Ayyubids in the context of "Battle of Hattin"

The Daughters of Jacob Bridge (Hebrew: גשר בנות יעקב, romanized: Gesher Bnot Ya'akov, Arabic: جسر بنات يعقوب, romanized: Jisr Benat Ya'kub) is a bridge that spans the last natural ford of the Jordan River between the Korazim Plateau in northern Israel and the Golan Heights.

The area has been used as a crossing point for thousands of years; it was part of the recently dubbed Via Maris, and was strategically important to the Ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Hittites, Jews, Saracens (early Muslims), Crusaders, Ayyubids, Mamluks, Ottomans, and to modern inhabitants and armies who crossed the river at this place.

An-Nasir Yusuf (Arabic: الناصر يوسف; AD 1228–1260), fully al-Malik al-Nasir Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn al-Aziz ibn al-Zahir ibn Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shazy (الملك الناصر صلاح الدين يوسف بن الظاهر بن العزيز بن صلاح الدين يوسف بن أيوب بن شاذى), was the Ayyubid Kurdish Emir of Syria from his seat in Aleppo (1236–1260), and the Sultan of the Ayyubid Empire from 1250 until the sack of Aleppo by the Mongols in 1260.

Islam came to Yemen around 630 during Muhammad's lifetime and the rule of the Persian governor Badhan. Thereafter, Yemen was ruled as part of Arab-Islamic caliphates, and became a province in the Islamic empire.

Regimes affiliated to the Egyptian Fatimid caliphs occupied much of northern and southern Yemen throughout the 11th century, including the Sulayhids and Zurayids, but the country was rarely unified for any long period of time. Local control in the Middle Ages was exerted by a succession of families which included the Ziyadids (818–1018), the Najahids (1022–1158), the Egyptian Ayyubids (1174–1229) and the Turkoman Rasulids (1229–1454). The most long-lived, and for the future most important polity, was founded in 897 by Yayha bin Husayn bin Qasim ar-Rassi. They were the Zaydis of Sa'dah in the highlands of North Yemen, headed by imams of various Sayyid lineages. As ruling Imams of Yemen, they established a Shia theocratic political structure that survived with some intervals until 1962.

The Khwarazmian army, also called the Khwarazmiyya, maintained itself as a force of freebooters and mercenaries between 1231 and 1246, following the Mongol conquest of the Khwarazmian Empire (1221) and the death of the last Khwarazmshah, Jalal al-Din (1231). It was active in Upper Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Syria and Palestine and shifted its allegiance several times, often acting autonomously before it was defeated and destroyed by the Ayyubids.

In 1231, the Khwarazmians were briefly in the service of the Ayyubid governors around Lake Van. Between 1231 and 1237, they were in the service of the Seljukid sultanate of Rum and fought against an Ayyubid invasion in 1232–1233. The Khwarazmians were forced back into Upper Mesopotamia in 1237, during a Seljukid succession crisis. They were then hired by the Ayyubid emir of Damascus. Taking part in the Ayyubid civil wars in Syria, they launched invasions against the emir of Aleppo in 1240 and 1241. Defeated in their second invasion, they retreated to central Mesopotamia and took service with the Abbasid caliphate. Later in 1241, the Khwarazmians hired themselves out to the Zengid emir of Mosul before returning to Syrian Ayyubid politics. They were defeated by Aleppo in 1242.

Nasir al-Din Artuq Arslan (ruled 1200–1239) was a ruler of the Artuqids of Mardin. The "Mardin branch" of the Artuqids ruled in Mardin and Mayyafariqin from 1101 to 1409, and were primarily descendants of Ilghazi and his brother Alp-Yaruq. His predecessor was his father Yuluq Arslan.

On the reverse of his coins dated AH 628 (1230 CE), Artuq Arslan inscribed the names of two overlords, the Abbasid Caliph al-Mustansir and the Ayyubid ruler al-Kamil. At that time, in 1229, the Ayyubids were allied with various Turkomans, including Artuq Aslan, in order to repel the offensive of the exiled Khwarazmian ruler Jalal al-Din from his base in Iranian Azerbaijan. They defeated Jalal al-Din and his Artuqid ally Rukhun al-Din Mawud (cousin of Artuq Aslan) in 1230.

Guy of Lusignan (c. 1150 – 1194) was king of Jerusalem, first as the husband and co-ruler of Queen Sibylla from 1186 to 1190, then as disputed ruler from 1190 to 1192. He was also lord of Cyprus from 1192 to 1194. As king, Guy was highly unpopular amongst the nobles of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and is often blamed for the fall of the kingdom to Saladin.

A Frankish Poitevin knight, Guy was the youngest son of Hugh VIII of Lusignan and the younger brother of Aimery of Lusignan. After killing Patrick, 1st Earl of Salisbury, in a failed attempt to kidnap Eleanor of Aquitaine, he was banished from Poitou. After arriving in the Holy Land at an unknown date from 1173 to 1180, Guy was hastily married to Sibylla, the sister of Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, in 1180 to prevent a political coup. As Baldwin's health deteriorated due to his leprosy, he appointed Guy as regent in 1183. However, Guy proved to be unpopular and incompetent as a leader, and Baldwin IV resumed power later that year. He stripped Guy of his inheritance, naming Baldwin V, Sibylla's son by her first husband William, as his co-king and eventual successor instead. Baldwin IV died in 1185, followed shortly by the sickly Baldwin V in 1186, leading to the succession of Sibylla. Sibylla was told to annul her marriage to Guy in order to ascend to the throne on the condition that she would be allowed to pick her next husband, but astonished the court by choosing to remarry and crown Guy. Guy's reign was marked by increased hostilities with the Ayyubids, ruled by Saladin, culminating in the Battle of Hattin in July 1187—during which Guy was captured—and the fall of Jerusalem itself three months later.