Keywords
Nur al-Din, reputation, crusades, Muslim resistance
Abstract
Though Saladin typically dominates discussion on Muslim resistance to the European Crusades, historian Carole Hillenbrand has noted that it was not Saladin but Nur al-Din Abu al-Qasim Mahmud Ibn 'lmad al-Din Zangi, hereafter Nur al-Din, who had a "reputation ... most glorious in the succeeding centuries in the Islamic world" Writing in the thirteenth century, Abu Shama noted that Saladin "modeled himself on all Nur al-Din's qualities of piety, chastity, decency, nobility and statecraft." The great Arab historian 'Ali 'izz al-Din lbn alAthir al-Jazari lbn al-Athir, known as lbn al-Athir, stated that his epitaph for Nur al-Din is written "in the hope that men in authority will read it and take him for their model." This paper explores how Nur al-Din gained such a reputation.
Recommended Citation
Mecham, Drew
(2008)
"Nur al-Din: al-Malik al-'Adil,"
The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing: Vol. 37:
Iss.
1, Article 9.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/thetean/vol37/iss1/9
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