Najm al-Din Ayyub

1966 drawing of Najm al-din carrying his newborn son Saladin

al-Malik al-Afdal Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb ibn Shādhi ibn Marwān (Arabic: الملك ألأفضل نجم الدين أيوب بن شاذي بن مروان, Kurdish: نەجمەدین ئەییووبی شادی مەڕوان, romanized: Necmeddin Eyûbî Şadî Meřiwan; died August 9, 1173), or simply Najmadin, was a Kurdish[1] Mercenary and politician from Dvin,[2] and the father of Saladin.[3] He is the eponymous ancestor of the Ayyubid dynasty.

  1. ^ Morton, Nicholas (2020-04-24). The Crusader States and their Neighbours: A Military History, 1099-1187. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-255799-5.
  2. ^ Lyons, Malcolm Cameron; Jackson, David Edward Pritchett (1982). Saladin: The Politics of the Holy War. Cambridge University Press. p. 2. ISBN 0-521-22358-X. According to this, two Kurdish brothers from Dvin near Tiflis, Ayyub and Shirkuh, moved to Iraq...
  3. ^ George F. Nafziger; Mark W. Walton, Islam at War: A History, (Praeger, 2003), 42.