Crusade (1144–87). In 1147, King Louis VIII of France
and the Holy Roman Emperor Conrad III sent armies to
recapture Edessa. Nur-ad-Din led the campaign against
the Crusaders, defeating them at Inab (1149) and taking
the city of Damascus (1154).
It was Nurad-al-Din’s ambition to unite the Muslim
effort against Crusader attacks, and he achieved some
success even though several Muslim rulers resisted his
approaches. When the Crusaders turned their attention
to Egypt and landed there in 1164, Nurad-al-Din sent
an army to resist them. By 1169, his army had gained
control of Egypt, and he named saladin as vizier of
the country. With further successes in Syria, it seemed
he might at last be able to unify the Islamic struggle,
but Saladin made it clear he resented Nurad-al-Din’s au-
thority. Nurad-al-Din was assembling an army to face
Saladin when he died in 1174.References: “Nur-ad-Din,” in The Hutchinson Dictionary
of Ancient and Medieval Warfare (Oxford, U.K.: Helicon
Publishing, Ltd., 1998), 232; “Nur-ad-Din,” in A Dic-
tionary of Military History and the Art of War, edited by
André Corvisier (London: Blackwell, 1994), 619.nuR-AD-Din