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Ayyubids
Governing dynasty in Egypt, Muslim Syria, Upper Mesopotamia, and Yemen from the end of the twelfth to the middle of the thirteenth century; established by the Kurdish officer Salah al-Din ( Saladin ). Promoted Sunnism and returned Egypt to the Abbasid fold after two centuries of Fatimid (Shii) rule; greatly reduced the power of the Crusader principalities of Syria. Organized with territories (outside of Egypt) divided among the various family princes who supported military officers and troops with revenue grants (iqta). Regime usually integrated by the dominance of the sultan of Egypt; collapsed in Egypt in 1250 and elsewhere over the next decade after an army of Turkish slave-soldiers (Mamluks) supplanted the last Ayyubid ruler in Egypt.
