Nur ad-Din, atabeg of Aleppo
Al -Malik al - Adil Nur ad -Din Abu al -Qasim Mahmud ibn Zangi (Arabic: الملك العادل نور الدين ابو القاسم بن زنكي, DMG al -Malik al - ʿ Adil Nur ad -Din Abu al - Qāsim Mahmud b Zengi. ; * 1118, † May 15 1174 in Damascus ) of the dynasty of Turkish Zengids reigned 1146-1174 Syria.
Life
Nur ad -Din was the second son Zengis, the Atabegs of Aleppo and Mosul. In 1146 he succeeded his father in Aleppo, while his brother Saif ad-Din Ghazi I. took over Mosul. Shortly after he took office he suggested an attempt by the Crusaders back to recapture the County of Edessa, the Zengi conquered 1144. When in 1147 the leaders of the Second Crusade, which had been called in after the fall of Edessa, which decided to attack Damascus neutral in the conflict, I was asked there Nur ad -Din for help. The Crusaders broke off the siege of Damascus, as they learned that his army was approaching.
After the lifting of the siege of Nur ad -Din attacked in June 1149 to the Principality of Antioch. Raymond of Antioch was killed in the ensuing battle of Inab, and Nur ad -Din was able to lead his army to the Mediterranean, where he symbolically took a bath. After a siege Nur ad -Din in 1154 came into the possession of Damascus. Syria was now politically united since the power was in the three major cities in the hands of a family.
When the Crusaders conquered Ascalon in 1153, Egypt was isolated from Syria. 1163 attacked the Christians of Egypt, which was weakened by a series of very young Fatimid caliphs. The former vizier Shawar, who had fled from Egypt asked, ad-Din to send only an army to Egypt to put him in Cairo. For that he would assume the costs, make annual payments of tribute, acknowledge Nur ad - Din's reign and cede the border counties. Nur ad -Din did not waste his own army for the defense of Egypt, but his commander Shirkuh convinced him in 1164 to venture an invasion. The result of this company was the expulsion of the Crusaders from the Nile, although this further invasions tried to Nur ad -Din in 1169 the government finally took over in Egypt. Schirkuhs nephew Saladin was sultan of the newly conquered land.
Nur ad -Din helped the Armenian prince Mleh, who had entered the end of the 1160s in his service, in 1168 to rule in Cilicia, and had therefore an ally in the West, which he, among other things by a request for help of Danischmaniden Yaghi - Basan 1173 on a Kılıç Arslan II campaign against rum supported. He conquered Maras, Behesni and Sebastia, seems to have Yaghi - Basan used again, but then came to a peace agreement with Kılıç Arslan.
At his instance a large-scale building program was carried out throughout the country. About 100 dilapidated and partly during several earthquakes 1152-1156 damaged mosques were repaired, including the Umayyad Mosque of Aleppo. For any particular Nur ad -Din, an Islamic foundation ( waqf ), which should take care of the building. From the construction program also benefited small and medium-sized cities such as al-Raqqa, where the decayed for over 100 years Grand Mosque was rebuilt. In the city center of Damascus by Nur ad -Din in 1167 was the first ruler of an imposing madrassa - mosque complex built with a mausoleum, where he was later buried.
When Nur al -Din came to the conclusion to put Syria and Egypt under a single political and military leadership, Saladin began to ignore Nur ad - Din's authority. Both set armies for the inevitable decision, but Nur ad -Din died on 15 May 1174 Damascus.
Nominally succeeded by his eleven year old son as- Salih Ismail on the throne, but Saladin soon succeeded in Syria to take over the power and almost completely conquer the Crusader states in the sequence.