Ayyubid sultan of Egypt (1238–1240), the pleasure-loving son of al-Kamil, deposed and imprisoned by his brother after a brief and neglectful reign.
Al-Adil II was the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt from 1238 to 1240, the son and chosen heir of the powerful al-Kamil. He inherited the central Ayyubid sultanate at a moment when the confederation of Ayyubid princes founded by Saladin was fracturing into rivalry, and he proved wholly unequal to holding it together.
Young and devoted to pleasure, he neglected the business of rule and alienated the emirs and his own kinsmen. Within two years he was overthrown by his elder half-brother, as-Salih Ayyub, who seized Egypt and threw al-Adil into a prison where he eventually died.
Al-Adil II was born in 1221, a son of al-Kamil, the ablest of Saladin's Ayyubid successors, who had defeated the Fifth Crusade and handed Jerusalem to the Emperor Frederick II by treaty. Named heir in Egypt, al-Adil succeeded his father on al-Kamil's death in 1238, while other Ayyubid princes held Damascus and the Syrian lands.
Al-Adil II is remembered, unflatteringly, as a frivolous and negligent ruler — a young sultan who preferred amusement and the company of favourites to the hard work of governing a threatened realm. The sources dwell on his idleness and his poor choice of counsellors, and contrast him sharply with his formidable father and his more capable brother.
His failings were those of weakness rather than cruelty. He let power slip through indolence, offended the great Mamluk emirs on whom Ayyubid rule depended, and failed to command the loyalty even of his own household. In an age and a dynasty that demanded constant vigilance and hard campaigning, his want of seriousness was fatal; he is remembered as the sultan who lost Egypt through neglect.
Al-Adil's brief reign was spent losing ground. His neglect of government and his reliance on unpopular favourites alienated the Ayyubid emirs, while his half-brother as-Salih Ayyub, ruling in the Jazira and Syria, gathered support against him. In 1240 the emirs of Egypt turned to as-Salih Ayyub, who entered Cairo and took the throne.
Al-Adil was seized and imprisoned. His fall passed the Ayyubid sultanate to the more ruthless and capable as-Salih Ayyub, under whom the Mamluk soldiery that would soon supplant the dynasty rose to new prominence.
Al-Adil II remained a prisoner for the rest of his life and died in captivity on 9 February 1248, while his brother's regime faced the onset of the Seventh Crusade under Louis IX of France.
Al-Adil II is remembered as one of the weakest of the Ayyubid sultans, whose brief and negligent reign hastened the disintegration of Saladin's dynasty. His overthrow brought to power his brother as-Salih Ayyub, whose heavy reliance on Mamluk troops set the stage for the soldiers' seizure of power a decade later and the birth of the Mamluk Sultanate that would rule Egypt for centuries.