Zengid dynasty

Zengi, son of Aq Sunqur al-Hajib, became the Seljuk atabeg of Mosul in 1127.[2] He quickly became the chief Turkic potentate in Northern Syria and Iraq, taking Aleppo from the squabbling Artuqids in 1128 and capturing the County of Edessa 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.[3]

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, and Aleppo and Edessa falling to his second son, Nur ad-Din, atabeg of Aleppo. Nur ad-Din proved to be as competent as his father. In 1149 he defeated Raymond of Poitiers, Prince of Antioch, at the battle of Inab, and the next year conquered the remnants of the County of Edessa west of the Euphrates.[4] In 1154 he capped off these successes by his capture of Damascus from the Burid dynasty that ruled it.[5]

Now ruling from Damascus, Nur ad-Din's success continued. Another Prince of Antioch, Raynald of Châtillon was captured, and the territories of the Principality of Antioch were greatly reduced. In the 1160s, Nur ad-Din's attention was mostly held by a competition with the King of Jerusalem, Amalric of Jerusalem, for control of the Fatimid Caliphate. Ultimately, Nur ad-Din's Kurdish general Shirkuh was successful in conquering Fatimid Egypt in 1169 in conquering from king of Jerusalem to lead an expeditionary force to prevent the Crusaders from establishing a strong presence in an increasingly anarchic Egypt. ,Shirkuh's reached at time at defeated the Crusaders army and take control as governor of Egypt but unexpectedly the death in Egypt . In order of the Fatimid Caliphate ,the nephew and successor of Shirkuh as Saladin was appointed vizier by the Fatimid caliph al-Adid and Governor of Egypt, in 1169, before abolishing the Fatimid Caliphate, in 1171 al-Adid died 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-based Abbasid Caliphate which adhered to Sunni Islam in order from Nur ad-Din's. Three years later, he was proclaimed sultan following the death of his former master, the Nur al-Din of Zengid dynasty and established himself as the first custodian of the two holy mosques.

Nur ad-Din was preparing to invade Jerusalem when he unexpectedly died in 1174. His son and successor As-Salih Ismail al-Malik was only a child, and was forced to flee to Aleppo, which he ruled until 1181, when he was died and 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 Emirs of Mosul well into the 13th century, ruling Mosul and Sinjar until 1234; their rule did not come finally to an end until 1250.

• List of Emirs of Mosul
• List of Sunni Muslim dynasties

• Asbridge, Thomas (2012). The Crusades: The War for the Holy Land. Simon & Schuster.
• Ayalon, David (1999). Eunuchs, Caliphs and Sultans: A Study in Power Relationships. Hebrew University Magnes Press.
• Bosworth, C.E. (1996). The New Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical Manual. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Hunyadi, Zsolt; Laszlovszky, József (2001). The Crusades and the Military Orders. Central European University.
• Irwin, Robert (1999). "Islam and the Crusades 1096-1699". In Riley-Smith, Jonathan (ed.). The Oxford History of the Crusades. Oxford University Press.
• Stevenson, William Barron (1907). The Crusaders in the East. Cambridge University Press.
• Taef El-Azharii (2006). Zengi and the Muslim Response to the Crusades, Routledge, Abington, UK.