Mu'in ad-Din Unur

Mu'in ad-Din Unur
Mu'in ad-Din Unur
Co-Ruler of Damascus
	In office; 1140–1149 ; (co-rule with Mujir ad-Din)
Personal details
Died	August 28, 1149
Children	Ismat ad-Din

Mu'in ad-Din Unur (

Burid

emirs.

Origins

Mu'in ad-Din was originally a

Isfahsalar. Later in 1138, Zengi negotiated a marriage between himself and Shihab ad-Din's mother Khatun Safwat al-Mulk, and as part of the settlement Zengi received Homs. Mu'in ad-Din was given the castle of Barin in place of Homs. On June 22, 1139, Shihab ad-Din was assassinated in Damascus; Jamal ad-Din, emir of Baalbek, was chosen as his successor, and Mu'in ad-Din was chosen to govern Baalbek in his absence. He was in charge of the defenses of Baalbek when Zengi arrived to avenge the murder of his stepson. Zengi besieged it with 14 catapults

and the city surrendered to him.

Governor of Damascus

In 1140, Jamal ad-Din died, and Mu'in ad-Din continued to rule as regent for Jamal ad-Din's son

Usamah ibn Munqidh

.

King Fulk died in 1143, and Zengi was assassinated in 1146. Zengi was succeeded by his sons

Najm ad-Din Ayyub, father of Saladin, quickly surrendered to him. Mu'in ad-Din also asserted control over Homs and Hama, and sent Yarankash

, the assassin of Zengi, to Nur ad-Din, after Yarankash sought refuge in Damascus.

Mu'in ad-Din was always suspicious of Nur ad-Din's power, but it was his policy to remain on friendly terms with his neighbours wherever possible, whether they were Christian or Muslim. In 1147 Nur ad-Din and Mu'in ad-Din negotiated an alliance, in which Nur ad-Din married Mu'in ad-Din's daughter

Fatimid Caliph in Egypt, al-Hafiz

.

Second Crusade

In 1148, news reached Damascus of

Araima in the County of Tripoli, but Mu'in ad-Din was forced to acknowledge Nur ad-Din as his overlord

.

In 1149, Mu'in ad-Din led raids against crusader territory, in response to their raids against the territory of Damascus which they continued to make after the failure of their siege. He agreed to a two-year truce with King Baldwin III, and then joined Nur ad-Din against the Principality of Antioch. Mu'in ad-Din patrolled the Hauran with his army while Nur ad-Din defeated Antioch at the Battle of Inab that year, in which Prince Raymond was killed.

Death

After returning to Damascus in July 1149, Mu'in ad-Din "ate a hearty meal, as was his usual custom, and was seized thereafter by a loosening of the bowels...From this resulted in the disease known as dysentery..." The emir died on August 28 and was buried in the university he had established in the city.

Successor, issue, and legacy

As he had been acting as regent for Mujir ad-Din Abaq, the latter took his place as the rightful heir of Damascus. Mujir ad-Din was a weak ruler, however, and by 1154 Nur ad-Din was fully in control of the city and all of Syria.

Mu'in ad-Din had three daughters, who married Nur ad-Din, Mujir ad-Din, and a soldier named Margar respectively.

In addition to Ibn al-Qalanisi's favourable depiction of him, the Christian chronicler William of Tyre also speaks very highly of Mu'in ad-Din: he showed "sincere fidelity" in his negotiations with the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and was "a man of much wisdom and a lover of our people." William of Tyre rendered his names in Latin as Meheneddin for Mu'in ad-Din and Anardus for Unur.

Sources

Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades, vol. II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem. Cambridge University Press, 1952.
The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades, Extracted and Translated from the Chronicle of Ibn al-Qalanisi. H.A.R. Gibb, 1932 (reprint, Dover Publications, 2002).
William of Tyre, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea, trans. E.A. Babcock and A.C. Krey. Columbia University Press, 1943.

Regnal titles
Preceded by Jamal ad-Din Muhammad	Emir of Damascus 1140–1149 with Mujir ad-Din (1140–1149)	Succeeded by Mujir ad-Din