The Zengid dynasty was a Turkoman Sunni Muslim dynasty in the Middle East. Initially an Atabegate of the Seljuk Empire created in 1127, it ruled parts of the Levant and Upper Mesopotamia, and eventually seized control of Fatimid Egypt in 1169. Imad al-Din Zengi was the first ruler of the dynasty. By 1174, the Zengid state extended from Tripoli to Hamadan and from Yemen to Sivas, as it also included the Egyptian territories held by Saladin as governor in the name of Nur al-Din Zengi.
The Zengid Atabegate became famous in the Islamic world for its successes against the Crusader states, and for being the Atabegate from which Saladin would emerge. After the death of his master Nur al-Din in 1174, Saladin successively took Damascus (1174) and Aleppo (1183) from the Zengids, ending their rule in Syria. However he left Mosul under Zengid control, where they met demise in 1234 on the hands of atabeg Badr al-Din Lu'lu'. Following the end of the Seljuk dynasty in 1194, the Zengids persisted for several decades as one of the "Seljuk successor-states" until 1250.
History
In 1127, following the murder of Aqsunqur al-Bursuqi, atabeg of Mosul, the Seljuk Empire decided to name Zengi, son of Aq Sunqur al-Hajib, Seljuk Governor of Aleppo, as the new Seljuk atabeg of Mosul. Before this nomination, Zengi had been a successful Seljuk general in Iraq, where he had become shihna, or Governor for the whole region.
Zengi 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. 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.
Conflict with the Crusaders
Nur ad-Din proved to be as competent as his father. In 1146 he defeated the Crusaders at the Siege of Edessa. 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. In 1154, he capped off these successes by his capture of Damascus from the Turkic Burid dynasty that ruled it.
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.
Conquests
After the defeats of the Seljuk Empire in Khorasan and the death of the Seljuk ruler Ahmad Sanjar in 1157, the Zengids remained nominally under Seljuk suzerainty, but in practice became essentially independent.
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 in Egypt. From 1163 to 1169, Shirkuh, a military commander in the service of the Zengid dynasty, took part in a series of campaigns in Fatimid Egypt, on the pretext to help the Fatimid vizier Shawar regain his throne from his rival Dirgham, and in opposition to the Crusader invasions of Egypt. In 1164, Latin Patriarch of Antioch Aimery of Limoges sent a letter to King Louis VII of France, in which he described the events in the Crusader States: "[Shirkuh] having gotten possession of Damascus, the latter entered Egypt with a great force of Turks, in order to conquer the country."
In 1163, the vizier to the Fatimid caliph al-Adid, Shawar, had been driven out of Egypt by his rival Dirgham, a member of the powerful Banu Ruzzaik tribe. He asked for military backing from Nur ad-Din, who complied and, in 1164, sent Shirkuh to aid Shawar in his expedition against Dirgham. Shirkuh's nephew Saladin, at age 26, went along with them. After Shawar was successfully reinstated as vizier, he demanded that Shirkuh withdraw his army from Egypt for a sum of 30,000 gold dinars, but Shirkuh refused, insisting it was Nur ad-Din's will that he remain.
In 1167, the Zengids engaged in a new campaign in Egypt. They sacked Bilbais, and the Crusader-Egyptian force and Shirkuh's army were to engage in the Battle of al-Babein on the desert border of the Nile, just west of Giza. The Crusader force enjoyed early success against Shirkuh's troops, but the terrain was too steep and sandy for their horses, and commander Hugh of Caesarea was captured while attacking Saladin's unit. The battle ended in a Zengid victory, one of the "most remarkable victories in recorded history", according to Ibn al-Athir. Saladin and Shirkuh moved towards Alexandria where they were welcomed, given money and arms, and provided a base. Faced by a superior Crusader–Egyptian force attempting to besiege the city, Shirkuh split his army. He and the bulk of his force withdrew from Alexandria, while Saladin was left with the task of guarding the city.
In 1168, the Zengid army was called for a third time in Egypt, as the Crusaders were besieging Cairo. The Crusaders lifted the siege and left. In 1169, Shirkuh lured the vizier into an ambush and killed him after which he seized Egypt in the name of his master Nur ad-Din, becoming the new Fatimid vizier and amir al-juyush with the approval of Caliph al-Adid, and therefore bringing Egypt under formal Zengid dominion. Shirkuh died the same year and was replaced by his nephew Saladin as vizier.
During the reign of Nur al-Din (1146–1174), Tripoli, Yemen and the Hejaz were added to the state of the Zengids. The Artuqids became vassals of the Zengids. Nur ad-Din also took control of Anatolian lands up to Sivas. His state extended from Tripoli to Hamadan and from Yemen to Sivas.
Shirkuh's nephew Saladin was appointed vizier by the last Fatimid caliph al-Adid 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-based Abbasid Caliphate which adhered to Sunni Islam, rather than traditional Fatimid Shia practice.
Loss of Egypt and Syria to Saladin (1175–1176)
In the early summer of 1174, Nur ad-Din was mustering an army, sending summons to Mosul, Diyar Bakr, and the Jazira in an apparent preparation of an attack against Saladin's Egypt. The Ayyubids held a council upon the revelation of these preparations to discuss the possible threat and Saladin collected his own troops outside Cairo.
On 15 May 1174, Nur ad-Din died after falling ill the previous week and his power was handed to his eleven-year-old son as-Salih Ismail al-Malik. His death left Saladin with political independence and in a letter to as-Salih, he promised to "act as a sword" against his enemies and referred to the death of his father as an "earthquake shock". In the wake of Nur ad-Din's death, Saladin was tempted to annex Syria before it could possibly fall into the hands of a rival, but he feared that attacking a land that formerly belonged to his master —forbidden in the Islamic principles in which he believed— could portray him as hypocritical, thus making him unsuitable for leading the war against the Crusaders.
As-Salih took refuge in Aleppo in August 1174, which he ruled until 1181, when he died of illness and was replaced by his cousin Imad al-Din Zengi II. Gumushtigin, the emir of the city and a captain of Nur ad-Din's veterans assumed guardianship over him. The emir Gumushtigin prepared to unseat all his rivals in Syria and the Jazira, beginning with Damascus. In this emergency, the emir of Damascus appealed to Saif ad-Din of Mosul (a cousin of Gumushtigin) for assistance against Aleppo, but he refused, forcing the Syrians to request the aid of Saladin, who complied. Saladin rode across the desert with 700 picked horsemen, passing through al-Kerak then reaching Bosra. According to his own account, he was joined by "emirs, soldiers, and Bedouins—the emotions of their hearts to be seen on their faces." On 23 November, he arrived in Damascus amid general acclamation and rested at his father's old home there, until the gates of the Citadel of Damascus, whose commander Raihan initially refused to surrender, were opened to Saladin four days later, after a brief siege by his brother Tughtakin ibn Ayyub. He installed himself in the castle and received the homage and salutations of the inhabitants.
Leaving his brother Tughtakin ibn Ayyub as Governor of Damascus, Saladin proceeded to reduce other cities that had belonged to Nur ad-Din, but were now practically independent. His army conquered Hama with relative ease, but avoided attacking Homs because of the strength of its citadel. Saladin moved north towards Aleppo, besieging it on 30 December after Gumushtigin refused to abdicate his throne. As-Salih, fearing capture by Saladin, came out of his palace and appealed to the inhabitants not to surrender him and the city to the invading force. One of Saladin's chroniclers claimed "the people came under his spell".
Meanwhile, Saladin's rivals in Syria and Jazira waged a propaganda war against him, claiming he had "forgotten his own condition [servant of Nur ad-Din]" and showed no gratitude for his old master by besieging his son, rising "in rebellion against his Lord". Soon, Saladin entered Homs and captured its citadel in March 1175, after stubborn resistance from its defenders.
Battle of the Horns of Hama (1175)
Saladin's successes alarmed Saif ad-Din, Zengid ruler of Mosul. As head of the Zengids, he regarded Syria and Mesopotamia as his family estate and was angered when Saladin attempted to usurp his dynasty's holdings. Saif ad-Din mustered a large army and dispatched it to Aleppo, whose defenders anxiously had awaited them. The combined forces of Mosul and Aleppo marched against Saladin in Hama. Heavily outnumbered, Saladin initially attempted to make terms with the Zengids by abandoning all conquests north of the Damascus province, but they refused, insisting he return to Egypt. Seeing that confrontation was unavoidable, Saladin prepared for battle, taking up a superior position at the Horns of Hama, hills by the gorge of the Orontes River. On 13 April 1175, the Zengid troops marched to attack his forces, but soon found themselves surrounded by Saladin's Ayyubid veterans, who crushed them. The battle ended in a decisive victory for Saladin, who pursued the Zengid fugitives to the gates of Aleppo, forcing as-Salih's advisers to recognize Saladin's control of the provinces of Damascus, Homs, and Hama, as well as a number of towns outside Aleppo such as Ma'arat al-Numan.
After his victory against the Zengids, Saladin proclaimed himself king and suppressed the name of as-Salih in Friday prayers and Islamic coinage. From then on, he ordered prayers in all the mosques of Syria and Egypt as the sovereign king and he issued at the Cairo mint gold coins bearing his official title —al-Malik an-Nasir Yusuf Ayyub, ala ghaya "the King Strong to Aid, Joseph son of Job; exalted be the standard." The Abbasid caliph in Baghdad graciously welcomed Saladin's assumption of power and declared him "Sultan of Egypt and Syria". The Battle of Hama did not end the contest for power between the Ayyubids and the Zengids, with the final confrontation occurring in the spring of 1176. Saladin had gathered massive reinforcements from Egypt while Saif ad-Din was levying troops among the minor states of Diyarbakir and al-Jazira. When Saladin crossed the Orontes, leaving Hama, the sun was eclipsed. He viewed this as an omen, but he continued his march north. He reached the Sultan's Mound, roughly 25 km (16 mi) from Aleppo, where his forces encountered Saif ad-Din's army. A hand-to-hand fight ensued and the Zengids managed to plough Saladin's left-wing, driving it before him when Saladin himself charged at the head of the Zengid guard. The Zengid forces panicked and most of Saif ad-Din's officers ended up being killed or captured—Saif ad-Din narrowly escaped. The Zengid army's camp, horses, baggage, tents, and stores were seized by the Ayyubids. The Zengid prisoners of war, however, were given gifts and freed. All of the booty from the Ayyubid victory was accorded to the army, Saladin not keeping anything himself.