Nur al-Din Mahmud ibn Zangi, lord of Aleppo then Syria; he lifted the Franks' siege of Damascus and took the city in 549 AH, the caliph al-Muqtafi styling him al-Malik al-Adil; he died in 569 AH.
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Nur al-Din Mahmud ibn Zangi
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Nur al-Din Mahmud ibn Zangi, lord of Aleppo then Syria. With his brother Ghazi he lifted the Franks' siege of Damascus in 543 AH and kept fighting; he took Damascus in Safar 549 AH, and the caliph al-Muqtafi sent him a writ for Egypt styling him al-Malik al-Adil. He died in 569 AH, succeeded by his boy son al-Malik al-Salih Isma'il; the Franks moved on the coasts and were bought off. The Shadharat calls him the greatest, most just and most striving king of his age: he opened more than fifty of the Franks' forts, dropped the tolls, built schools, Damascus's wall, orphanages, ribats, the hospital and the house of justice. A man once claimed against him while he played polo and he went before the judge; when nothing stood, the king made him a gift. Ibn al-Athir is quoted: after the Rightly-Guided caliphs and Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz he saw no king of better conduct.
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