Izz al-Din Aybak[dn 1] (Arabic: عز الدين أيبك) (epithet: al-Malik al-Mu'izz Izz al-Din Aybak al-Jawshangir al-Turkmani al-Salihi, Arabic: الملك المعز عز الدين أيبك التركماني الجاشنكير الصالحى) was the first of the Mamluk sultans of Egypt in the Turkic Bahri line.

[9] Through negotiation and mediation of the Abbasid Caliph, Aybak freed the Ayyubid prisoners and gained control over southern Palestine including Gaza and Jerusalem and the Syrian coast.

By defeating the Ayyubid forces of An-Nasir Yusuf and the crushing of the rebellion of Thalab the power of Emir Aktai and his Mamluks increased and they began to form a new threat to the authority of Aybak.

Watching the head of Aktai thrown out from the citadel, the Bahriyya Mamluks, among them Baibars al-Bunduqdari and Qalawun al-Alfi, fled during the night to Damascus, al-Karak and the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm.

[9] In 1255 a new rebellion led by his namesake Izz al-Din Aybak al-Afram arose in upper Egypt and forces of an-Nasir Yusuf arrived to the Egyptian border, this time accompanied by the Bahriyya Mamluks who had fled to Syria, including Baibars al-Bunduqdari and Qalawun al-Alfi.

Being in need to form an alliance with an ally who could help him against the threat of the Mamluks who had fled to Syria,[11] Aybak decided in 1257 to marry the daughter of Badr ad-Din Lu'lu', the emir of Mosul.

Shajar al-Durr, who already had disputes with Aybak[dn 13] felt betrayed by the man who she made sultan, and had him murdered after he had ruled Egypt seven years.

[dn 16] Before their deaths, Aybak and Shajar al-Durr firmly established the Mamluk Sultanate that would ultimately repulse the Mongols, expel the European Crusaders from the Holy Land, and would remain the most powerful political force in the Middle East until the coming of the Ottomans.