Rukn ad-Din Ismail

Rukn ad-Din Ismail ( Arabic ركن الدين إسماعيل, DMG Rukn ad-Dīn Ismāʿīl ; † 1262 ) was a ruler of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in the 13th century.

The Mongols lay siege to Mosul. Illustration from an edition of the universal history of Raschid ad-Din . Persian book illumination, 15th century.

His father Badr ad-Din Lulu was a former slave guard ( mamlūk ) of the Zengid dynasty, which he replaced in 1234 in the rule of Mosul. In 1258 he submitted to the suzerainty of the Mongols advancing into Iraq under Hülegü and died the following year.

Ismail was able to succeed his father under the ruler's name al-Malik as-Salih , but immediately fled to Cairo , where he hoped for support from the ruling Mamluks to expel the Mongols from the Middle East. In September 1260 the Mamluks won the battle of SchlachtAin Jālūt , whereupon they launched a counter-offensive under Sultan Baibars I , in which they were able to drive the Mongols out of Syria the following year. In the wake of the shadow caliph al-Mustansir II, protected by the Sultan, Ismail returned to Iraq in the late year 1261 and was able to move back into Mosul. However, on November 26, 1261, the city was surrounded by a Mongol army. An attempt at relief by the Mamluk Aqqush al-Burli was repulsed by the superior Mongols in May 1262 on the Sinjar Mountains . In the first days of August of the same year, Mosul was finally stormed and razed to the ground. Ismail was captured and cruelly executed.

source

• Abu'l-Fida , Mukhtassartaʾrikh al-Bashar, in: RHC, Historiens Orientaux , Vol. 1 (1872), p. 138.

literature

• Reuven Amitai-Preiss , Mongols and Mamluks: The Mamluk-Ilkhanid War 1260-1281, (2005), pp. 60f.

predecessor	Office	successor
Badr ad-Din Lulu	Ruler of Mosul 1259–1262	Conquest of Mosul by the Mongols