Nur al-Din takes Damascus and builds the first Dar al-Hadith for Ibn 'Asakir, 549/1154

نور الدين يدخل دمشق ويبني أول دار حديث لابن عساكر، ٥٤٩هـ/١١٥٤م

c. 1154 CE · 549 AH

When Nur al-Din occupied Damascus in 549/1154 he at once made contact with Ibn 'Asakir, given the standing of the Banu 'Asakir in the city's society and 'Ali's own prestige as hafiz and jurist; in him the sovereign found a valuable ally for his programme of Sunni restoration, built for him the first dar al-hadith — known also as the dar al-Sunna — and encouraged him to complete the great Tarikh, which by 549 already ran to fifty-seven volumes ¹.

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Death of Nur al-Din Mahmud

Death of Nur al-Din Mahmud ibn Zangi, lord of Syria, the Jazira and Egypt's overlord — Wednesday 11 Shawwal 569, of quinsy, in the small prayer-cell he kept in Damascus citadel; refusing cupping ('a man of sixty is not bled'), buried in the citadel then translated to his madrasa by Suq al-Khawwassin. He had been mustering armies from Mosul and the Jazira to take Egypt from Saladin when death overtook him. Ibn al-Athir's verdict: after the Rashidun and Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz he read of no king's conduct finer or more scrupulous in justice.

Nur al-Din takes Damascus and builds the first Dar al-Hadith for Ibn 'Asakir, 549/1154

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Death of Nur al-Din Mahmud