Turan-Shah

Who was Turan-Shah?

Shams ad-Din Turanshah ibn Ayyub al-Malik al-Mu'azzam Shams ad-Dawla Fakhr ad-Din known simply as Turanshah was a Kurdish ruler, the Ayyubid prince of Yemen, Baalbek, Damascus and finally Alexandria where he died in 1180. He is noted for strengthening the position of his younger brother, Saladin, in Egypt and playing the leading role in the Ayyubid conquests of both Nubia and Yemen. Like many of the Ayyubids, little is known of his early life before his arrival in Egypt.