. 



NOUREDDIN. 



NOUIIEDDIN. 



531 



VII. of France nd the Emperor Conrad: but of (be mighty 

 which they led from Kurope, only a miserable and dispirited 



tnt escaped the arrow* of the Scljuki Turk* in their inarch 



through Anatolia to Palestine; the project of retaking Edossa wa 

 abandoned as hopelec* ; the siege of Damascus, which wag attacked 

 by the crusading monarch* in conjunction with Italdwin III. of Jeru- 

 Jem [BALDWIN HI.], was foiled when on the eve of success by the 

 addrr** with which the minister of the Moslem priuco Modjir-ed-deen 

 fomented the mutual jealouiiee of the Christian leaders ; and this vast 

 armament, which if properly directed might hare overwhelmed the 

 riling power of Noureddin, only served by its failure to extend and 

 confirm it Resuming the offensive immediately after the departure 

 of the cruudcrs, he invaded the territory of Antioch, and in a pitched 

 battle (June 27, 1149} routed and Jew the prince Raymond, whose 

 bead was sent a* a trophy to the kalif at Baghdad ; and though ho 

 sustained a severe defeat in the following year from his an lent oppo- 

 nent JiMceline do Courtenay, who surprised his camp, this disgrace 

 was amply compensated by the captivity of that active leader, who 

 was soon after seized while hunting by a marauding party of Turko- 

 mans, and died in confinement, while the remaining dependencies of 

 Edewa, the fortresses of A in tab, Tellbuhrr, Ravendon, &c., fell almost 

 without reaUtance into the power of Noureddin, whose dominions 

 now included the whole of Northern Syria. Modjir-ed-deen was st.il! 

 the nominal ruler of Damascus and the southern portion, but the 

 government was entirely in the bands of liis vizier Moin-ed-deen 

 Anar, whose daughter Nourcddin had married ; and after the death 

 of this able minuter, the inhabitants, al.irmed at the capture of 

 Arcalou by Baldwin III. in 1153, and dreading an attack from the 

 Christians, voluntarily offered their allegiance to Noureddin (1154) as 

 the price of his protection; the weak Modjir-ed-deen resigned his 

 power, and sought an asylum at the court of the kalif of Baghdad, 

 which then seeuis to have been the usual retreat of deposed princes ; 

 while Noureddin, the circuit of whose realms now encompassed on 

 all side* by land the Latin territories in Palestine, and extended to 

 the frontiers of the Fatimite possessions in Egypt, fixed his capital 

 at Damascus, which he raist d from the ruinous state in which it had 

 been left by an earthquake, and adorned with mosques, fountains, 

 colleges, and hospitals. Several years of continual but varied warfare 

 against the Christians followed the union of all the Moslem power of 

 Syria under a single bead ; the sway of Noureddiu was from time to 

 time enlarged by acquisitions, not only from the enemies of Islam, 

 but from the sultan of Iconium and the minor Moslem princes of 

 Mesopotamia ; but a malady which attacked him in 1159, followed by 

 a false report of his death, might have occasioned a fatal reverse in 

 bU fortunes, but for the prudence of Ayoob (the father of the famous 

 S-'alah ed-deen, or Saladin), who controlled the impatience of his 

 brother Aoced-ed-deen SMrakoh to take advantage of the supposed 

 decease of their patron. The Greek Emperor Manuel Comncnua was 

 preparing at this time to attack Aleppo in concert with the Franks 

 of Antiucb ; but this new enemy was diverted by negociation, aud 

 by the release of 6000 (Jretk captive* ; and the only advantage reaped 

 by tho Christian* from this crisis was the capture of the fortress of 

 Al-Harem near Antioch. The death of Baldwin 111. in 1162 released 

 Noureddin from the ablest of his antagonists, his brother and sue- 

 ceator, Almaric, or Amaury, being far inferior to Baldwin both in 

 proeu and abilities ; the war however was prosecuted with unabated 

 vigour and various succec* : on one occuiou, at the siege of Uisu-al- 

 Akrad (the castle of the Koords), the Moslem leaguer was surprised by 

 the Templar*, sod their monarch himself escaped death or captivity 

 only by the self-devotion of an attendant ; but this discomfiture was 

 ptedily retrieved by a victory in which the famous Reginald de 

 Cbatillon, prince of Antioch, was taken prisoner, and which was 

 followed by the recapture of A 1 Harem. But the state of affairs in 

 Egypt, where the Fatimite kalifate was now tottering to its fall, 

 opened new view* of aggrandisement and a wider field of ambition to 

 both the Christian and Moslem rulers of Syria ; the descendants o 

 Ali had become puppets in the bands of their vizier, or Kinir-nl 

 Jojush (generaliaunio), who wielded all the real authority of the 

 sUte : to emirs, bargain and Sbawer, bad contested in arm* this 

 high dignity; and the latter, defeated and expelled from Egypt 

 sought refuge and aid from Notirrddin. The sovereign of l)ama*ou 

 eagerly embraced the opportunity of obtaining a footing in Egypt, 

 and despatched a force under Sblrakoh and his nephew Salab-ed-deen 

 to reinstate Shawer (1163); whose rival called in the Christians o 

 Palestine to hi* support : but ere Amaury could enter Egypt, bargain 

 bad been overpowered and slain by .shirakoh, who replaced Shawe 

 in hi* former power. But Shawer, faith lew alike to friend and foe, 

 now entered into arrangement* with the Pranks to elude the fulfil 

 ment of his engagements with Noureddin; anil Shirakoh, after 

 maintaining himself for tome time in Belbeis against the joint force* 

 of Jerusalem and Egypt, was compelled to enter into a convention 

 with Amaury and evacuate the country. But be was soon recalled by 

 Shawer to deliver him from tho vengeance of hi* new allies, to whom 

 he bad proved as perfidious as to those of his own faith ; Cairo was 

 closely besieged by tb* Frank*, and the Fatimite kalif Aded Lcdini'lla 

 sent the hair of bis women, the extreme symbol of Oriental distress, to 

 implore the succour of Noureddin (1168). Sblrakeh again enterei 

 Egypt with an army, forced Amaury to retreat, and after beheading 



IB double traitor Shawer, installed himself in the twofold office of 

 icier to the Fatimite kalif, and lieutenant of Egypt in the name of 

 foureddiu ; but dying the same year, was succeeded in his dignities 

 y bis famous nephew Salah-ed-deen. [SALAU-XD-DKKX.] 



While these event* were passing in Egypt, Noureddin in person 

 , ushed his successes in Syria against the ChrUtiaus, from whom ho 

 ook Paneas and many other important places. Mesopotamia, ruled 

 >y bis nephews, acknowledged his supremacy as hood of the family. 

 le was now, by his officers, absolute master of Egypt, and the fleets 

 f DamietU and Alexandria were directed against the sea-coast of the 

 ingdom of Jerusalem ; but a religious conquest was yet wanting to 

 omplete his triumph. As a rigid adherent of the orthodox or Sooni 

 sect of Islam, he reverenced the Abbaside kalif of Baghdad as the 

 egitimate commander of the faithful ; and tho schismatic kalifate of 

 be Fatimites, of which a phantom still remained secluded in the 

 jalace of Cairo, was an abomination which he determined to destroy, 

 n obedience to his repeated commands, Salah-ed-deen (A.D. 1171, 

 4.11. 567) substituted the name of the Abbasside kalif Mostadhi in the 

 mblio prayers for that of Aded, who died eleven d.iya aft r, in igno- 

 ance, it is said, of bis deposition ; the Sbeah heresy was for ever 

 ibrogated in Egypt, and Noureddin, as the champion of orthodoxy, 

 eceived from the gratitude of Mostadhi the direct investiture of 

 Jgypt and Syria as fiefs of the kalifate ; and he exchanged the title of 

 emir, or sahib, for the higher appellation of sultan, which the etiquette 

 of that age conceived to be attached to an immediate grant from the 

 lead of the Moslem faith. His name was recited with that of the 

 salif in all the mosques throughout his dominions, and even in the 

 loly cities of Mekka and Medina, which Tooran-shah, brother of 

 Salah-ed-deen, had reduced as dependencies of Egypt But the power 

 and glory of Noureddin bad now attained their highest pitch ; the 

 three remaining years of his life were unmarked by any memorable 

 achievement, and disquieted by forebodings of the future dowufal of 

 lis house by the ambition of Salah-ed-dreu, who, though still osten- 

 sibly acting as his lieutenant, and making public professions of loyalty 

 aud obedience, had in fact become independent master of Egypt, ami 

 elude 1 or disregarded all the orders of his nominal sovereign. The 

 reluctance of Salah-ed-deeu to join his forces with those of Noureddin 

 n an expedition which the former had planned against the fortress of 

 ICarak, or Mont-Royal, at length brought these smouldering jealousies 

 o the verge of an open rupture ; and Noureddin was preparing to 

 march into Egypt to reduce or expel his refractory vassal when an 

 attack of quinsey terminated bis life at Damascus, May 20, 1173 

 (Sbawal 21, 569). His son Malek-al-Salah Ismail, a youth eleven years 

 old, succeeded to the titular sovereignty of his extensive dominion*, 

 but waa speedily stripped by SaUh-ed-Deen of Damascus and the 

 greater part of Syria, and died eight years afterwards, reduced to tin- 

 sovereignty of Aleppo and its dependencies, which were then absorbed, 

 after an ineffectual attempt to claim them on the part of his couxins, 

 the atabeks of Moossool, into the wide-spread realm of Salah-ed-deen. 

 Noureddin is described by Abulfoda as tall and well-proportioned in 

 person, of olive complexion, and with little or no beard ; iu the esti- 

 mate of his character he has had the rare good fortune to unite tho 

 suffrages of his adversaries to those of his friends : William of Tyre 

 ('Ocsta Dei per Francos ') describes "Noradin" as "a prudent and 

 discreet man, who feared Uod according to the faith of bis people ; " 

 and the eulogies of the Moslem writers prove that the titles of Malek- 

 al-Adel ('the just prince') and Noor-ed-deen ('light of the faith') 

 were not idle or groundless assumptions. Abull'eda sums up his 

 character by declaring tliat his virtues were both too numerous and 

 too splendid to be comprehended within the limits of his history ; 

 and the sentence of future age*, which has placed bim among the 

 number of the Moslem saints, has ratified tho judgment of his 

 contemporaries. 



(Abulfeda; Abut Karaj; De Ouigncs, Jfistoirt da Hunt; D'Herbelot, 

 BMioth. Orient. ; Von Hammer, Jlutory of the Asiatriru.) 



NOURKDD1N (.MAI.EK-AL-AFDAL NOOR-KD-DEKN ALI), the eldest 

 of the seventeen sons of Ualah-ed-dcen ; born A.I>. 1170 (A.II. 565). In 

 the partition of his father's extensive dominions, which followed his 

 death in llti:i, Damascus and Southern Syria, with Palestine, fell to 

 the lot of Noureddiii ; but in the dissensions which soon followed he 

 was stripped of his kingdom by his uncle Seif-od-deen Abubekr (the 

 Suphadiu of Christian writers), and his brother Othinan, sultan of 

 Egypt (1196). In a poetical address to the Kalif Nasser, he lamented 

 the similarity of his own fate to that of the Kalif ' Ali ' Kbn Abu- 

 Taleb (bis namesake), in being thus excluded from his rights by 

 'Abubekr' and 'Otlmian;' tho kalif iu his reply consoled him by the 

 assurance that in him he should find tho 'naaser' (protector) whom 

 Ali hod sought in vain ; but tho interoeieion of the kalif was unavail- 

 ing to procure the restitution of any part of bis territories; in 1193 

 however, on the death of hi* brother, the sultan of Egypt, Noureddin 

 became ' atabek,' or guardian, to his infant nephew Mnlek al-Mansor, 

 and attempted, by the aid of another brother, the sultan of Aleppo, 

 to recover Damascus from hia uncle ; but the expedition failed, and 

 Seif-ed-deen retaliated by invading Egypt, and expelled both the young 

 sultan and bis guardian. The unfortunate Noureddin now retired to 

 Saiuoaata, where he died, apparently without issue, AD. 1224 (A.U. 621). 

 He is generally mentioned by Eastern writers under his assumed title 

 of Malek al-Afdal (' the excellent prince '). 



