Al-Mansur Muhammad II

Al Mansur Muhammad II was the Ayyubid emir of Hama 1244-1284, son of Al-Muzaffar Mahmud and grandson of Mansur Muhammad I. He was the great-great grandson of Saladin’s brother Nur ad-Din Shahanshah. His mother was Ghaziya Khatun.

Al Mansur came to the throne at a time when the Egyptian Sultan As-Salih Ayyub was consolidating his power. In spring 1247 As-Salih Ayyub set out for Syria where he met emir Al-Ashraf Musa of Homs as well as Al Mansur. Both were young - Al-Ashraf Musa was eighteen and Al Mansur was just twelve - and new on their thrones. As-Salih Ayyub campaigned against his rival An-Nasir Yusuf of Aleppo but returned to Egypt to confront a new Crusader threat in 1249. Shortly afterwards he died. His son and successor Al-Muazzam Turanshah did not long outlive him and in 1250 the Ayyubid dynasty was overthrown in Egypt by the Bahri mamluks.

The effect of this coup in Egypt was to make An-Nasir Yusuf of Aleppo the senior Ayyubid ruler, and Al Mansur joined the other minor emirs in the army he assembled to invade Egypt. The Ayyubid army went down to a disastrous defeat at Al-Salihiyya outside Cairo. This exposed An-Nasir and all of the other emirs who had supported him to the dangers of a Mamluk invasion of Syria, and in the following years the Mamluks steadily expanded their power over Palestine and the southern portions of Syria. At the same time, the Mongols were emerging as a serious threat in the East, and took Baghdad in 1258. In September 1259 (Ramadan 657) Hulagu Khan launched his long-awaited invasion of Syria. Crossing the Euphrates, Hulagu first laid siege to Aleppo in January 1260 (Safar 658), which unwisely declined his offer to let it surrender. The Mongols stormed the city after a brief siege, and laid waste to it without mercy. Needing no further warning, Al-Mansur sent an embassy to Hulagu to plead for the lives and livelihoods of the people of Hama. Hulagu agreed to spare the city, and sent a Persian official named Khusraushah to rule the city as his viceregent.

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