al-Ashraf Musa (Homs)

al-Malik al-Ashraf Muzaffar ad-Din Musa ( Arabic الأشرف موسى بن إبراهيم, DMG al-Asraf Mūsā b. Ibrāhīm ; † 1262 or 1263) was the last Emir of Homs as the son and successor of the Emir al-Mansur Ibrahim . As the last direct descendant of Schirkuh , he belonged to a branch of the Ayyubids .

Al-Ashraf succeeded his father in reigning Homs in 1246, but from the beginning he was exposed to the attacks of his cousin, Emir an-Nasir Yusuf of Aleppo . In the summer of 1248 al-Ashraf was expelled from Homs by an-Nasir, and Sultan al-Salih Ayyub moved with an army from Egypt to Syria to support al-Ashraf. At the same time, King Louis IX. of France with his crusade army Cyprus ( Sixth Crusade ). The Templars in particular urged Ludwig to use the internal family conflict in Syria as a diplomatic advantage, probably also to enable al-Ashraf to return to Homs in order to weaken an-Nasir. But Louis insisted on carrying out the crusade to Egypt, whereupon Sultan al-Salih broke off the siege of Homs and returned with his army to Egypt. For al-Ashraf this meant the certain loss of Homs, in return he received from an-Nasir Tell Bashir and the fortress Qalʿat ar-Rahba as a fief.

In April 1250, Ludwig's crusade in Egypt failed, and immediately afterwards the Mameluks murdered the Egyptian Ayyubid Sultan, Turan Shah . An -Nasir Yusuf used the seizure of power by the Mameluks in Egypt to take Damascus and thus established a Syrian sultanate. Al-Ashraf remained calm during these years, but sought to regain his lost property. The situation changed fundamentally when, in 1258, the Mongols under Il-Khan Hülegü broke into Mesopotamia and destroyed the Caliphate in Baghdad . Al-Ashraf surrendered in Aleppo in January 1260 to the Mongols, who had previously conquered the city, and Hulegü promised that he would rule Syria as his governor. Subsequently, al- Ashraf participated on the side of the general Kitbukha in the conquest of Damascus in March 1260, an-Nasir was taken prisoner while on the run. Although he was patronized by the Mongols, al-Ashraf demonstrated a foresighted political instinct in the decisive days ahead by making contact with the Mamluk Sultan Qutuz , who was advancing against the Mongols with an army from Egypt. During the decisive battle at ʿAin Jālūt on September 3, 1260, al-Ashraf and his troops made the agreed change of sides to the Mameluks, the previously undefeated Mongols lost the battle, whereupon Syria also fell under the rule of the Mamelukes.

As a reward for changing sides, al-Ashraf was restored by Sultan Qutuz to rule Homs as a vassal of the Mamluks. He also had a good relationship with the new Sultan Baibars I. In November 1261, a Mongol army reappeared in Syria and captured Aleppo. Al-Ashraf allied with al-Mansur II of Hamah and both won the Battle of Homs on December 10th over the Mongols, who then retreated behind the Euphrates .

When al-Aschraf died childless around 1262/63, he bequeathed Homs to the Mamluk Empire.

literature

• Steven Runciman : History of the Crusades (CH Beck, Munich, 1978)
• Kenneth M. Setton, Robert Lee Wolff, Harry W. Hazard: A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The Later Crusades, 1189-1311 (University of Wisconsin Press, 2006)

predecessor	Office	successor
al-Mansur Ibrahim	Emir of Homs 1246-1248	an-Nasir Yusuf
Mongolian Il Khanate	Emir of Homs 1260–1262 / 63	Mamluk Sultanate