Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn al-Muqaddam

Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn al-Muqaddam (died at Mount Arafat on 9 February 1188) was a military commander first in the service of Nur ad-Din, the Zengid ruler of Syria and Iraq, later of Saladin, the Ayyubid ruler of Egypt, Syria and Iraq. When Nur ad-Din died in 1174, Ibn al-Muqaddam emerged as the head of a powerful group of military commanders and high officials who wanted to assume power in Damascus. They could not prevent their rival the eunuch Gümüshtekin from assuming the guardianship for Nur ad-Din's 11-year-old son and heir, As-Salih Ismail al-Malik, and taking him to Aleppo. After Gümüshtekin made an alliance with Nur ad-Din's nephew Sayf al-Din Ghazi II of Mosul against him, he approached Saladin for assistance and allowed him to seize Damascus peacefully. Saladin awarded him with the iqta' grant of Baalbek. When Saladin's brother, Turan-Shah, requested Baalbek from Saladin in 1179, Saladin offered Ibn al-Muqaddam to exchange Balbeek for a larger domain, but Ibn al-Muqaddam refused. Saladin besieged Baalbek and Ibn al-Muqaddam was forced to surrender it in return for Baarin, Kafartab and smaller settlements. While on the Hajj, he was wounded in the eyes during a skirmish between Syrian and Iraqi pilgrims in the tent of the Iraqi pilgrims' leader at Mount Arafat.

Sources

• Köhler, Michael A. (2013). Alliances and Treaties between Frankish and Muslim Rulers in the Middle East: Cross-Cultural Diplomacy in the Period of the Crusades. Translated by Peter M. Holt. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-24857-1.
• Lyons, Malcolm Cameron (1984). Saladin: The Politics of the Holy War. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-317398.

Further reading

• Richards, D.S. (2020) [1988]. The Chronicle of Ibn al-Athir for the Crusading Period from al-Kamil fi'l-Ta'rikh. Part 2: The Years 541–589/1146–1193: The Age of Nur al-Din and Saladin. Crusade Texts in Translation. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7546-4078-3.