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Gökböri

Muzaffar ad-Din Gökböri
Born April 1154
Mosul, Iraq
Died June 1233
Al Balad, Iraq
Buried at Kufa
Allegiance Zengid dynasty
Ayyubid dynasty
Rank Emir
Commands held General commanding armies and divisions of armies. Governor of various cities and regions.
Battles/wars Battle of the Horns of Hama, Battle of Cresson, Battle of Hattin, Siege of Acre (1189–91)

Gökböri (also rendered Gokbori, Kukburi and Kukuburi), or Muzaffar ad-Din Gökböri (full praise names: al-Malik al-Muazzam (the Exalted Prince) Muzaffar ad-Din (the Triumphant in the Faith)), was a leading emir and general of Sultan Saladin (Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb). He served both the Zengid and Ayyubid rulers of Syria and Egypt. He played a pivotal role in Saladin's conquest of Muslim Syria and later held major commands in a number of battles against the Crusader states and the forces of the Third Crusade.

Gökböri, whose name means "Blue-wolf" in old Turkish, was the son of Zain ad-Din Ali Kutchek, the governor of Erbil (known as Arbela in contemporary Arab usage, as in the works of Ibn Khallikan) in northern Iraq. Gökböri's ancestry was Turcoman and his forebears were associated with the Seljuk Turks. On the death of his father in August 1168, the fourteen-year-old Gökböri succeeded to the lordship of Erbil. However, the atabeg of Erbil, Kaimaz, deposed Gökböri in favour of his younger brother, Zain ad-Din Yusuf. Gökböri, exiled from his city, eventually took service with the Zengid prince Saif ad-Din Ghazi ibn Maudud of Mosul. The lord of Mosul granted Gökböri the city of Harran as a fief.

In the meantime, Saladin, originally a subject of Nur ad-Din, the Zengid ruler of Syria, had made himself master of Egypt. Saladin was ambitious to unite Egypt and Syria under his rule, and turned against his former master Nur ad-Din. In 1175, following the death of Nur al-Din, Gökböri commanded the right wing of the Zengid army defeated by Saladin at the Horns of Hama. During the battle the right wing of the Zengid army broke Saladin's left flank, before being routed in turn by a charge of Saladin's guard. Following this defeat, and the continuing lack any unifying figure in the mould of Nur ad-Din, Gökböri realised that Zengid power was on the wane in Syria and the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) and he made the momentous decision to defect to Saladin (1182). His support for Saladin was instrumental in the defeat of the remnants of Zengid power.


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