Husam ad-Din Lu'lu'

An admiral of Armenian origin, Lu'lu' served in the Fatimid army. During the Ayyubid dynasty, he held the position of hajib,[1] until he was appointed by Al-Adil I as the commander of Ayyubid fleet manned by Maghrebi sailors, to combat the Crusader raids on the Red Sea in 1182. Lu'lu' broke the blockade of Ile de Gray, destroying two of Raynald of Châtillon's ships, and recaptured Aila.[2] Afterwards, the Muslim fleet sailed down the Red Sea and caught the Frankish ships at anchor near al-Hawra and Rabigh.[3] Hence, the raiders beached their ships and fled into the Arabian desert, in which Lu'lu's forces pursued them for five days, and then succeeded in capturing almost all of the raiders.

Later on, he led the Muslim navy of 50 ships to fight at the siege of Acre, in which he captured two big Crusader vessels filled with booty, according to Abu Shama.[4] Lu'lu' was then appointed by Al-Mu'azzam Isa to superintend the Mount Tabor fortress.[5]

He eventually died on 9 Jumada al-Thani AH 596 (AD 1200).[6]

• Abu Shama (2002), Ibrahim Shams al-Din (ed.), Kitāb al-rawḍatayn fī akhbār al-dawlatayn al-Nūriyya wa-l-Ṣalāḥiyya [The Book of the Two Gardens, Concerning Affairs of the Reigns of Nūr al-Dīn and Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn] (in Arabic), vol. 4, Dar Al Kotob Al Ilmiyah
• Costello, E. J.; Gabrieli, Francesco (1969), Arab Historians of the Crusades, University of California Press, ISBN 9780520036161
• Humphreys, R. Stephen (1977), From Saladin to the Mongols: The Ayyubids of Damascus, 1193–1260, Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, ISBN 0-87395-263-4
• Man, John (2015), Saladin: The Life, the Legend and the Islamic Empire, Transworld, ISBN 9781473508545
• Runciman, Steven (1987), A History of the Crusades Volume 2, Cambridge University Press