He died in 597 AH.
176 – The Lord of Yemen, Tughtikin ibn Ayyub ibn Shadhi
Known as Sayf al-Islam (“Sword of Islam”), Tughtikin ibn Ayyub ibn Shadhi.
His brother, the mighty king Turanshah, had conquered Yemen in 569 AH but returned two years later, leaving a deputy in his place and proceeding to Damascus. In 579 AH Saladin dispatched his brother, Sayf al-Islam, to Yemen; he seized the entire country and fought the Zaydiyya. Some years later he captured Ṣanʿāʾ. His rule lasted fourteen years. When the end drew near, he appointed his mamluk Buzaba as sultan and died in Shawwal 593 AH. His son al-Muʿizz then assumed power, killed Buzaba along with a number of his father’s mamluks, battled the Zaydi leader and defeated him, founded a madrasa in Zabid, claimed Umayyad descent, and set his sights on the caliphate (1). He also left behind a collection of poetry. The Kurdish emirs (2) killed him and installed his brother al-Nasir Ayyub ibn Tughtikin.
(*) His career is recorded in all the comprehensive chronicles of his period, especially those devoted to Yemen. See, for example, al-Jaʿdi, Tabaqat, pp. 184, 223, 224, 229, 230, 236; Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil, 12/54 and the preceding pages. Yaqut mentions him in Muʿjam al-buldan under the entry for the city of al-Mansura, which he founded in Yemen, 4/664.
He is also treated by al-Sibt in Mirat, 8/453; Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat, 2/523; al-Munadhiri, Takmila, entry 404; Ibn Wasil, Mufarrij al-kurub, 2/105; Abu al-Fida, al-Mukhtasar, 3/98; al-Dhahabi in Tarikh al-Islam, fol. 187 (Ahmad III 2917/14), as well as in al-Ibar, 4/281; Duwal al-Islam, 2/77; al-Iʿlam, fol. 211; Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya, 13/15; al-Khazraji, al-ʿUqud al-luʾluʾiyya, 1/29; al-Maqrizi, al-Suluk, vol. 1, part 1, p. 140; al-ʿAyni, ʿIqd al-juman, 17/fol. 215; Ibn Taghribirdi, al-Nujum, 6/141, and many others.
Ibn Khallikan spelled his full name out letter by letter.
(1) His laqab was al-Hadi.
(2) This took place in 598 AH, as several chronicles report.