ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES 43Zangi. In July 1139 Mahmud was murdered, but before Zangi could take
control of the city, the old Caliph Unar—Zangi’s ally and enemy at
Homs—seized control and began plotting a new alliance with the crusad-
ers. Thus Zangi was stalled again, more by the clever old Caliph Unar, a
master of the political game, than by the crusaders.
Unable to cement his control of Syria, Zangi turned his attention north
and in 1144 retook the kingdom of Edessa, the first of the crusader states
to be captured and the first to fall. It was also Zangi’s last great achieve-
ment, for a servant murdered him in 1146. His kingdom fell apart, and
his son Nur-al-Din was left with only Aleppo.
Zangi’s life was not dedicated to the destruction of the crusaders, but
to the acquisition of personal power. At his death, his realms dissolved
into the hands of various strongmen, and his son was left with a sliver of
his father’s power. But Nur-al-Din, a man very different from his father,
would decisively change the balance of power in the Middle East. An
austere man, more at home in the library than on the battlefield, the new
ruler of Aleppo would fight the Franks with his own wisdom, and others’
swords.
Nur-al-Din’s first act upon reaching the rump of his father’s old realm
was to march his army to the relief of Edessa. Raymond of Antioch and
Joscelin, the ousted king of Edessa, were moving an army to recapture it.
Accompanied by emir Shirkuh, a seasoned Kurdish warrior, Nur-al-Din
and the Aleppan horsemen arrived in time to put the Christians to flight
and save the city. It is worth noting that Shirkuh was of the family of
Ayyub who had helped Zangi in 1133, fourteen years earlier. He was
Saladin’s uncle, and would be his mentor.
But the capture of Edessa had alarmed the Christian west, and in 1147,
what became known as the Second Crusade arrived in the Middle East.
This was led by two kings—Konrad III of Germany, and Louis VII of
France, and brought an impressive number of fighting men to aid the
crusaders.
This Second Crusade accomplished little. Instead of recapturing Edessa,
the two kings decided to attack their only friend in the area—Damascus!
In July 1148, the Christians arrived and were resisted by the wily Unar.
Unar’s strategy was familiar and effective. He wrote to the neighboring
leaders saying that he would turn the city over to the Franks if they did
not raise the siege. To the Franks he said that the vast host of the sultan
was coming, and that if they did not withdraw, he would turn the city over
to the sultan! The Franks dithered for only four days, and then retreated.
This was perhaps Unar’s finest hour, and nearly his last. He died in the
next year, and once again Damascus was a prize for the taking.