page_title: History of Palestine
section_title: Ayyubid and Mamluk periods
hierarchical_section_title: History of Palestine / Middle Ages / Ayyubid and Mamluk periods
caption_attribution_description: English: Bahri dynasty (1250-1382)
context_page_description: The history of Palestine is the study of the past in the region of Palestine, generally defined as a geographic region in the Southern Levant between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands. Situated at a strategic point between Europe, Asia, and Africa, and the birthplace of Judaism and Christianity, the region has a long and tumultuous history as a crossroads for religion, culture, commerce, and politics. In ancient times, Palestine was intermittently controlled by several independent kingdoms and numerous great powers, including Ancient Egypt, Persia, Alexander the Great and his successors, the Roman Empire, several Muslim dynasties, and the Crusaders. In modern times, the area was ruled by the Ottoman Empire, then the United Kingdom. Since 1948, Palestine has been divided into Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Other terms for approximately the same geographic area include Canaan, Zion, the Land of Israel, Southern Syria, Outremer and the Holy Land.
  The region was among the earliest in the world to see human habitation, agricultural communities and civilization.
context_section_description: Following the crusader defeat by Saladin's forces in 1187, most of Palestine was controlled by the Ayyubids. A rump crusader state in the northern coastal cities known as the Kingdom of Acre survived in the region for another hundred years until 1291, throughout the Ayyubid Period and well into the Mamluk Period. However, despite seven further crusades from Europe, the crusader state was no longer a significant power in the region after the fall of Jerusalem in 1187.
  The Ayyubids allowed Jewish and Orthodox Christian settlement in the region, and the Dome of the Rock was converted back into an Islamic center of worship. The Mosque of Omar was built under Saladin outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, commemorating Umar the Great's decision to pray outside the church so as not to set a precedent and thereby endanger the church's status as a Christian site. About eighty years after Saladin's conquest, the Catalan Rabbi Nahmanides left Europe following the disputation of Barcelona, and spent the last three years of his life in Palestine, primarily in Acre. He established the Ramban Synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem and thus, having found only two Jewish people living in the city at the time, re-established Jewish communal life in Jerusalem.
  The defeat of the Europeans provoked further crusades from Europe, varying in size and success. In 1192, after preventing the Third Crusade under Richard the Lionheart from recapturing Jerusalem, Saladin entered into the Treaty of Ramla in which he agreed that Western Christian pilgrims could worship freely in Jerusalem. The threat remained, however, and Ayyubid Emir Al-Mu'azzam destroyed Jerusalem's city walls in 1219 to prevent the Crusaders from capturing a fortified city. To end the Sixth Crusade, a 10-year treaty was signed between Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor and Ayyubid Sultan Al-Kamil, allowing Christians freedom to live in the unfortified Jerusalem, as well as Nazareth and Bethlehem, although the Ayyubids retained control of the Muslim holy places.
  These areas were returned to Ayyubid control after the peace treaty expired in 1239 and An-Nasir Dawud, Ayyubid Emir of Kerak, occupied the cities. For the four following years, control of the cities was contested between An-Nasir Dawud and his cousin As-Salih Ayyub who had allied with the crusaders, aided by the diplomatic efforts of Thibaut IV of Champagne. In order to permanently retake the city from the rival breakaway rulers who had allied with the crusaders, As-Salih Ayyub summoned a mercenary army of Khwarezmians, who were available for hire following the defeat of the Khwarazm Shah dynasty by the Mongols ten years earlier. The Khwarezmians could not be controlled by As-Salih Ayyub, and destroyed Jerusalem. A few months later, the two sides met again at the decisive Battle of La Forbie, marking the end of the Crusader influence in southern and central Palestine. Two years later the Ayyubids regained control of Jerusalem after the Khwarezmians were defeated by Al-Mansur Ibrahim at Lake Homs.
  The Mamluk Sultanate was indirectly created in Egypt as a result of the Seventh Crusade, which had been launched in reaction to the 1244 destruction of Jerusalem. The crusade failed after Louis IX of France was defeated and captured by Ayyubid Sultan Turanshah at the Battle of Fariskur in 1250. Turanshah was killed by his Mamluk soldiers a month after the battle and his step-mother Shajar al-Durr became Sultana of Egypt with the Mamluk Aybak as Atabeg. The Ayyubids relocated to Damascus, where they continued to control Palestine for a further 10 years.
  In the late 13th century, Palestine and Syria became the primary front against the fast-expanding Mongol Empire, whose army reached Palestine for the first time in 1260, beginning with the Mongol raids into Palestine under Nestorian Christian general Kitbuqa. Mongol leader Hulagu Khan sent a message to Louis IX of France that Jerusalem had been remitted to the Christians under the Franco-Mongol Alliance; however, shortly thereafter he had to return to Mongolia following the death o
caption: The Bahri Mamluk dynasty 1250–1382
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