Al-Maqrizi, the Mamluk historian, provides a fascinating glimpse into Ayyubid customs surrounding marriage gifts and childbirth celebrations. What might a wedding among the Kurdish ruling elite of the thirteenth century have looked like? Were women held to the same exacting standards that many still associate with Kurdish society today?
The birth of a prince was an occasion of immense significance as well. Al-Malik al-ʿAziz became the youngest nominal ruler of the Ayyubid period after his father, al-Zahir, died shortly after the birth of his son. At the remarkable age of checks notes two years old, the child was elevated to the position of nominal ruler of Aleppo:
This year Ibn-Shaddad arrived in Damascus from Aleppo bringing a large sum of money and robes of honor for the celebration of the marriage between Dayfah, daughter of al-'Adil, and her cousin al-Zahir, prince of Aleppo. All the emirs and notables of the city went out to meet him. The marriage pact was made in the month of Muharram, on a dowry of 50,000 dinārs. Pieces of gold were distributed in Muharram to the people in the citadel at Damascus. The princess was then equipped to go with great splendor to her spouse in Aleppo; among the things that went were cloths, instruments, and manufactured goods, borne on fifty mules, two hundred Bactrian camels, and three hundred (ordinary or one-humped) camels. Attendant maidens traveled on litters on a hundred camels, among them one hundred singers who could play a variety of musical instruments, and another hundred who could execute the most remarkable handicrafts. The day of her entry into Aleppo was a great occasion. Al-Zahir presented her with his gifts, which included five strings of jewels that cost 150,000 dīnārs, a diadem of gems without equal, five amber necklaces ornamented with gold and five without such, 170 gold and silver objects, twenty linen bags filled with vestments, twenty handmaidens, and ten slaves.
[23rd May, 1213-12th May, 1214]
This year al-Zahir, prince of Aleppo, felt somewhat appre-hensive of his uncle al-'Adil, and commenced to put his forces in readiness; but they exchanged some correspondence whereby the situation was calmed.
Dayfah, daughter of al-'Adil, gave this year a son to her cousin (and husband) al-Zahir. He was named Muhammad, and described as al-Malik al-'Azīz Ghiyāth-al-Din. He was born on the fifth of Dhū-'l-Hijjah [17th April, 1213]. Aleppo was decorated, and al-Zahir proclaimed a great celebration. Objects of all shapes and kinds were fashioned for him in hundred-weights by his command. Ten cradles were made for him of gold and silver, not counting those which were made of ebony, sandalwood, and aloes-wood and such like. For the boy himself three dresses were woven from pearls, each dress having also forty rubies, sapphires, and emeralds; two breastplates, two helmets, and two embroidered horse-cloths, all set with pearls; three jeweled saddles, each saddle having a set of gems of astonishing beauty and rubies and emeralds; three swords with their attachments and handles studded with a variety of precious stones; and a set of golden lances with jeweled heads.
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