Al-Ashraf

Who was Al-Ashraf?

Al-Ashraf Musa Abu'l-Fath al-Muzaffar ad-Din, called Al-Ashraf was a ruler of the Ayyubid dynasty. The son of Sultan Al-Adil I, Al-Ashraf was installed by his father in Harran in 1201 as Governor of the Jezireh. After his brother Al-Mu'azzam's death in 1227, Al-Ashraf was called in by his nephew, Al-Muazzam's son An-Nasir Dawud, for aid in opposing the aggression of another of Al-Ashraf's brothers, Al-Kamil of Egypt. Instead, Al-Ashraf and Al-Kamil came to an agreement to divide their nephew's lands between them. Al-Ashraf captured Damascus in June 1229 took control of the city. In return, he ceded his lands in Mesopotamia to Al-Kamil and acknowledged his supremacy, while An-Nasir was satisfied by the possession of a principality centered on Kerak in the Transjordan region.

Al-Ashraf began to chafe under his brother's authority, and in 1237 allied with Kayqubad I, the Seljuk Sultan of Rûm, and various other Ayyubid princelings of Syria, against Al-Kamil. However, Kayqubad died early in the summer of that year, and Al-Ashraf himself died on 27 August, breaking up the alliance. Al-Ashraf was succeeded in Damascus by his younger brother, As-Salih Ismail.