AL-MALIK AL-MUAZZAM TURANSHAHS YEMEN CAMPAIGN (570/1174): THE INTERSECTION OF RELIGIOUS, POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC MOTIVATIONS IN AYYUBID POWER STRATEGY

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This study examines the causes and strategic significance of the Yemen campaign (570/1174) carried out during the founding period of the Ayyubid State. The primary objective of the research is to reveal the religious, political and economic motivations behind the Ayyubid dominion over Yemen, which began under the leadership of Salah-al-Din’s brother Turanshah and lasted approximately sixty years. The study evaluates the accounts found in classical Islamic historical sources in conjunction with the critical approach of modern historiography. Classical sources present four fundamental factors as the causes of the Yemen campaign: the heretical activities of the Mahdids' ruler Abd al-Nabi ibn Mahdi, the encouragement of the Yemeni poet Umara al-Yamani, the search for an alternative homeland against Nur al-Din Zengi's possible Egyptian campaign, and the inadequacy of Turanshah's iqtas. Modern historiography, however, emphasizes more complex motivations such as control of commercial routes, elimination of the Fatimid threat, gaining legitimacy in the eyes of the Abbasid caliphate, and security of southern borders. The main finding of the research is that the Yemen campaign has such a complex structure that it cannot be reduced to a single cause. When Turanshah's actions in Yemen are examined, it has been determined that the campaign was a planned and strategic move. The study reveals that the Yemen campaign was a strategic component of the Ayyubid state-building process and that religious, political, and economic motivations functioned as mutually complementary elements. Yemen's central position in Red Sea trade, its proximity to the Hejaz, and the potential threat posed by the Shiite presence in the region in the post-Fatimid period became the main determinants of Turanshah's Yemen campaign. In conclusion, the Yemen campaign should be evaluated as a pre-planned strategic initiative serving multi-dimensional objectives in Ayyubid power strategy.