Al-Muzaffar Ghazi

After this Al Muzaffar Ghazi took part loyally in a number of campaigns with his relatives against various other local rulers, extending the Ayyubid domains further into the mountainous regions of southeastern Anatolia. One of these, in 1230, was against Jalal al-Din Mangburni, the last Khwarezmshah, whose armies had taken the Ayyubid city of Akhlat. Al Muzaffar Ghazi brought forces to join a combined army of Ayyubid troops and the armies of the Seljuk ruler Ala ad-Din Kayqubad who had united against the Khwarezmian threat. At the battle of Yassıçemen on 9 August 1230 (25 Ramadan 627) the Khwarezmian forces were routed, and the Ayyubids retook Akhlat.^[5]

Another of the key Ayyubid campaigns was against the Emir Mas’ud, who held the two strategically important cities of Amida and Hasankeyf. Taking control of these was sufficiently important to warrant assembling a large combined army with forces from all of the Ayyubid emirates. Al Muzaffar’s forces from Mayyafariqin joined the Egyptian army of Al-Kamil and the Syrian army of Al-Ashraf as they marched north into Diyarbakir.^[6] They drew up before Amida on 5 October 1232 (20 Dhul Hijja 629) and after only thirteen days al-Mas’ud surrendered the city. Al Muzaffar Ghazi was ordered by Al Kamil to go with Al Ashraf to al-Mas’ud’s other possession the city of Hasankeyf, and obtain its surrender as well, taking Mas’ud with them under heavy guard.^[7] The garrison in Hasankeyf continued to defend the city however until November 1232 (Safar 630). Al Muzaffar Ghazi did not benefit from this campaign as the two conquered cities were assigned to the Sultan’s son as-Salih Ayyub.

Al-Muzaffar Ghazi enjoyed a long and peaceful reign over Mayyafariqin and he built a madrasa, enlarged the mosque, and improved the fortifications. Mayyafariqin was on the outer rim of the Ayyubid domains, and during the reigns of Al Muzaffar Ghazi and his son, Al-Kamil Muhammad, who succeeded him in 1247(645), the city was under constant threat from the Seljuks and the Mongols.^[8] One of the most serious threats came in 1240-41(638) when a Mongol embassy arrived and demanded the surrender of the city. Somehow Al-Muzaffar Ghazi was able to bribe or persuade them to leave. He died in 1247 and was succeeded by his son, Al-Kamil Muhammad.