Al-Afdal ibn Salah ad-Din (Arabic:الأفضل بن صلاح الدين, "most superior";c. 1169 – 1225, generally known asAl-Afdal (الأفضل), was one of seventeen sons ofSaladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and thus ofKurdish descent. He succeeded his father as the secondAyyubidemir ofDamascus. His career as a ruler was chequered and punctuated by repeated armed conflict with other prominent members of his family.

Al-Afdal was one of the Ayyubid commanders at theBattle of Arsuf, when Saladin was defeated byRichard I of England and the forces of theThird Crusade.When Saladin died in 1193, al-Afdal inheritedDamascus, but not the rest of his father's territories;Egypt was claimed by his brotheral-Aziz, where he was already installed as governor, andAleppo by another brotheraz-Zahir. As his father was dying, al Afdal summoned all the emirs then at Damascus to swear allegiance to him. Al-Afdal was in theory the head of the Ayyubid dynasty, but he was not able to exert any level of authority over his siblings, and soon proved that he had little ability as a ruler.^[1]

In May 1194 al-Afdal was attacked by his brother, al-Aziz, in his capital Damascus. The uncle of both,al-Adil (Saphadin), marched down from the Jezira and brokered a peace. This was broken within a year and al-Aziz again marched on Damascus, but was driven back to Egypt by al-Afdal. By 1196, al-Adil had lost patience with al-Afdal's incompetence and allied himself with al-Aziz. Al-Adil then annexed Damascus, allowing al-Afdal to retire to the town ofSalkhad, in theHauran. In November 1198 al-Aziz died from the effects of falling from a horse while hunting. Fearing the ambition of al-Adil, the emirs of Egypt called al-Afdal from retirement to be regent of Egypt for al-Aziz's young son. In 1199 he allied with his brother az-Zahir of Aleppo, who was also al-Adil's enemy, and they besieged their uncle in Damascus. Al-Adil, skilfully played his nephews off against each other, and suborned the vassals of both from their allegiance. The arrival ofal-Khamil, al-Adil's son, at Damascus with reinforcements and continuing quarrels led to the ending of the siege in December 1199. Al-Afdal retreated to Egypt, but his uncle pursued him and defeated his army atBilbeis. Fleeing to Cairo, al-Afdal sued for peace on any terms he could get from al-Adil; stripped of Egypt, he was promised the cities ofSamosata andMayyafaraqin. On the 17th of February 1200 al-Adil proclaimed himself 'sultan'. Al-Afdal was refused control of Mayyafaraqin by another of al-Adil's sons,al-Auhad. Al-Afdal once again allied with az-Zahir and the brothers once more besieged Damascus. However, dissension again broke out between the brothers, with al-Afdal eventually losing the will to continue fighting. Al-Adil confirmed al-Afdal's rule over Samosata, Saruj and a number of other towns. Az-Zahir admitted his uncle's suzerainty in the Spring of 1202, and al-Adil had succeeded in exerting his authority over all the Ayyubid dominions.^[2][3]

In 1218, following the death of az-Zahir, al-Afdal interrupted his seclusion at Samosata to make his last bid for power. He allied himself withKaykaus I theSeljuk Sultan, with the intention of taking the city of Aleppo. True to form, after taking two towns he soon quarrelled with his ally and took no further part in the fighting, Kaykaus being subsequently defeated. Al Afdal died in 1225.^[4]

• Eddé, Anne-Marie (2021)."al-Malik al-Afḍal b. Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn". In Fleet, Kate;Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John;Rowson, Everett (eds.).Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill Online.ISSN 1873-9830.
• Husain, Shahnaz (1998).Muslim heroes of the Crusades. Ta-Ha.ISBN 1-897940-71-8.

• 1160s births
• 1225 deaths
• 12th-century Ayyubid rulers
• Muslims of the Third Crusade
• Muslims of the Fifth Crusade
• Ayyubid emirs of Damascus
• 12th-century Kurdish people
• 13th-century Kurdish people
• Family of Saladin

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• Articles containing Arabic-language text