Emir Al-Aziz of Aleppo
Al Aziz Muhammad ibn Gazi (1213 – 1236) was the Ayyubi Emir of Aleppo and the son of az-Zahir Gazi (r) and grandson of the great Salahuddin Al Ayubi (r), the liberator of Jerusalem from the Crusaders and Templars. His mother was Dayfa Khatun(r), the daughter of Salahuddin’s brother al-Adil(r). Al-Aziz was aged just three when his father az-Zahir Gazi died in 1216 at the age of forty-five. He immediately inherited his father’s position as ruler of Aleppo. A regency council was formed, which appointed Shihab ad-Din Tughril(r) as his guardian. Tughril was a Mamluk of az-Zahir Gazi and the effective ruler of Aleppo for the next fifteen years.
Al-Aziz did not take actual control of power until the age of seventeen, at which point he retained Tughril as his treasurer. In general, he avoided becoming drawn into the complex disputes between different members of the Ayyubi dynasty, and concentrated instead on strengthening the defenses and infrastructure of Aleppo. Among the construction works begun by az-Zahir Gazi and completed by al-Aziz Muhammad were the re-fortification of the citadel, and, within it, the building of the palace, the mosque, the arsenal and the water cisterns.
Al-Aziz is known to have married Fatima Khatun, daughter of al-Kamil, who apparently shared his passion for building and commissioned the construction of two madrasas in Aleppo.
Al-Aziz died on 26 November 1236 at the age of just twenty-three. His eldest son, an-Nasir Yusuf, was only seven years old, so al-Aziz’s mother Dayfa Khatun assumed the regency. Surprisingly, Al-Aziz’s daughter, Ghaziya Khatun, married the Seljuk Sultan of Rum, Kaykhusraw II (Giyaseddin Ibn Kayqubad).
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