Sharar

Shawar ibn Mujir al-Saʿdi ( Arabic شاور بن مجير السعدي, DMG Šāwar b. Muǧīr as-Saʿdī ; † 1169 ), also Shawar of Egypt , was the vizier of the Fatimids (1163–1169).

At the beginning of the reign of the caliph al-ʿĀdid (1160–1171) violent power struggles broke out, to which the regent and vizier Tala'i ibn Ruzzik fell victim (1161). In the course of this unrest, Shawar was forced to flee to the Zengids in Syria . As a result of these internal conflicts, the Fatimids were so weakened that they called on the Zengids for help to suppress rebellions and to repel the crusaders .

They sent troops under Schirkuh and his nephew Saladin , who in 1163 repelled an attack by the Crusaders and enforced Shawar as vizier in Egypt . However, Shawar now allied with the Crusaders and drove out the Zengids. For this, tribute had to be paid to the crusaders.

With the advance of the crusaders as far as Cairo (1168), however, Shawar's rocking policy had failed and he had to call the Zengids again for help. Once again, under Schirkuh and Saladin, they drove out the crusaders. After the occupation of Egypt (1169), Shawar was overthrown and murdered. Schirkuh was now the new vizier of the Fatimids. After his assassination, Saladin founded the Ayyubid dynasty in Egypt (1171–1250).

literature

• Amin Maalouf : The Holy War of the Barbarians. The Crusades from the perspective of the Arabs . Diederichs, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-424-01250-5 .