The Zengid dynasty was a

Muslim dynasty This article includes a list of successive Islamic states and Muslim dynasties beginning with the time of the Islamic prophet Muhammad (570–632 CE) and the early Muslim conquests that spread Islam outside of the Arabian Peninsula, and continuin ...

Oghuz Turkic The Oghuz languages are a sub-branch of the Turkic language family, spoken by approximately 108 million people. The three languages with the largest number of speakers are Turkish, Azerbaijani and Turkmen, which, combined, account for more t ...

origin, which ruled parts of the

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...

and

Upper Mesopotamia Upper Mesopotamia is the name used for the Upland and lowland, uplands and great outwash plain of northwestern Iraq, northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey, in the northern Middle East. Since the early Muslim conquests of the mid-7th century, ...

on behalf of the

Seljuk Empire The Great Seljuk Empire, or the Seljuk Empire was a high medieval, culturally Turco-Persian tradition, Turko-Persian, Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslim empire, founded and ruled by the Qiniq (tribe), Qïnïq branch of Oghuz Turks. It spanned a total are ...

and eventually seized control of Egypt in 1169. In 1174 the Zengid state extended from

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...

Hamadan Hamadan () or Hamedan ( fa, همدان, ''Hamedān'') ( Old Persian: Haŋgmetana, Ecbatana) is the capital city of Hamadan Province of Iran. At the 2019 census, its population was 783,300 in 230,775 families. The majority of people living in Ha ...

and from

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

Sivas Sivas (Latin and Greek: ''Sebastia'', ''Sebastea'', Σεβάστεια, Σεβαστή, ) is a city in central Turkey and the seat of Sivas Province. The city, which lies at an elevation of in the broad valley of the Kızılırmak river, is a ...

. The dynasty was founded by

Imad ad-Din Zengi Imad al-Din Zengi ( ar, عماد الدین زنكي; – 14 September 1146), also romanized as Zangi, Zengui, Zenki, and Zanki, was a Turkmen atabeg, who ruled Mosul, Aleppo, Hama, and, later, Edessa. He was the namesake of the Zengid dyna ...

History

Zengi, son of

Aq Sunqur al-Hajib Abu Said Aq Sunqur al-Hajib (full name: ''Qasim ad-Dawla Aksungur al-Hajib'') was the Seljuk governor of Aleppo under Sultan Malik Shah I. He was considered the ''de facto'' ruler of most of Syria from 1087. He was beheaded in 1094 following acc ...

, became the Seljuk

atabeg of Mosul This is a list of the rulers of the Iraqi city of Mosul. Umayyad governors * Muhammad ibn Marwan (ca. 685–705) * Yusuf ibn Yahya ibn al-Hakam (ca. 685–705) * Sa'id ibn Abd al-Malik (ca. 685–705) * Yahya ibn Yahya al-Ghassani (719–720) * ...

in 1127. He quickly became the chief Turkic potentate in Northern Syria and Iraq, taking

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

from the squabbling

Artuqids The Artuqid dynasty (alternatively Artukid, Ortoqid, or Ortokid; , pl. ; ; ) was a Turkoman dynasty originated from tribe that ruled in eastern Anatolia, Northern Syria and Northern Iraq in the eleventh through thirteenth centuries. The Artuqi ...

in 1128 and capturing the

County of Edessa The County of Edessa (Latin: ''Comitatus Edessanus'') was one of the Crusader states in the 12th century. Ferdinandi, Sergio (2017). La Contea Franca di Edessa. Fondazione e Profilo Storico del Primo Principato Crociato nel Levante (1098-115 ...

from the Crusaders after the siege of Edessa in 1144. This latter feat made Zengi a hero in the Muslim world, but he was assassinated by a slave two years later, in 1146. On Zengi's death, his territories were divided, with Mosul and his lands in Iraq going to his eldest son

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 ...

, and Aleppo and Edessa falling to his second son,

Nur ad-Din, atabeg of Aleppo Nūr al-Dīn Maḥmūd Zengī (; February 1118 – 15 May 1174), commonly known as Nur ad-Din (lit. "Light of the Faith" in Arabic), was a member of the Zengid dynasty, which ruled the Syrian province (''Shām'') of the Seljuk Empire. He reign ...

. Nur ad-Din proved to be as competent as his father. In 1149, he defeated

Raymond of Poitiers Raymond of Poitiers (c. 1105–29 June 1149) was Prince of Antioch from 1136 to 1149. He was the younger son of William IX, Duke of Aquitaine, and his wife Philippa, Countess of Toulouse, born in the very year that his father the Duke began his ...

Prince of Antioch Prince of Antioch was the title given during the Middle Ages to Normans, Norman rulers of the Principality of Antioch, a region surrounding the city of Antioch, now known as Antakya in Turkey. The Princes originally came from the County of Sicil ...

, 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 Assassi ...

, and the next year conquered the remnants of the

west of the

Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers'') ...

. In 1154, he capped off these successes by his capture of

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

from 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 ...

that ruled it. Now ruling from Damascus, Nur ad-Din's success continued. Another Prince of Antioch,

Raynald of Châtillon Raynald of Châtillon (french: Renaud; 11254 July 1187), also known as Reynald or Reginald, was a Crusader knight of French origin but also Prince of Antioch from 1153 to 1160 or 1161, and Lord of Oultrejordain from 1175 until his death. He wa ...

was captured, and the territories of 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 extende ...

were greatly reduced. In the 1160s, Nur ad-Din's attention was mostly held by a competition with the

King of Jerusalem The King of Jerusalem was the supreme ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a Crusader states, Crusader state founded in Jerusalem by the Latin Church, Latin Catholic leaders of the First Crusade, when the city was Siege of Jerusalem (1099), conqu ...

Amalric of Jerusalem Amalric or Amaury I ( la, Amalricus; french: Amaury; 113611 July 1174) was King of Jerusalem from 1163, and Count of Jaffa and Ascalon before his accession. He was the second son of Melisende and Fulk of Jerusalem, and succeeded his older broth ...

, for control of the

Fatimid Caliphate The Fatimid Caliphate was an Isma'ilism, Ismaili Shia Islam, 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 ea ...

. From 1163 to 1169 Shirkuh took part in a series of campaigns against Fatimid Egypt, in 1169 he lured the vizier into an ambush and killed him after which he seized Egypt in the name of his master Nur ad-Din therefore bringing Egypt under formal Zengid dominion.Souad, Merah, and Tahraoui Ramdane. 2018. �
INSTITUTIONALIZING EDUCATION AND THE CULTURE OF LEARNING IN MEDIEVAL ISLAM: THE AYYŪBIDS (569/966 AH) (1174/1263 AD) LEARNING PRACTICES IN EGYPT AS A CASE STUDY
��. Al-Shajarah: Journal of the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC), January, 245-75.Legitimising the Conquest of Egypt: The Frankish Campaign of 1163 Revisited
Eric Böhme. The Expansion of the Faith. Volume 14. January 1, 2022. Pages 269 - 280. Shirkuh's nephew

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 and ...

was appointed vizier 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 dy ...

caliph

al-Adid Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf ( ar, أبو محمد عبد الله بن يوسف; 1151–1171), better known by his regnal name al-ʿĀḍid li-Dīn Allāh ( ar, العاضد لدين الله, , Strengthener of God's Faith), was the ...

and Governor of Egypt, in 1169. Al-Adid died in 1171, and Saladin took advantage of this power vacuum, effectively taking control of the country. Upon seizing power, he switched Egypt's allegiance to the

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 ...

-based Abbasid Caliphate which adhered to Sunni Islam, rather than traditional Fatimid

Shia Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...

practice.

and the

Hejaz The Hejaz (, also ; ar, ٱلْحِجَاز, al-Ḥijāz, lit=the Barrier, ) is a region in the west of Saudi Arabia. It includes the cities of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah, Tabuk, Yanbu, Taif, and Baljurashi. It is also known as the "Western Provin ...

were added to the state of Nur ad-Din.Gençtürk, Ç.
SELAHADDİN EYYUBİ VE NUREDDİN MAHMUD ARASINDAKİ MÜNASEBETLER
. Ankara Uluslararası Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi 1 (2018 ): 51-61 Nur ad-Din had taken Anatolian lands up to Sivas, his state extended from Tripoli to

and from Yemen to

.EYYÛBÎLER
İçindekiler Tablosu. Prof. Dr. Ramazan ŞEŞEN. Mimar Sinan Üniversitesi. Nur ad-Din was preparing to invade

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

when he unexpectedly died in 1174. His son and successor

As-Salih Ismail al-Malik As-Salih Ismaʿil al-Malik (1163–1181) was an emir of Damascus and emir of Aleppo in 1174, the son of Nur ad-Din. Biography He was only eleven years old when his father died in 1174. As-Salih came under the protection of the eunuch Gümüs ...

was only a child, and was forced to flee to Aleppo, which he ruled until 1181, when he died of illness and was replaced by his cousin Imad al-Din Zengi II. Saladin conquered Aleppo two years later, ending Zengid rule in Syria. Zengid princes continued to rule in Northern Iraq as Emirs of Mosul well into the 13th century, ruling Mosul and Sinjar until 1234; their rule did not finally come to an end until 1250.

Zengid rulers

Arslan_Shah_Nasibin_1197_classical_portrait

Mahmud_II_mint_of_Mossul_female_with_two_winged_victories_1223

Zengid Atabegs and Emirs of Mosul

* Zengi, 1127–1146 *

Sayf al-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 ...

, son of Zengi, 1146–1149 * Qutb al-Din Mawdud, son of Zengi, 1149–1170 *

Sayf al-Din Ghazi II Sayf al-Din Ghazi (II) ibn Mawdud ( ar, سيف الدين غازي بن مودود}; full name: Sayf al-Din Ghazi II ibn Mawdud ibn Zengi; died 1180) was a Zangid Emir of Mosul, the nephew of Nur ad-Din Zengi. He became Emir of Mosul in 1170 a ...

, son of Qutb al-Din Mawdud, 1170–1180 *

Izz al-Din Mas'ud Izz al-Din Mas'ud (I) ibn Mawdud ( ar, عز الدين مسعود بن مودود} died 1193) was a Zengid emir of Mosul. Biography Izz al-Din Mas'ud was the brother of emir Sayf al-Din Ghazi II, and the leader of his armies. When his brother d ...

, son of Qutb al-Din Mawdud, 1180–1193 * Nur al-Din Arslan Shah I, son of Izz al-Din Mas'ud, 1193–1211 *

Izz al-Din Mas'ud II Izz al-Din Mas'ud II (r.1211–1218) was the son and successor of Nur al-Din Arslan Shah I, as Zengid dynasty ruler of the Mosul region in modern Iraq. He was only ten years old when he ascended the throne, and because of that was put under the co ...

, son of Nur al-Din Arslan Shah I, 1211–1218 *

Nur al-Din Arslan Shah II Nur may refer to: In Islam * An-Nur, one of the names of God in Islam, meaning "The Light". * Nūr (Islam), a concept, literally meaning "light" * An-Nur (The Light), the 24th chapter of the Qur'an * ''Risale-i Nur Collection'', a collection of ...

, son of Izz al-Din Mas'ud II, 1218–1219 *

Nasir ad-Din Mahmud Nasir al-Din Mahmud (or Mahmud II) was the Zengid Emir of Mosul 1219–1234. He was successor of Nur al-Din Arslan Shah II and was the last Zengid ruler of Mosul. Contemporary historians state that he was killed by the atabeg of Mosul, Badr al-D ...

, son of Izz al-Din Mas'ud, 1219–1234. Mosul was taken over by

Badr al-Din Lu'lu' Badr al-Din Lu'lu' ( ar, بَدْر الدِّين لُؤْلُؤ) (died 1259) (the name Lu'Lu' means 'The Pearl', indicative of his servile origins) was successor to the Zengid emirs of Mosul, where he governed in variety of capacities from 1234 ...

, atabeg to Nasir ad-Din Mahmud, whom he murdered in 1234.

Zengid Emirs of Aleppo

* Zengi, 1128–1146 *

Nur al-Din Nur al-Din ( ar, translit=nūr ad-dīn, نور الدين) is a male Arabic given name, translating to "light of the religion", ''nūr'' meaning "light" and ''dīn'' meaning "religion". More recently, the name has also been used as a surname. There ...

, son of Zengi, 1146–1174 *

, son of Nur al-Din, 1174–1182 * Imad al-Din Zengi II,1182 Aleppo was conquered by

in 1183 and ruled by

Ayyubids The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni Muslim of Kurdish origin, Saladin h ...

until 1260.

Zengid Emirs of Damascus

, son of Zengi, 1154–1174 *

, son of Nur al-Din, 1174. Damascus was conquered by

in 1174 and ruled by

until 1260.

Zengid Emirs of Sinjar

* Imad al-Din Zengi II, son of Qutb al-Din Mawdud, 1171–1197 *

Qutb ad-Din Muhammad Qutb ad-Din Muhammad was the Zengid Emir of Sinjar 1197–1219. He was successor of Imad ad-Din Zengi II. See also * Zengid dynasty The Zengid dynasty was a Muslim dynasty of Oghuz Turkic origin, which ruled parts of the Levant and Upper ...

, son of Zengi II, 1197–1219 * Imad al-Din Shahanshah, son of Qutb ad-Din Muhammad, 1219–1220 * Jalal al-Din Mahmud (co-ruler), son of Qutb ad-Din Muhammad, 1219–1220 * Fath al-Din Umar (co-ruler), son of Qutb ad-Din Muhammad, 1219–1220. Sinjar was taken by the

in 1220 and ruled by al-Ashraf Musa, Ayyubid emir of Diyar Bakr. It later came under the control of

, ruler of Mosul beginning in 1234.

Zengid Emirs of al-Jazira (in Northern Iraq)

* Mu'izz al-Din Sanjar Shah, son of

, 1180–1208 * Mu'izz al-Din Mahmud, son of Mu'izz al-Din Sanjar Shah, 1208–1241 * Mahmud al-Malik al-Zahir, son of Mu'izz al-Din Mahmud, 1241–1250. In 1250, al-Jazira fell under the domination of

an-Nasir Yusuf An-Nasir Yusuf ( ar, الناصر يوسف; AD 1228–1260), fully al-Malik al-Nasir Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn al-Aziz ibn al-Zahir ibn Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shazy (), was the Ayyubid Emir of Syria from his seat in Aleppo (1236� ...

, Ayyubid emir of Aleppo.

References

Sources

* * * * * * * *Taef El-Azharii (2006). ''Zengi and the Muslim Response to the Crusades'', Routledge, Abington, UK. {{DEFAULTSORT:Zengid Dynasty Medieval Syria Medieval Jordan Seljuk Empire Atabegs Muslims of the Second Crusade Former vassal states States and territories established in 1127 States and territories disestablished in 1250 Syrian people of Turkish descent Iraqi people of Turkish descent 12th-century establishments in the Seljuk Empire 12th-century establishments in Asia 1250 disestablishments in Asia Turkic dynasties