[4][5] Within the Ayyubid confederacy Hama was a marcher realm, bordering on the Crusader County of Tripoli and close to the great Hospitaller fortress of Krak des Chevaliers.

[11] Al Mujahid appears to have been an energetic military leader and he is recorded as having taken part in six major campaigns in which the various Ayyubid rulers combined their forces to attack external enemies.

[15] Some years later Al Mujahid was one of the leading elements of a coalition of Syrian Ayyubid rulers who sought to oust Sultan Al-Kamil of Egypt.

His second son, An-Nasir Kilich Arslan succeeded in usurping power before his older brother, the rightful heir Al-Muzaffar II Mahmud, could take the initiative.

In consequence Al-Muzaffar had to wait nine years before he could assume the title of Emir, and was only able to do so because a conference organised by Al-Mujahid at Tall Ajul near Gaza established the terms on which other Ayyubid rulers would recognise him.

This led to bad relations between the emirs, and when Al-Muzaffar joined Al-Kamil of Egypt in a campaign to oust Al-Mujahid, the tensions between them broke out into open conflict.

When Al-Kamil died Al-Mujahid attacked the territory of Hama, devastating the countryside and diverting both the River Orontes and the canals which irrigated the fields around the city.

In March 1239 (Sha’ban 636) As-Salih Ayyub set out with his forces to attack Homs, but soon after he received envoys from Egypt complaining of the rule of Al-Adil II and urging him to come and take power himself.