al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ ʿimād al-dīn ismāʿīl, son of Sulṭān al-Malik al-ʿĀdil Abū Bakr, son of Aiyūb, was born in the year 598 (1202). Ismāʿīl was killed in Cairo in the year 648 (1250) when fighting with Sulṭān Yūsuf in the battle of ʿAbbāsa against the Egyptians.

He repeatedly allied himself with the Ḵh̲wārizmīs and the Franks out of selfish ambition and love of power to the detriment of his subjects and fellow-Muslims.

He is not mentioned in connection with the division of the lands which his father made among his brothers. He is mentioned for the first time in 623 (1226) as a partisan of his brother al-Malik al-Muʿaẓẓam ʿĪsā; he is described as lord of Bosrā. After Muʿaẓẓam’s death he attached himself to his son al-Malik al-Nāṣir Dāʾūd, by whose side we often find him fighting.

He was with him in the battle at Damascus in 626 (1229) and when Dāʾūd was forced to capitulate, he was left in possession of his fief Boṣrā.

In the next year, we find him in the service of his brother al-Malik al-As̲h̲raf Mūsā, who sent him to the siege of Baʿalbek, which he was to take from al-Malik al-Amd̲j̲ad Bahrām S̲h̲āh; Ismāʿīl forced the latter to surrender after a long siege.

On the death of his brother Mūsā in 635 (1237), he inherited Damascus and he began to play a more important if afterwards despicable part. As he had good reason to fear his brother al-Malik al-Kāmil, Sulṭān of Egypt, he concluded an alliance with the Aiyūbid princes of Syria (except with the prince of Ḥamā). He then prepared to stand a siege as he had already news of the advance of al-Kāmil and his nephew Dāʾūd. His resistance availed him little; he had soon to surrender Damascus and received in compensation Baʿalbek and al-Biḳāʿ, while Boṣrā also remained to him.

The remaining part of his life is so closely associated with the careers of his nephews al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Nad̲j̲m al-Dīn Aiyūb and Sulṭān al-Malik al-Nāṣir Yūsuf II, that the reader may be referred to their biographies.