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83-454: It is unclear why the word "Agha" was used to refer to the servants since the word exists in many languages and has slightly different meanings in each of those languages: The first Aghawat are noted during the middle ages, described as enslaved eunuchs of non-Muslim Indian, Byzantine (Greek) and African heritage, are noted as the guards of the grave of Prophet Muhammed in Medina. Traditionally

166-659: A few Muslims outside the Antioch city itself. Most of the crusaders who settled there were of Norman origin, notably from the Norman Kingdom of southern Italy , as were the first rulers of the principality, who surrounded themselves with loyal subjects. Few of the inhabitants apart from the crusaders were Roman Catholic even though the city was under the jurisdiction of the Latin Patriarchate of Antioch , established in 1100. This patriarchate would endure as

249-556: A joint campaign as John led the armies of Byzantium, Antioch and Edessa against Muslim Syria. Aleppo proved too strong to attack, but the fortresses of Balat, Biza'a , Athereb , Maarat al-Numan and Kafartab were taken by assault. Although John fought hard for the Christian cause in the campaign in Syria, his allies, Prince Raymond of Poitiers and Count Joscelin II of Edessa, sat around playing dice instead of helping John to press

332-552: A marriage between the Prince of Antioch and his daughter, Alice. In 1127, a dispute between Bohemond and Joscelin of Courtenay led to Joscelin conducting raids in the Principality. In 1130, a succession crisis followed Bohemond II's death, signifying the end of Antioch's dominance of northern Syria. In 1254 Bohemond VI married Sibylla of Armenia , ending the power struggle between the two states, although by this point Armenia

415-466: A pilgrimage to Mecca . Soon after he returned, he learned of the death of King Baldwin III of Jerusalem , and out of respect for such a formidable opponent he refrained from attacking the crusader kingdom: William of Tyre reports that Nur ad-Din said "We should sympathize with their grief and in pity spare them, because they have lost a prince such as the rest of the world does not possess today." As there

498-534: A result of his justice, a Christian foreigner was said to have settled into Damascus, which was under Nur ad-Din's reign. Nur ad-Din was especially religious after his illness and his pilgrimage . He considered the crusaders foreigners in Muslim territory, who had come to Outremer to plunder the land and profane its sacred places. Nevertheless, he tolerated the Christians who lived under his authority, aside from

581-639: A rival from 1216 to 1219. Bohemond died in 1233, and Antioch, ruled by his son Bohemond V , played no important role in the Fifth Crusade , Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II 's struggles to take back Jerusalem in the Sixth Crusade , or Louis IX of France 's Seventh Crusade . The Principality's relationship with other Latin settlements were based on two factors. The first factor was that the Princes of Antioch wanted to extend their power throughout

664-645: A titular one after the Crusades, until it was dropped in 1964. The city of Antioch had been a major Byzantine stronghold in the area under the control of a dux before falling to the Seljuk Turks in 1084. Therefore, it was one of the cities the army of the First Crusade aimed to liberate on its way to Jerusalem. While Baldwin of Boulogne headed east from Asia Minor to set up the County of Edessa ,

747-616: A week so that people could seek justice from him against his generals, governors, or other employees who had committed some crime. Nur ad-Din's Sunni orthodoxy can be seen in his public works. His repair of the Roman aqueduct in Aleppo insinuated an anti-Shia polemic, and the conversion of two Shia mosques into madrasas, one Shafi'i another Hanafi , reinforce his insistence of promoting Sunni Islam. Consequently, in November 1148, he forbade

830-728: Is contrary to Islam. King Fahad accepted the advice of Ibn Baz, and the Aghawat system was ended. In 1990 seventeen eunuchs remained. Nur al-Din Zengi Nūr al-Dīn Maḥmūd Zengī ( نور الدين محمود زنگي ; February 1118 – 15 May 1174), commonly known as Nur ad-Din (lit. 'Light of the Faith' in Arabic), was a Turkoman member of the Zengid dynasty, who ruled the Syrian province ( Shām ) of

913-477: Is possible Peter planted it there himself (the papal legate Adhemar of Le Puy believed this to be the case), it raised the spirits of the Crusaders as well as of the local Armenians and Greeks. With the relic at the head of the army, Bohemond marched out to meet the besieging Muslim force, which was defeated in the battle of Antioch in 1098. According to the Crusaders, an army of saints appeared to help them on

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996-681: The Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus arrived to assert his authority in Antioch, and the crusaders hoped he would send an expedition against Aleppo. However, Nur ad-Din sent ambassadors and negotiated an alliance with the emperor against the Seljuks, much to the crusaders' dismay. Nur ad-Din, along with the Danishmends of eastern Anatolia , attacked the Seljuk sultan Kilij Arslan II from

1079-588: The County of Edessa ; when Baldwin and Joscelin were captured, Tancred became regent in Edessa as well. Bohemond left Tancred as regent once more and returned to Italy, where he died in 1111. Alexius wanted Tancred to return the Principality in its entirety to Byzantium, but Tancred was supported by the County of Tripoli and the Kingdom of Jerusalem . Tancred, in fact, had been the only Crusade leader who did not swear to return conquered land to Alexius (though none of

1162-399: The Kingdom of Jerusalem against Zengi, had entered into an alliance with Nur ad-Din, the Crusaders decided to attack Damascus, the conquest of which would preclude a combination of Jerusalem's enemies. Mu'in ad-Din threatened to turn the city over to Nur ad-Din if he was unable to defend it, but the crusader siege collapsed after only four days. Nur ad-Din took advantage of the failure of

1245-920: The Seljuk Empire . He reigned from 1146 to 1174. He is regarded as an important figure of the Second Crusade . Nur ad-Din was the second son of Imad al-Din Zengi , the Turkmen atabeg of Aleppo and Mosul , who was a devoted enemy of the crusader presence in Syria . After the assassination of his father in 1146, Nur ad-Din and his older brother Saif ad-Din Ghazi I divided the kingdom between themselves, with Nur ad-Din governing Aleppo and Saif ad-Din Ghazi establishing himself in Mosul . The border between

1328-591: The Seljuk Turks in 1176), it also safeguarded the City against Nur ad-Din at a time when it was in serious danger of being overrun. Raynald was taken prisoner by the Muslims in 1160, and the regency fell to the Patriarch of Antioch (Raynald was not released until 1176, and never returned to Antioch). Meanwhile, Manuel married Constance's daughter Maria , but as Constance was only nominally in charge of Antioch, she

1411-556: The Siege of Shaizar . The city was taken, but the citadel defied assault. The Emir of Shaizar offered to pay a large indemnity, become John's vassal, and pay yearly tribute; the offer was reluctantly accepted by the emperor. On the return of the army to Antioch, a riot instigated by Joscelin II of Edessa forced the emperor to leave without the citadel being surrendered to him. John had plans to reconquer Antioch and become an effective overlord of

1494-811: The Syrian Civil War in Aleppo since 2011, is named after Nur ad-Din. in Turkish drama Kudüs Fatihi Selahaddin Eyyubi . role played by turkish Mehmet Ali Nuroğlu Principality of Antioch The Principality of Antioch ( Latin : Principatus Antiochenus ; Norman : Princeté de Antioch ) was one of the Crusader states created during the First Crusade which included parts of Anatolia (modern-day Turkey ) and Syria . The principality

1577-582: The 20th-century, and Slavery in Saudi Arabia was abolished in 1962. In 1979, the last Agha was appointed. Around that time, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia , Ibn Baz , received information that the Aghawat were often castrated by their parents to have them serve in the holy mosques. Ibn Baz advised King Fahad bin Abdulaziz to halt the recruitment of more Aghawat, stating that castrating children

1660-621: The Arab states of the Levant. However, near the end of his life, especially after the death of Saladin's father Najm al-Din Ayyub , Nur ad-Din believed he could no longer trust anyone in Saladin's court to maintain the young ruler's fealty to him. Nur ad-Din began preparations to invade Egypt and depose Saladin, but he was seized by a fever due to complications from a peritonsillar abscess . He died at

1743-496: The Armenians of Edessa, and regarded Emperor Manuel with deep respect. In contrast to Nur ad-Din's respectful reaction to the death of Baldwin III, Amalric I immediately besieged Banias upon learning of the emir's death, and extorted a vast amount of money from his widow. During Nur ad-Din's reign, forty-two madrasas were built in Syria, of which half he personally sponsored. Through the construction of these madrasas Nur ad-Din

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1826-583: The Byzantines in 1107. Bohemond was defeated at Dyrrhachium in 1108 and was forced by Alexius I to sign the Treaty of Devol , making Antioch a vassal state of the Byzantine Empire upon Bohemond's death. Bohemond had promised to return any land that was seized from the Muslims when the Crusaders passed through Constantinople in 1097. Bohemond also fought at Aleppo with Baldwin and Joscelin of

1909-540: The Byzantines, this time in Cyprus ; he made peace with Manuel I Comnenus in 1158, and the next year Manuel arrived to take personal control of the Principality. From thence the Principality of Antioch was to be a vassal of Byzantium until Manuel's death in 1180. Although this arrangement meant that the Principality had to provide a contingent for the Byzantine Army (troops from Antioch participated in an attack on

1992-641: The Crusade to prepare another attack against Antioch. In 1149, he launched an offensive against the territories dominated by the castle of Harim, situated on the eastern bank of the Orontes , after which he besieged the castle of Inab . The Prince of Antioch, Raymond of Poitiers , quickly came to the aid of the besieged citadel. The Muslim army destroyed the Crusader army at the Battle of Inab , during which Raymond

2075-485: The Crusader force, who were often forced to eat their horses, or, as legend has it, the bodies of fellow Christians who had not survived. There were several attempts by neighbouring Turkish chiefs to relieve the town, but these were beaten back such as during the Battle of the Lake of Antioch under the military leadership of Bohemond of Taranto . In May 1098 another relief force under Kerbogha , atabeg of Mosul, approached

2158-433: The Crusader states leaderless. However, he refused to attack Antioch itself, fearing reprisals from the Byzantines. Instead he besieged and captured Banias, and for the next two years continually raided the frontiers of the crusader states. In 1166, Nur ad-Din's Kurdish general Shirkuh was sent again to Egypt. Amalric followed him at the beginning of 1167, and a formal treaty was established between Amalric and Shawar, with

2241-653: The Latin Christian residents of Turbessel . In 1152, Nur ad-Din captured and burned Tortosa , briefly occupying the town. It was Nur ad-Din's dream to unite the various Muslim forces between the Euphrates and the Nile to make a common front against the crusaders. In 1149 Saif ad-Din Ghazi died, and a younger brother, Qutb ad-Din Mawdud , succeeded him. Qutb ad-Din recognized Nur ad-Din as overlord of Mosul, so that

2324-589: The Latin clerics as bishops in Antioch, including the County of Edessa. Bohemon I and Baldwin of Le Bourcq also had a close relationship – Baldwin was made commander of Antioch's militia by Bohemond in 1100. A whole network of confraternities existed at this time. However, there were uneasy relations between the Principality and the region of Tripoli under Raymond, Count of Toulouse. Raymond allied with Emperor Alexius I Commnenus instead of Bohemond. In 1105, Bohemond left

2407-652: The Latin east which led to conflict between the County of Edessa and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Secondly, an alliance between the Latin rulers was secured through their shared situation in the East. This alliance was strengthened by feudal ties and marriage alliances among the eastern Latin rulers. Baldwin of Boulogne, Count of Edessa, and Bohemond I were said to have had a relationship based on equality and brotherhood. For example, they travelled to Jerusalem in 1099 to consolidate their pilgrimage vows together. They also consecrated

2490-540: The Principality was inherited by his young daughter Constance ; Baldwin II acted as regent again until his death in 1131, when Fulk of Jerusalem took power. In 1136, Constance, still only 8 years old, married Raymond of Poitiers , who was 36. Raymond, like his predecessors, attacked the Byzantine province of Cilicia . This time, however, Emperor John II Komnenos fought back. He arrived in Antioch in 1138 and forced Raymond to swear fealty to him. There then followed

2573-536: The Shia call to prayer in Aleppo and any public displays of Shi'ism . In the Muslim world he remains a legendary figure of military courage, piety, and modesty. Sir Steven Runciman said that he loved, above all else, justice. The Damascene chronicler Ibn al-Qalanisi generally speaks of Nur ad-Din in majestic terms, although he himself died in 1160, and did not witness the later events of Nur ad-Din's reign. The Islamist group Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zenki , active in

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2656-574: The age of 56 on 15 May 1174 in the Citadel of Damascus . He was initially buried there, before being reburied in the Nur al-Din Madrasa . His young son As-Salih Ismail al-Malik became his legitimate heir, and Saladin declared himself his vassal, maintaining the de jure unity of Syria and Egypt under As-Salih's rule. When As-Salih died suddenly at the age of eighteen, Saladin defeated the other claimants to

2739-437: The battlefield. After this victory a lengthy dispute over who should control the city followed. Bohemond stated that the oath sworn to Alexios was nullified by Alexios' failure to bring them aid. He was resisted by count Raymond of Toulouse , who maintained that the city should be returned to Alexios and who would later found the County of Tripoli . Bohemond and his Italian Norman followers eventually won, not least because of

2822-554: The beginning of 1169, Shirkuh arrived and the crusaders once more were forced to retreat. This time Nur ad-Din's commander gained full control of Egypt. Shawar was executed and Shirkuh was named vizier of the newly conquered territory. Shirkuh died later that year and was succeeded by his nephew Saladin. One last invasion of Egypt was launched by Amalric and Manuel, but it was disorganized and came to nothing. Saladin continued to swear nominal fealty to Nur ad-Din until his death in 1174, but their relationship became increasingly tense. Saladin

2905-493: The borders of the Principality, seizing the cities of Tarsus and Latakia from the Byzantine Empire . However those newly captured cities along with other territory were lost after the Battle of Harran when Baldwin II of Edessa was captured. Bohemond was released in 1103 and went to Italy to raise more troops in 1104, during which time Tancred remained regent of Antioch. Bohemond used the troops he raised to attack

2988-666: The cities and town of the principality. This led among other things to the spread of the veneration of Mor Barsauma to whom a church was erected in 1156 by a couple of Frankish donors. The first prior was a monk of the Mor Bar Sauma Monastery with which the church maintained close ties. Furthermore, there were also Muslims in the capital, in the south, and probably also the east of the principality. They appear only rarely in Antiochene charters, making an estimation of their numbers difficult. Other minorities were

3071-543: The cities of Bosra and Salkhad , which had been captured by a rebellious vassal of Mu'in ad-Din named Altuntash, but Mu'in ad-Din was always suspicious of Nur ad-Din's intentions and did not want to offend his former crusader allies in Jerusalem , who had helped defend Damascus against Zengi. To reassure Mu'in ad-Din, Nur ad-Din curtailed his stay in Damascus and turned instead towards the Principality of Antioch, where he

3154-435: The city and thus it became important for the crusaders to act fast. Bohemond convinced a guard in one of the towers, an Armenian and former Christian named Firouz , to let the Crusaders enter the city on 2 June 1098. Only four days later, a Muslim army from Mosul, led by Kerbogha, arrived to besiege the Crusaders. Alexios I Komnenos , the Byzantine emperor , was on his way to assist the Crusaders, but upon hearing rumours that

3237-649: The city had fallen to the Muslims, Alexios turned back. The Crusaders withstood the siege, with help from a mystic named Peter Bartholomew . Peter claimed he had been visited by Andrew the Apostle , who told him that the Holy Lance that pierced Christ's side as he was on the cross was located in the city. Excavations took place in the Basilica of Saint Peter and the Lance was discovered by Peter himself. Although it

3320-466: The city, which in any case soon fell under the suzerainty of the Byzantine Empire . In 1150, he defeated Joscelin II for a final time, after allying with the Seljuk Sultan of Rüm , Mas'ud (whose daughter he also married). Joscelin was blinded and died in his prison in Aleppo in 1159. In the Battle of Aintab , Nur ad-Din tried but failed to prevent King Baldwin III of Jerusalem 's evacuation of

3403-542: The city. Damascus was annexed to Zengid territory, and all of Syria was unified under the authority of Nur ad-Din, from Edessa in the north to the Hauran in the south. Nur ad-Din was generous in his victory, and allowed Abaq to flee with his property, later granting him fiefdoms in the vicinity of Homs . He was cautious not to attack Jerusalem right away, and even continued to send the yearly tribute established by Mujir ad-Din; meanwhile he briefly became involved in affairs to

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3486-627: The conquests of Muslim Syria, taking together the city of Aleppo , and later Damascus . When the Mongols were defeated at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, Baibars , the Mamluk sultan of Egypt, began to threaten Antioch, which (as a vassal of the Armenians) had supported the Mongols. Baibars finally took the city in 1268, and all of northern Syria was quickly lost; twenty-three years later, Acre

3569-556: The death of Adhemar of Le Puy, who had been the spiritual leader of the crusade and had been determined to cooperate with the Byzantines. Bohemond was already Prince ( allodial lord) of Taranto in Italy. He desired to continue such independence in his new lordship, so he did not attempt to receive the title of Duke from the Byzantine Emperor, nor any other title with deep feudal obligations. Bohemond started immediately after

3652-419: The death of the Emperor Manuel in 1180. Antioch was deprived of the Empire's protection, which had been enough to frighten Nur ad-Din away from intervening in the area for the preceding twenty years. Nevertheless, with help from the fleets of the Italian city-states, Antioch survived Saladin 's assault on the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1187. Neither Antioch nor Tripoli participated in the Third Crusade , although

3735-407: The early 20th-century for service in harem as well as in the corps of mostly African eunuchs who guarded the Prophet Muhammad’s tomb in Medina and the Kaʿba in Mecca. Most slaves trafficked to Hijaz came there via the Red Sea slave trade . Small African boys were castrated before they were trafficked to the Hijaz, where they were bought at the slave market by the Chief Agha to become eunuch novices. It

3818-411: The east and he placed his nephew, Tancred, in charge of Antioch. In 1108, Bohemond also put Richard of Salerno in charge of Edessa, but Tancred was reluctant to hand it over because Tancred and Baldwin were fighting each other for possession of Edessa at the time. Tancred's resistance continued into 1109. At the same time, a conflict between Antioch and the Count of Tripoli, William-Jordan, was settled when

3901-400: The east the next year, while Manuel attacked from the west. Later in 1160, Nur ad-Din captured the Prince of Antioch, Raynald of Châtillon after a raid in the Anti-Taurus mountains; Raynald remained in captivity for the next sixteen years. By 1162, with Antioch under nominal Byzantine control and the crusader states further south powerless to make any further attacks on Syria, Nur ad-Din made

3984-438: The harbour town of Latakia which was under Byzantine possession, but he had to leave after Raymond and the other crusading lords, who had in the meantime conquered Jerusalem , forced him to. In December 1099 Bohemond travelled to Jerusalem and had three priests consecrated as bishops for his principality. Following Bohemond's capture in battle with the Danishmends in 1100, his nephew Tancred became regent. Tancred expanded

4067-402: The history of the Aghawat dates back to the time of Nur al-Din Zengi (commonly known as Nur ad-Din), one of the rulers of the Zengid dynasty, in the year 1161. He is stated to have brought them as servants and protectors to Madinah after the Crusaders attempted to invade the Prophet Muhammad's tomb in Madinah. Nur ad-Din sent the first Aghawat in history, who were 12 eunuch males, and established

4150-525: The latter agreed to surrender Tripoli in exchange for confirmation of his possession of Toulouse. Bertrand of Toulouse then entered an alliance with Baldwin I of Jerusalem. In 1110, a council convened after William-Jordan was killed. After this, Antioch and Edessa appear to have reconciled. In 1111 when the Muslim army of Maudud of Mosul threatened the Principality, its Latin allies responded by bringing military aid. In 1112, Bertrand of Toulouse died and Roger Salerno took over Edessa. During this period, there

4233-584: The local Armenian Christian population of the city and destroyed its fortifications, in punishment for assisting Joscelin in this attempt. The women and children of Edessa were enslaved. Nur ad-Din sought to make alliances with his Muslim neighbours in northern Iraq and Syria in order to strengthen the Muslim front against their Crusader enemies. In 1147, he signed a bilateral treaty with Mu'in ad-Din Unur , governor of Damascus . As part of this agreement, he also married Mu'in ad-Din's daughter Ismat ad-Din Khatun . Together Mu'in ad-Din and Nur ad-Din besieged

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4316-425: The main army of the First Crusade continued south to besiege Antioch in late October 1097. The army consisted of various leaders who had sworn to return all territory that had belonged to the Byzantine Empire as well as a Byzantine contingent under the command of the general Tatikios . With over four hundred towers, the city's defenses were formidable. The siege lasted throughout the winter, with much attrition among

4399-402: The main conditions for their selection. These conditions included: After Nur ad-Din's passing, Salah ad-Din Al-Ayubi (commonly known as Saladin) organized the Aghawat and established a system in which their salaries and duties were specified. There are different narratives regarding how Aghawat became eunuchs: Eunuchs were an active component in the slave market of the Islamic world until

4482-478: The major cities of Mosul and Aleppo were united under one man. Damascus was all that remained as an obstacle to the unification of Syria. After the failure of the Second Crusade, Mu'in ad-Din had renewed his treaty with the crusaders, and after his death in 1149, his successor Mujir ad-Din Abaq followed the same policy. In 1150 and 1151, Nur ad-Din besieged the city, but retreated each time with no success, aside from empty recognition of his suzerainty. When Ascalon

4565-469: The nominal support of the caliph. The crusaders occupied Alexandria and Cairo and made Egypt a tributary state, but due to the unpopularity of the Egyptian alliance with the Crusaders, Shirkuh managed to take Alexandria without bloodshed. The Crusaders besieged Alexandria and famine set in quickly due to the city's limited stores of food. Shirkuh organized a sortie and broke through the enemy lines, leaving command of Alexandria to his nephew, Saladin . In

4648-424: The north of Mosul, where a succession dispute in the Sultanate of Rum threatened Edessa and other cities. In 1157, Nur ad-Din besieged the Knights Hospitaller in the crusader fortress of Banias , routed a relief army from Jerusalem led by King Baldwin III , and captured Grand Master Bertrand de Blanquefort . However, he fell ill that year and the crusaders were given a brief respite from his attacks. In 1159,

4731-563: The other leaders, save for Raymond IV of Toulouse , kept their oaths anyway). Tancred died in 1112 and was succeeded by Bohemond II , under the regency of Tancred's nephew Roger of Salerno , who defeated a Seljuk attack in 1113. On June 27, 1119, Roger was killed at the Ager Sanguinis (the Field of Blood), and Antioch became a vassal state of Jerusalem with King Baldwin II as regent until 1126 (although Baldwin spent much of this time in captivity in Aleppo). Bohemond II, who married Baldwin's daughter Alice , ruled for only four years, and

4814-457: The remaining Crusader states, but he died in 1143. After the fall of Edessa in 1144, Antioch was attacked by Nur ad-Din during the Second Crusade . Much of the eastern part of the Principality was lost, and Raymond was killed at the battle of Inab in 1149. Baldwin III of Jerusalem was technically regent for Raymond's widow Constance until 1153 when she married Raynald of Châtillon . Raynald, too, immediately found himself in conflict with

4897-577: The remnants of Frederick Barbarossa 's army briefly stopped in Antioch in 1190 to bury their king. Bohemond III's son, also named Bohemond, had become count of Tripoli after the Battle of Hattin , and Bohemond III's eldest son Raymond married an Armenian princess in 1194. Bohemond III died in 1201. Bohemond's death resulted in a struggle for control between Antioch, represented by Bohemond of Tripoli , and Armenia, represented by Bohemond III's grandson Raymond-Roupen . Bohemond of Tripoli, as Bohemond IV, took control by 1207, but Raymond briefly ruled as

4980-419: The rich evidence available, it has even been proposed that they were the most numerous ethnic group. Also important were the so-called suriani , who actually comprised two Christian peoples: the Aramaic -speaking Syriacs (also called "Jacobites") and the Arabic -speaking Melkites . When the county of Edessa fell in 1144 and the region around Melitene became increasingly unsafe, many Jacobites sought refuge in

5063-598: The same year, Nur ad-Din raided the County of Tripoli , in which he temporarily captured Areimeh Castle , Chastel Blanc and Gibelacar , exploiting the captivity of Raymond III . Ultimately, Amalric could not hold Egypt while Nur ad-Din still held Syria, and he was forced to return to Jerusalem. The siege of Alexandria was lifted, and Shirkuh's forces withdrew from Egypt as well. In 1168, Amalric sought an alliance with Emperor Manuel and invaded Egypt once more. Shawar's son Khalil had had enough, and with support from Caliph al-Adid requested help from Nur ad-Din and Shirkuh. At

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5146-451: The throne and took power in Syria in 1185, uniting Syria and Egypt not just in name, as they were during Nur ad-Din's reign, but in fact. According to William of Tyre , although Nur ad-Din was "a mighty persecutor of the Christian name and faith," he was also "a just prince, valiant and wise, and according to the traditions of his race, a religious man." His sense of justice was never denied to anyone, regardless of their creed or origins. As

5229-401: The time of Nur ad-Din, there were 12 Aghawat; during the era of Saladin, there were 24, and the count fluctuated over time. It reached a peak of 120 Aghawat in the year 1763 in Medina under Ottoman rule. In 2014, there were 8 Aghawat in Medina. In 2021, the number has decreased to 3 Aghawat in Medina and the same number in Mecca. The Red Sea slave trade became gradually more supressed during

5312-411: The two new kingdoms was formed by the Khabur River . Almost as soon as he began his rule, Nur ad-Din attacked the Principality of Antioch , seizing several castles in the north of Syria, while at the same time he defeated an attempt by Joscelin II to recover the County of Edessa , which had been conquered by Zengi in 1144. In 1146, after the Frankish attempt to reoccupy Edessa , Nur ad-Din massacred

5395-421: The victory against Kherboga to secure and expand his principality. In August 1098 he crossed the Amanus Mountains to Cilicia to take control of the towns his nephew Tancred had captured in the previous summer. After the main crusade army left for Jerusalem in 1099, he took full control of Antioch as well as of the surrounding places such as Artah and the harbour of St. Symeon . Bohemond then attempted to take

5478-493: The wonderful elegance of the beauty of those that were destroyed by fire is beyond the power of words." The empty title of "Prince of Antioch" passed, with the extinction of the counts of Tripoli, to the kings of Cyprus , and was sometimes granted as a dignity to junior members of the royal house. The native population of the principality was rather diverse. A significant proportion were Miaphysite Armenians , who could be found in Antioch and other urban and rural areas. Based on

5561-416: Was a better relationship between Antioch and Edessa as well as with the Kingdom of Jerusalem. For example, in 1115 in the lead-up to the battle of Tell Danith , the Edessene faction of the army was integral to Antioch's overall army. In 1118 the forces of Jerusalem, Antioch and Tripoli combined to meet an army from Egypt and Damascus that was threatening the Kingdom of Jerusalem. But in 1119 Roger of Salerno

5644-423: Was able to seize Artah , Kafar Latha , Basarfut , and Bara . In 1148, the Second Crusade arrived in Syria, led by Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany . Nur ad-Din's victories and the Crusaders' losses in Asia Minor however had made the recovery of Edessa – their original goal – practically impossible. Given that Aleppo was too far off from Jerusalem for an attack and Damascus, recently allied with

5727-433: Was bound by friendship and obligation to the Caliph al-Adid . Nonetheless, Saladin capitulated to Nur ad-Din and the Fatimid Caliphate was abolished in 1171. During this time Nur ad-Din was busy in the north, fighting the Artuqids , and in 1170 he had to settle a dispute between his nephews when his brother Qutb ad-Din died. With Egypt conquered in his name, Nur ad-Din believed that he had accomplished his goal of uniting

5810-399: Was captured by the crusaders in 1153, Mujir ad-Din forbade Nur ad-Din from travelling across his territory. Mujir ad-Din, however, was a weaker ruler than his predecessor, and he also agreed to pay an annual tribute to the crusaders in exchange for their protection. The growing weakness of Damascus under Mujir ad-Din allowed Nur ad-Din to overthrow him in 1154, with help from the population of

5893-421: Was deposed in 1163 and replaced by her son Bohemond III . Bohemond was taken captive by Nur ad-Din the following year at the Battle of Harim , and the Orontes River became the permanent boundary between Antioch and Aleppo. Bohemond returned to Antioch in 1165, and married one of Manuel's nieces; he was also convinced to install a Greek Orthodox patriarch in the city. The Byzantine alliance came to an end with

5976-521: Was ensuring the creation of Sunni Islamic qadis and imams . Nur ad-Din himself enjoyed having specialists read to him from the Hadith, and his professors even awarded him a diploma in Hadith narration. He had bimaristans (hospitals) constructed in his cities as well, one of them is Nur al-Din Bimaristan and built caravanserais on the roads for travelers and pilgrims. He held court several times

6059-469: Was killed, leaving no adult heir. This shifted the balance of power in northern Syria, as Baldwin II, King of Jerusalem, was appointed Regent. At this time, Joscelin of Courtenay enjoyed a stable rule in Edessa, further weakening Antioch's dominance in Northern Syria. In 1126, Bohemond II arrived in the east and because Baldwin wanted Antioch and Jerusalem to maintain a close relationship, he arranged

6142-586: Was killed, moreover, Raymond's head was sent to Nur ad-Din, who sent it along to the Caliph Al-Muqtafi in Baghdad . Nur ad-Din marched all the way to the coast and expressed his dominance of Syria by symbolically bathing in the Mediterranean . He did not, however, attack Antioch itself; he was content with capturing all Antiochene territory east of the Orontes and leaving a rump state around

6225-431: Was much smaller than the County of Edessa or the Kingdom of Jerusalem . It extended around the northeastern edge of the Mediterranean , bordering the County of Tripoli to the south, Edessa to the east, and the Byzantine Empire or the Kingdom of Armenia to the northwest, depending on the date. It had roughly 20,000 inhabitants in the 12th century, most of whom were Armenians and Greek Orthodox Christians, with

6308-572: Was noted that boys from Africa were still openly bought to become eunuch novices to serve at Medina in 1895. In Medina there was a part of town named Harat al-Aghawat (Neighborhood of the Aghas). The Aghawat in Medina hold the keys to the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad and the keys to the pulpit in the holy mosque. They are assigned up to 40 tasks and duties, including: Throughout history, the number of Aghawat has not remained constant. During

6391-406: Was now nothing the crusaders could do in Syria, they were forced to look to the south if they wanted to expand their territory. The capture of Ascalon had already succeeded in cutting off Egypt from Syria, and Egypt had been politically weakened by a series of very young Fatimid caliphs . By 1163, the caliph was the young al-Adid , but the country was ruled by the vizier Shawar . That year, Shawar

6474-574: Was overthrown by Dirgham ; soon afterwards, the King of Jerusalem , Amalric I , led an offensive against Egypt, on the pretext that the Fatimids were not paying the tribute they had promised to pay during the reign of Baldwin III. This campaign failed and he was forced to return to Jerusalem , but it provoked Nur ad-Din to lead a campaign of his own against the crusaders in Syria in order to turn their attention away from Egypt. Nur ad-Din's attack on Tripoli

6557-605: Was reluctant to join forces with Nur ad-Din against Crusader armies or holdings, withdrawing his own armies on several occasions when Nur ad-Din's forces arrived to assist him. Nur ad-Din's insistence that Saladin abolish the Shia Caliphate further raised tensions between them. Saladin was reluctant to do so because the authority of the Caliphate in Egypt was a source of legitimacy for his rule. He feared popular backlash, and

6640-495: Was restored as vizier. Shawar immediately expelled Shirkuh and allied with Amalric, who arrived to besiege Shirkuh at Bilbeis . Shirkuh agreed to abandon Egypt when Amalric was forced to return home, after Nur ad-Din attacked Antioch and besieged the castle of Harenc . There, Nur ad-Din routed the combined armies of Antioch and Tripoli and captured most of the Crusader armies' leadership, including Raymond III , Joscelin III and Bohemond III , leaving three major principalities of

6723-488: Was taken, and the Crusader states ceased to exist. In the colophons of the Malatia Gospel of 1268 (MS No. 10675), Armenian manuscript illuminator Toros Roslin described the brutal sacking of Antioch by Baibars: "...at this time great Antioch was captured by the wicked king of Egypt, and many were killed and became his prisoners, and a cause of anguish to the holy and famous temples, houses of God, which are in it;

6806-637: Was the more powerful of the two and Antioch was essentially a vassal state. Both were swept up by the conflict between the Mameluks and the Mongols . In 1260, under the influence of his father-in-law, the Armenian king Hetoum I , Bohemond VI submitted to the Mongols under Hulagu , making Antioch a tributary state of the Mongol Empire . Bohemond and Hetoum fought on the side of the Mongols during

6889-425: Was unsuccessful, but he was soon visited by the exiled Shawar, who begged him to send an army and restore him to the vizierate. Nur ad-Din did not want to spare his own army for a defense of Egypt, but his Kurdish general Shirkuh was given permission to invade in 1164. In response, Dirgham allied with Amalric, but the king could not mobilize in time to save him. Dirgham was killed during Shirkuh's invasion and Shawar

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