Nur ad-Din (Nur al-Din Mahmud Zangi)

Atabeg of Damascus and Aleppo (1146-1174); a Zengid ruler known for his struggle against the Crusaders, his justice and his piety. Because of his justice and piety he was called al-Malik al-Adil, and because he so longed for martyrdom in the wars with the Crusaders, al-Shahid. Through the madrasas, hadith schools, hospitals and endowments he founded, he holds a unique place in the history of Islamic institutions.

He was born in Aleppo on 17 Shawwal 511 (11 February 1118). Reports of his fine handwriting, his wide reading, his memorising and transmitting of hadith and his knowledge of jurisprudence show that he received a good education. In his youth he took part in battles from time to time at the side of his father, Imad al-Din Zengi.

When his father was killed while besieging the fortress of Ja'bar (5 Rabi al-Akhir 541 / 14 September 1146), he came to Aleppo and took control of the city. He recovered Edessa (Urfa) from Joscelin II; the great stir this caused in Europe led to the Second Crusade. In 549 (1154) he took Damascus. After the earthquake of 552 (1157) he swiftly rebuilt the fortresses of Hama, Shayzar, Homs and other cities. The forces he sent to Egypt under Asad al-Din Shirkuh finally seized power in Cairo (564/1169); after Shirkuh's death his nephew Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi (Saladin) succeeded him.

In 567 (1171) he asked Saladin to have the Friday sermon in Egypt read in the name of the Abbasid caliph; on his firm order the sermon began to be read in the Abbasid caliph's name on 7 Muharram 567 / 10 September 1171, and a few days later the Fatimid state collapsed. The Abbasid caliph al-Mustadi' bi-Amr Allah sent him a diploma of investiture with the insignia of sultanate. In 568 (1173), when he confronted the Anatolian Seljuk sultan Kılıç Arslan II, an agreement was reached through the intervention of scholars and men of religion who said that war between the two Muslim states would serve only the Crusaders.

It is recorded that he knew Hanafi jurisprudence well but had no sectarian partisanship, that he occupied himself with hadith, performed dhikr at night, and had drums beaten at set hours in the citadel of Damascus to wake those who wished to rise for dhikr. On certain days of the week he sat with his chief judge and the other judges in the dar al-adl (house of justice) he had built in Damascus to hear cases, and permitted no conduct contrary to Islam anywhere in his realm. Historians say he abolished the uncanonical taxes (mukus). Ibn al-Athir states that after the Rightly Guided Caliphs and Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz he had seen none better, more just or more merciful than him.

He rebuilt or repaired the citadels of Damascus, Homs, Hama, Aleppo, Shayzar and Baalbek destroyed by earthquakes; he rebuilt the Great Mosque of Aleppo, ruined by fires and earthquakes, and built the Great Mosque of Urfa in the first years of his reign. His greatest and finest work is the Great Mosque of Mosul (al-Jami al-Nuri), completed in 568 (1172-73). He is the statesman who opened the largest number of madrasas after Nizam al-Mulk; al-Nuriyya al-Kubra and al-Nuriyya al-Hanafiyya al-Sughra in Damascus are the finest examples of his madrasas. The Nuriyya Dar al-Hadith in Damascus was entirely destroyed, save a few walls, in the fire of 1893; the Damascus hospital (bimaristan) used today as a museum is also his work. He built schools for orphans and many caravanserais, ribats, khanqahs and public fountains. It is recorded that the income of the lands and shops he endowed reached 30.000 dinars a year, that he distributed 200.000 dinars to endowments as aid and alms, and that he supported teachers, jurists, pilgrims, the poor and destitute, the descendants of Ali, and zawiyas and ribats.

He died in the citadel of Damascus while preparing to set out for Egypt (11 Shawwal 569 / 15 May 1174). He was first buried in a room of the inner citadel and later moved to his tomb at the entrance of his madrasa al-Nuriyya al-Kubra, which he had built for the Hanafis at the entrance of the market called al-Khawwasin. He was succeeded by his eleven-year-old son al-Malik al-Salih Isma'il.

His Circle of Influence — Of his political aims he achieved ending the Fatimid state in Egypt and uniting the Islamic world under the Abbasid caliph; though he could not wholly eliminate the Crusader states, he prepared the ground for the recovery of Jerusalem. At the time of his death Saladin was governing Egypt, Libya, Yemen and part of Sudan in his name. Believing that Jerusalem would be conquered, he had a wooden minbar of very high artistic value made in Aleppo to be placed in al-Aqsa Mosque; when Saladin conquered Jerusalem he had this minbar installed in al-Aqsa. The minbar burned in a fire set in 1969.

His Tomb and Complex — His tomb lies within the complex he built in Damascus, consisting of a madrasa, a masjid and the founder's tomb. The six-line inscription over the monumental portal of the building, also known as the Nuriyya Madrasa (al-Nuriyya al-Kubra), states that it was completed in Sha'ban 567 (April 1172); this inscription points to the founder's being a Hanafi, while the inscription over the second door records that lessons of the Shafi'i school were also taught there. The building has a three-iwan plan around a central courtyard with a large pool in its middle; the masjid lies on the qibla side of the courtyard. The tomb is on the qibla side of the entrance hall; it is covered by a muqarnas dome, and its tall walls rise above the mass of the madrasa. Inside, on the qibla side, is a striking mihrab with two reused colonnettes, and in the centre a stone sarcophagus bearing an inscription; the Throne Verse (Ayat al-Kursi) runs in a broad band around its four walls.