared are the Ayyubids? Do they know they're coming? Do they expect them? What is their military and political economic capacity to mount a response?

Yeah, I think you're exactly right.

We definitely have to look at the Ayyubid perspective as well to really understand the crusade and what happens.

So they had a breathing space there.

So in some ways, they've had years to prepare for this and they are ready for a crusader threat.

But in other ways, actually that political world is so fractious and Sultan al-Kamil's grip on power is not as strong as it could be that actually this is a very good time for the crusaders to attack and quite a bad time, I think, for the Ayyubids to have to face such a challenge.

And the Sultan

Means the Abbasids were Persians.

Then the Ayyubids, the Mamluks, the Egyptian Coptics, the Egyptian, the North African, the Moors.

Do you know how many Moors in 711 when they conquered Spain? Do you know how many in an army of 8,000? Do you know how many Arabs there were? You're

getting off topic.

Only months later, Aybak and the Mamluks took full control, founding a new dynasty ruled by former slaves.

In the aftermath, the Mamluks transformed Egypt from a crumbling Ayyubid realm into a bulwark.

They crushed the Mongols at Ain Jalut, pushing back the tide that had swallowed so much of the east.

Their military meritocracy sparked centuries of fierce rulers, architectural wonders, and a legacy written in both blood and marble.

This was the dynasty from which eventually Salahuddin Ayyubi, Rahmatullah Ali, he became the prime minister of that dynasty.

Then he took over that dynasty and started the Ayyubids and then the conquest of Jerusalem and so on and so forth.

So the point is, this is when it started.

So nobody started.