al-Afdal Shahanshah (1066-11 December 1121) was Vizier of the Fatimid Caliphate from 1094 to 1121, succeeding Badr al-Jamli and preceding al-Ma'mun al-Bata'ihi.
Biography[]
al-Afdal Shahanshah was born in Acre, Palestine, Fatimid Caliphate in 1066, the son of Badr al-Jamali, an Armenian Mamluk who converted to Islam and served as Vizier from from 1074 to 1094. al-Afdal succeeded his father as Vizier in 1094, and he was the de facto ruler of Egypt at the time of the First Crusade. al-Afdal was naive about the intentions of the Crusaders, believing that he could convince them to turn on the Byzantines due to the Crusaders and the Fatimids' shared rivalry with the Turkish Seljuks. However, the Crusaders insisted on conquering Jerusalem, even after the Fatimids recovered it from the Artuqids. On 12 August 1099, Godfrey de Bouillon surprised and defeated al-Afdal at the Battle of Ascalon. In 1101, al-Afdal raised al-Amir bi-Ahkam Allah to the throne after al-Mustali's death, and he marched out every year to attack the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He enjoyed success so long as no Crusader fleet intervened, but he gradually lost his coastal strongholds, chief among them Tripoli in 1109. During the 1110s, he was subjected to several assassination attempts, including from his own sons, and, on 13 December 1121, he was murdered by the Hashshashin during a procession on the last day of Ramadan as vengeance for al-Afdal's role in the murder of their founder Nizar ibn al-Mustansir.