chapter four

IBN ʿASĀKIR AND THE INTENSIFICATION AND REORIENTATION OF SUNNI JIHAD IDEOLOGY IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY

1 Ibn ʿAsākir and Nr alDn

Ibn ʿAsākirs service to sultan Nūr alDīn began shortly after the latter occu pied in 1154 Nūr alDīn became amir of eight years earlier (1146) after his father ʿImād alDīn Zangī—a Turkic warlord who had built a successful career 椀fghting the Franks in northern and southeastern —was murdered by one of his disgruntled slaves Zangī is most famous for having captured the county of in 1144 which was the impetus for the (1146–1148) After his murder Zangīs lands were divided up among his sons—Sayf alDīn (lit the Sword of Religion) was allotted Zangīs eastern holdings and Nūr alDīn (lit the Light of Reli gion) received Aleppo and northern Syria Nūr alDīn spent the early years of his career consolidating his inheritance by 椀fghting other Turkic and Kur dish princes in north and central Syria and in Mesopotamia (al-Jazīra) While the fall of Edessa was the pretext for the formation of the Second Crusade the men who arrived in the Near East in 1148 (two years after Zangīs demise) did not attempt to reclaim Edessa Rather they turned their anger against Damascus based on the belief that if Damascus was captured then efective Frankish rule over the entirety of Syria could be secured The subsequent failure to take Damascus proved to be a turning point in the Muslim CounterCrusade for the popular mood in Damascus 椀frmly shifted from perceiving the Franks as possible allies of convenience (椀frst against

Elisséef La Description de Damas xxii On the career of Zangī see Carole Hillenbrand Abominable Acts The Career of Zengi in The Second Crusade: Scope and Consequences eds Jonathan Phillips and Martin Hoch (Manchester Manchester University Press 2001) 111–132 On the issues relating to the Second Crusade see Giles Constable The Second Crusade as Seen by Contemporaries Traditio 9 (1953) 213–279 Alan J Forey The Second Crusade Scope and Objectives Durham University Journal 55 (1994) 165–175 and Martin Hoch The Choice of Damascus as the Objective of the Second Crusade A Reevaluation in Autour de la Première Croisade: Actes du Colloque de la Society for the Study of the and the Latin East—Clermont-Ferrand, 22–25 Juin 1995 ed Michel Balard (Paris Sorbonne 1996) 359–369 48 chapter four

Zangī and then his son Nūr alDīn) to considering Nūr alDīn their savior from the in椀fdel Frankish threat This shift was rooted in a desire for a ruler who would unify a divided Syria under the banner of Sunni Islam and who would employ the strength of that unity to defeat the Franks and root out any remaining political and sectarian divisions Accomplishing any of these goals was certainly no easy task given the longstanding political and religious divisions among the Muslims in Syria Nevertheless the dream of a Sunni restoration was a powerful and endur ing one in Damascus—the capital of the 椀frst truly Islamic Empire under the Umayyad caliphs (661–750) But Nūr alDīn did not sit idly and wait for the Damascene Sunni establishment to change its mood following the failed siege of the city by the Franks in July 1148 he played an active role in pushing them in his direction The sultan sent one of his principal reli gious advisors the jurist Burhān alDīn ʿAlī ibn alḤasan alBalkhī (d 1153) to Damascus to prepare the ground for him Burhān alDīn was an avid sup porter of Nūr alDīn who had earlier invited him to Aleppo to supervise the reintroduction of Sunnism there and the reestablishment of the proper call to prayer after close to a century and a half of Shiʿi rule including the rule of the famous Twelver Shiʿi dynasties the Ḥamdānids (945–1004) and the ʿUqaylids (1080–1086) Even after the Seljuk Turks seized control of Aleppo in 1086 a sizeable majority of the population had remained Shiʿis Burhān al Dīns activities in Damascus attracted the attention of the citys Būrid rulers and led to his brief exile to a neighboring town But in due course Burhān alDīn participated in the negotiation of the military settlement between the Būrid governor of Damascus and Nūr alDīn when the latter besieged the city in the summer of 1151 Six years after the failed Frankish siege of Damascus the city fell to Nūr alDīn in 1154 unfortunately for Burhān alDīn he did not live to witness this event The Second Crusades attack was not the only reason that forced the

See Yaacov Lev The Jihad of Sultan Nur alDin of Syria (1146–1174) History and Dis course Studies in Arabic and Islam 35 (2008) 227–284 Ibn alQalānisī Dhayl Taʾrīkh Dimashq ed HF Amedroz ( Maṭbaʿat alĀbāʾ alYasūʿīyīn 1908) 316 idem The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades 309–310 and Ibn ʿAsākir Taʾrīkh 41340 On the Shiʿis in Aleppo at the time see Henri M Khayat The Šīʿite Rebellions in Aleppo in the 6th AH12th AD Century Rivista degli Studi Orientali 46 (1971) 167–195 See also Devin J Stewart The Maqāmāt of Aḥmad b Abī Bakr b Aḥmad alRāzī alḤanafī and the Ideology of the CounterCrusade in Twelfthcentury Syria Middle Eastern Literatures 112 (2008) 226 Ibn ʿAsākir Taʾrīkh 41340