Nur AD-DIN

Nour AD-DIN Mahmûd el Mâlik Al Adil (November 21st 1116 - May 15th 1174) also called Nur ED-DIN , Aldine Nur or Nûreddîn ( Noureddine , " light of the religion ) also called Noradin by the frank knights, was a Moslem war leader of the 12th century who fought against the presence of cross in Syria and in Egypt and preached the unification of the Moslem . It directed Syria of 1146 to its death.

The war against the Crusaders

See also: Jihâd

Nur AD-DIN is the second child of Imad AD-DIN Zengi, celebrates enemy crusaders. After the death of the father, Nur AD-DIN and his elder Saif AD-DIN Ghâzî divided its kingdom. The first is established with Mosul while the other controlled Alep. The border between the two new kingdoms was materialized by the river of Nahr Al-Khâbûr. Nur AD-DIN started its reign by a series of attacks against the Principauté of Antioche. It seizes several castles in the North of the Syria, just like it managed to contain the offensive of Josselin II of Courtenay which in vain tried to recover the town of Édesse that Zengi had taken to him at one time. Nur AD-DIN punishes the Armenian of Édesse to be itself allied to the crusaders, while the Christian which lived the city, fearing for their life, left the country.

Nur AD-DIN sought to engage of the bonds with its Moslem neighbors of the North of Iraq and Syria in order to reinforce the Islamic front in its fight against their Western enemies. It thus signed in 1147 a treaty of bilateral cooperation with Muin AD-DIN Unur, governor of Damas, at the conclusion which it married the girl of this one. Under the terms of this treaty, Nur AD-DIN was started towards Damas to contain the crusaders who advanced towards the city. Muin AD-DIN and Nur AD-DIN took together the towns of Bustra and Sarkhand to make face against the Westerners. To reassure Muin AD-DIN on its intentions, Nur AD-DIN curtailed its stay in Damas and got under way towards the castles of the principality of Antioche. It could thus seize Artâh, Kafar Lâthâ and Basarfût.

In 1147, unloaded in Syria the Second crusade, carried out by the king of France Louis VII and by Conrad III of Germanic Hohenstaufen emperor. This crusade fails, in particular at the time of its attempt to make the head office of Damas. Nur AD-DIN benefitted from its influence in Syria and the failure of the crusaders to prepare an attack against Antioche. In 1149, it launched an offensive against the territories dominated by the castle of Hârim, located over Eastern bank of Oronte, after which it besieged the castle of Inab. Prince d' Antioche, Raymond of Poitiers, flew to the help of the besieged citadel. The Moslem army decimated the army crossed in 1149, and Raymond of Poitiers lost the life during the battle.

Unification of Syria and Egypt

The ideal of Nur AD-DIN was to gather the Moslems between the Euphrate and the the Nile under only one authority to make common front in front of the crusaders. But Damas constituted a major hurdle with this unification. Muin AD-DIN, sultan of Damas, had signed with the crusaders of the agreements and the treaties: at the time of the catch of Ascalon by the crusaders in 1153, it prohibits in Nur AD-DIN to cross its territory. After the death of Muin AD-DIN, its successor Mujir AD-DIN continued his policy; it agreed to make pour by the inhabitants of Damas an annual tribute to the crusaders, in exchange of the protection which the latter would grant to him. Nur AD-DIN benefitted from the fits of anger of Damascènes and succeeds, thanks to the assistance of the population, to reverse in 1154 Mujir AD-DIN and to annex Damas in its State. Syria was unified under the authority of Nur AD-DIN: of Édesse in North with Hawrân in the South.

After the success of Nur AD-DIN in the first stage of the unification of the Moslem grounds in Iraq and Syria, the crusaders were constrained to take the road of the South to continue their projection. The Egypt represented for them a new potential axis in their expansion. While seizing Ascalon, they declared their will to attack from now on Egypt, benefitting from the social disorder which reigned in the country. The king de Jérusalem Amaury Ier decided to carry out an offensive against Egypt in 1163, pretexting that the Fatimides did not pay any more capitation that they owed him. Its countryside failed nevertheless and it had to be withdrawn. This initiative caused fears at Nur AD-DIN. It then solved to conduct campaigns against the crusaders in Syria and Palestine in order to divert them of Egypt. Starting from 1164, it thus sent several detachments under the command of Asadeddîn Shîrkûh and its nephew Salâheddîn Al-Ayyûbî, more known under the name of Saladin; Egypt was taken in 1169. The accession of Saladin to the vizirat enabled him to change the allegiance of Egypt to the Caliphate Abbasside of Baghdad.

Death and succession

After having rejoined Egypt, Nur AD-DIN thought of having unified the close Moslem East; however Saladin which held the reins of the capacity in Egypt did not wish to follow it. It did not take part in the invasions carried out by Nur AD-DIN in 1171 and 1173 against the Royaume of Jerusalem, by hoping that the cross kingdom would remain in place, acting like a zone “plug” between Egypt and Syria. Nur AD-DIN carried out whereas it had created without wanting it a dangerous power in the person of Saladin, and the two chiefs gathered armies for what seemed to be an inevitable war.

Whereas Nur AD-DIN Mahmûd was on the point of going to Egypt in 1174, it was seized by a fever which embanked it at 59 years. His/her son, the young person Have-Salih Ismail Al-Malik became the legitimate heir, and Saladin declared its vassal, although it wished to unify Syria and Egypt under his own reign. He married the widow of Nur AD-DIN, overcame the other applicants with the throne and taken the reins of the capacity in Syria in 1185, carrying out for his own account the dream of Nur AD-DIN.

Nur AD-DIN like sovereign of Syria

Nur AD-DIN believed in the Islam and its size. He thought that the crusaders were foreigners with the territories arabo-Moslems, overseas has despoiled the grounds and has just profaned the crowned places. He was not caught any nevertheless to the Christians who lived under his authority, except however Armenians for Édesse.

The jihâd and the unification of the Moslem rows did not divert it construction of universities and mosques which was distributed in all the cities that it controlled. These universities dealt mainly of Coran and Hadith. Nur AD-DIN was set on Hadith and liked that specialists made him the reading of it. Its professors granted to him even a diploma of narration of Hadith.

Concerned of stripped, it made build free hospitals in each town of its State. It also made build caravanserais on the roads so that the travellers could stop there. It held several times per week a meeting where people came to ask him to return justice against its generals, governors or employees. It remains in the Muslim world a legendary figure of military courage, piety and modesty.

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