Mu'in ad-Din Unur al-Atabeki ( tr, Muiniddin Üner; died August 28, 1149) was a Seljuk Turkish ruler of Damascus in the mid-12th century.

Origins

Mu'in ad-Din was originally a

Mamluk Mamluk ( ar, مملوك, mamlūk (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural), translated as "one who is owned", meaning " slave", also transliterated as ''Mameluke'', ''mamluq'', ''mamluke'', ''mameluk'', ''mameluke'', ''mamaluke'', or ''marmeluke'') ...

in the army of

Toghtekin Toghtekin or Tughtekin (Modern tr, Tuğtekin; Arabicised epithet: ''Zahir ad-Din Tughtikin''; died February 12, 1128), also spelled Tughtegin, was a Turkic military leader, who was ''atabeg'' of Damascus from 1104 to 1128. He was the founder o ...

, the founder of the

Burid Dynasty The Burid dynasty was a dynasty of Turkish origin ''Burids'', R. LeTourneau, The Encyclopedia of Islam, Vol. I, ed. H.A.R. Gibb, J.H. Kramers, É. Lévi-Provençal and J. Schacht, (Brill, 1986), 1332. which ruled over the Emirate of Damascus i ...

of Damascus. When Zengi, the

atabeg Atabeg, Atabek, or Atabey is a hereditary title of nobility of Turkic origin, indicating a governor of a nation or province who was subordinate to a monarch and charged with raising the crown prince. The first instance of the title's use was wit ...

Aleppo )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...

, besieged Damascus in 1135, Mu'in ad-Din was at the head of the army defending the city. That year the Burid Shihab ad-Din Mahmud took control of Damascus after the

assassination Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have ...

of his brother; when Zengi gave up the siege and instead besieged

Homs ar, حمصي, Himsi , population_urban = , population_density_urban_km2 = , population_density_urban_sq_mi = , population_blank1_title = Ethnicities , population_blank1 = , population_blank2_t ...

, Shihab ad-Din sent

Yusuf ibn Firuz Yusuf ibn Firuz (surname also spelled ''Fayruz'') was the military governor under successive Burid atabegs of Damascus. Ibn Firuz served first with Toghtekin and then his son Taj al-Mulk Buri after the death of the former in 1128. In 1129, Buri ...

and Mu'in ad-Din to govern it, with Yusuf acting as Mu'in ad-Din's lieutenant. In 1137 Mu'in ad-Din was still governor of Homs when the city was briefly besieged again by Zengi. In 1138, Shihab ad-Din appointed Mu'in ad-Din atabeg of Damascus and gave him the title '' Isfahsalar''. Later in 1138, Zengi negotiated a marriage between himself and Shihab ad-Din's mother Khatun Safwat al-Mulk, and as part of the settlement Zengi received Homs. Mu'in ad-Din was given the castle of Barin in place of Homs. On June 22, 1139, Shihab ad-Din was

assassinated Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have ...

in Damascus; Jamal ad-Din, emir of

Baalbek Baalbek (; ar, بَعْلَبَكّ, Baʿlabakk, Syriac-Aramaic: ܒܥܠܒܟ) is a city located east of the Litani River in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, about northeast of Beirut. It is the capital of Baalbek-Hermel Governorate. In Greek and Roman ...

, was chosen as his successor, and Mu'in ad-Din was chosen to govern Baalbek in his absence. He was in charge of the defenses of Baalbek when Zengi arrived to avenge the murder of his stepson. Zengi besieged it with 14

catapult A catapult is a ballistic device used to launch a projectile a great distance without the aid of gunpowder or other propellants – particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. A catapult uses the sudden release of stor ...

s and the city surrendered to him.

Governor of Damascus

In 1140, Jamal ad-Din died, and Mu'in ad-Din continued to rule as regent for Jamal ad-Din's son Mujir ad-Din Abaq. That year, Mu'in ad-Din besieged

Banias Banias or Banyas ( ar, بانياس الحولة; he, בניאס, label=Modern Hebrew; Judeo-Aramaic, Medieval Hebrew: פמייס, etc.; grc, Πανεάς) is a site in the Golan Heights near a natural spring, once associated with the Greek g ...

with help from King

Fulk of Jerusalem Fulk ( la, Fulco, french: Foulque or ''Foulques''; c. 1089/1092 – 13 November 1143), also known as Fulk the Younger, was the count of Anjou (as Fulk V) from 1109 to 1129 and the king of Jerusalem with his wife from 1131 to his death. During t ...

and Prince Raymond of Antioch; Mu'in ad-Din offered 20,000 pieces of

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

per month to pay for their expenses. When it was captured, Mu'in ad-Din handed it over to Fulk and returned to Damascus. A more thorough alliance, to protect Damascus against Zengi, was negotiated during a visit by Mu'in ad-Din to

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, accompanied by the future chronicler Usamah ibn Munqidh. King Fulk died in 1143, and Zengi was assassinated in 1146. Zengi was succeeded by his sons

Saif ad-Din Ghazi I Saif ad-Din Ghazi I (died 1149) was the Emir of Mosul from 1146 to 1149, who fought in the Second Crusade. He was the eldest son of Imad al-Din Zengi of Mosul, and the elder brother of Nur ad-Din. Regaining control In 1146 Imad al-Din Zengi w ...

Mosul Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second larg ...

and Nur ad-Din in Aleppo, and Mu'in ad-Din took the opportunity to besiege Baalbek; the governor, Najm ad-Din Ayyub, father of

Saladin Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سه‌لاحه‌دین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt an ...

, quickly surrendered to him. Mu'in ad-Din also asserted control over

and

Hama Hama ( ar, حَمَاة ', ; syr, ܚܡܬ, ħ(ə)mɑθ, lit=fortress; Biblical Hebrew: ''Ḥamāṯ'') is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria. It is located north of Damascus and north of Homs. It is the provincial ...

, and sent Yarankash, the assassin of Zengi, to Nur ad-Din, after Yarankash sought refuge in Damascus. Mu'in ad-Din was always suspicious of Nur ad-Din's power, but it was his policy to remain on friendly terms with his neighbours wherever possible, whether they were Christian or Muslim. In 1147 Nur ad-Din and Mu'in ad-Din negotiated an alliance, in which Nur ad-Din married Mu'in ad-Din's daughter

Ismat ad-Din Khatun ʿIṣmat ad-Dīn Khātūn ( ar, عصمت الدين خاتون; died 1186), also known as Asimat, was the daughter of Mu'in ad-Din Unur, regent of Damascus, and wife of two of the greatest Muslim generals of the 12th century, Nur ad-Din and ...

. Having established peace with Aleppo, Mu'in ad-Din set out to besiege

Salkhad Salkhad ( ar, صَلْخَد, Ṣalḫad) is a Syrian city in the As-Suwayda Governorate, southern Syria. It is the capital of Salkhad District, one of the governorate's three districts. It has a population of 15,000 inhabitants. It is located a ...

and

Bosra Bosra ( ar, بُصْرَىٰ, Buṣrā), also spelled Bostra, Busrana, Bozrah, Bozra and officially called Busra al-Sham ( ar, بُصْرَىٰ ٱلشَّام, Buṣrā al-Shām), is a town in southern Syria, administratively belonging to the Dara ...

, after their governor, Altuntash, allied with Jerusalem against him. This broke Jerusalem's treaty with Damascus, forcing Mu'in ad-Din to turn to Nur ad-Din for assistance. Nur ad-Din arrived with the army of Aleppo, and the

crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

were forced to withdraw; both Bosra and Sarkhad then surrendered to Mu'in ad-Din. In August 1147 Mu'in ad-Din was formally recognized as governor of Damascus by the

Caliph A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

Al-Muqtafi Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Mustazhir ( ar, أبو عبد الله محمد بن أحمد المستظهر; 9 April 1096 – 12 March 1160), better known by his regnal name al-Muqtafi li-Amr Allah (), was the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad f ...

and the Seljuk

Sultan Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it c ...

Mas'ud Masoud (; ) is a given name and surname, with origins in Persian and Arabic. The name is found in the Arab world, Iran, Turkey, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Russia, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and China. Masoud has spelling varia ...

, and he was also recognized formally by the

Fatimid The Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids, a dyna ...

Caliph in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

al-Hafiz Abūʾl-Maymūn ʿAbd al-Majīd ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Mustanṣir, better known by his regnal name as al-Ḥāfiẓ li-Dīn Allāh ( ar, الحافظ لدين الله, , Keeper of God's Religion), was the eleventh Fatimid caliph, ruling over Egyp ...

Second Crusade

In 1148, news reached Damascus of a new crusade, called in response to Zengi's capture of

Edessa Edessa (; grc, Ἔδεσσα, Édessa) was an ancient city (''polis'') in Upper Mesopotamia, founded during the Hellenistic period by King Seleucus I Nicator (), founder of the Seleucid Empire. It later became capital of the Kingdom of Osroe ...

in 1145. Mu'in ad-Din prepared for the inevitable siege, although he had hoped his former alliance with Jerusalem could be restored and that the crusade would attack some other city. When the crusaders arrived in July, according to

Ibn al-Qalanisi Abū Yaʿlā Ḥamzah ibn al-Asad ibn al-Qalānisī ( ar, ابو يعلى حمزة ابن الاسد ابن القلانسي; c. 1071 – 18 March 1160) was an Arab politician and chronicler in 12th-century Damascus. Biography Abu Ya‘la ('fathe ...

, Mu'in ad-Din "distinguished himself in combat with them, and displayed a valour, steadfastness and gallantry such as was never seen in any other, never wearying in repelling them nor taking respite from the struggle against them." Mu'in ad-Din reluctantly sent for help from Nur ad-Din and Saif ad-Din Ghazi, whose power he did not wish to see extend as far south as Damascus, and the crusaders besieged the city for only four days before withdrawing. It is possible that Mu'in ad-Din had bribed the crusaders to leave before Nur ad-Din arrived. After this success, the three emirs besieged the castle of Araima in the

County of Tripoli The County of Tripoli (1102–1289) was the last of the Crusader states. It was founded in the Levant in the modern-day region of Tripoli, northern Lebanon and parts of western Syria which supported an indigenous population of Christians, ...

, but Mu'in ad-Din was forced to acknowledge Nur ad-Din as his

overlord An overlord in the English feudal system was a lord of a manor who had subinfeudated a particular manor, estate or fee, to a tenant. The tenant thenceforth owed to the overlord one of a variety of services, usually military service or ser ...

. In 1149, Mu'in ad-Din led raids against crusader territory, in response to their raids against the territory of Damascus which they continued to make after the failure of their siege. He agreed to a two-year truce with King Baldwin III, and then joined Nur ad-Din against the

Principality of Antioch The Principality of Antioch was one of the crusader states created during the First Crusade which included parts of modern-day Turkey and Syria. The principality was much smaller than the County of Edessa or the Kingdom of Jerusalem. It exte ...

. Mu'in ad-Din patrolled the

Hauran The Hauran ( ar, حَوْرَان, ''Ḥawrān''; also spelled ''Hawran'' or ''Houran'') is a region that spans parts of southern Syria and northern Jordan. It is bound in the north by the Ghouta oasis, eastwards by the al-Safa field, to the s ...

with his army while Nur ad-Din defeated Antioch at the

Battle of Inab The Battle of Inab, also called Battle of Ard al-Hâtim or Fons Muratus, was fought on 29 June 1149, during the Second Crusade. The Zengid army of Atabeg Nur ad-Din Zangi destroyed the combined army of Prince Raymond of Poitiers and the Assass ...

that year, in which Prince Raymond was killed.

Death

After returning to Damascus in July 1149, Mu'in ad-Din "ate a hearty meal, as was his usual custom, and was seized thereafter by a loosening of the bowels...From this resulted in the disease known as

dysentery Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...

..." The emir died on August 28 and was buried in the

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

he had established in the city.

Successor, issue, and legacy

As he had been acting as regent for Mujir ad-Din Abaq, the latter took his place as the rightful heir of Damascus. Mujir ad-Din was a weak ruler, however, and by 1154 Nur ad-Din was fully in control of the city and all of

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

. Mu'in ad-Din had three daughters, who married Nur ad-Din, Mujir ad-Din, and a soldier named Margar respectively. In addition to Ibn al-Qalanisi's favourable depiction of him, the Christian chronicler

William of Tyre William of Tyre ( la, Willelmus Tyrensis; 113029 September 1186) was a medieval prelate and chronicler. As archbishop of Tyre, he is sometimes known as William II to distinguish him from his predecessor, William I, the Englishman, a former ...

also speaks very highly of Mu'in ad-Din: he showed "sincere fidelity" in his negotiations with the

Kingdom of Jerusalem The Kingdom of Jerusalem ( la, Regnum Hierosolymitanum; fro, Roiaume de Jherusalem), officially known as the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem or the Frankish Kingdom of Palestine,Example (title of works): was a Crusader state that was establish ...

, and was "a man of much wisdom and a lover of our people." William of Tyre rendered his names in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

as ''Meheneddin'' for Mu'in ad-Din and ''Anardus'' for Unur.

Sources

Steven Runciman Sir James Cochran Stevenson Runciman ( – ), known as Steven Runciman, was an English historian best known for his three-volume '' A History of the Crusades'' (1951–54). He was a strong admirer of the Byzantine Empire. His history's negativ ...

, ''A History of the Crusades, vol. II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem''.

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pr ...

, 1952. *''The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades, Extracted and Translated from the Chronicle of

''. H.A.R. Gibb, 1932 (reprint, Dover Publications, 2002). *

, ''A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea'', trans. E.A. Babcock and A.C. Krey.

Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by Jennifer Crewe (2014–present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fie ...

, 1943. {{DEFAULTSORT:Muin Ad-Din Unur 1149 deaths 12th-century viceregal rulers Muslims of the Second Crusade 12th century in the Seljuk Empire Burid rulers Emirs of Damascus Deaths from dysentery Turkic rulers Infectious disease deaths in the Seljuk Empire Year of birth unknown Infectious disease deaths in Syria 12th-century Turkic people