[3] Saladin thought so highly of Muhammad ibn Shirkuh that in 1185 (581) he planned to give him the major strategic domain of Mosul in northern Iraq.
[4] Muhammad ibn Shirkuh married a sister of Saladin, who was thus his own first cousin, known as Sitt Ash-Sham (‘The Lady of Syria’, i.e. not her given name).
He hurried away to Homs and made arrangements with certain notables in Damascus for them to surrender their city to him in the event of Saladin’s death.
[7] Before any of his plans could be put into effect, however, Muhammad ibn Shirkuh died suddenly in Homs on 4 March 1186 (10 Dhu’l Hijja 581).
[8] He was succeeded in Homs by his thirteen-year-old son Al Malik Al-Mujahid Asad ad-Din Shirkuh II.