al-Malik al-Afḍal al-Muẓaffar ʿAlī
Description / Bio
Al-Malik al-Afḍal ʿAlī was the eldest son of Saladin. Although he was given Palestine (centered on Damascus) as an appanage in 582 AH, the sources indicate that he had no direct control of its administration until his father's death in 589 AH. He was given the governorship of all the former territories of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, but he took no part in Saladin's administrative reorganization in Jerusalem and Galilee after the truce of 588 AH (R. S. Humphreys, From Saladin to the Mongols, 17-18, 62). Building inscriptions erected in Jerusalem in 587 AH and 588 AH are in Saladin's name (RCEA nos. 3447, 3453). The earliest inscription in al-Afḍal ʿAlī's name was written in 589 AH, the year of Saladin's death (RCEA no. 3464). Likewise, he did not issue coins in his name until 589 AH (Balog, The Coinage of the Ayyūbids, 240-41). (Information from Khan, Arabic Legal and Administrative Documents, 464.)