Nur ad-Din, atabeg of Aleppo
Nūr ad-Dīn Abū al-Qāsim Maḥmūd ibn ʿImād ad-Dīn Zengī (February 1118 – 15 May 1174), often shortened to his laqab Nur ad-Din (Arabic: نور الدين, "Light of the Faith"), was a member of the Turkish Zengid dynasty which ruled the Syrian province of the Seljuk Empire. He reigned from 1146 to 1174.
The war against the Crusaders
Nur ad-Din was the second son of Imad ad-Din Zengi, the Turkic 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 the two new kingdoms was formed by the Nahr al-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. (See Siege of Edessa.) In 1146, Nur ad-Din massacred the entire Christian population of the city and destroyed its fortifications, in punishment for assisting Joscelin in this attempt. Although according to Thomas Asbridge, the women and children of Edessa were enslaved. He secured his hold on Antioch after crushing Raymond of Poitiers at the Battle of Inab in 1149, even presenting to the caliph, Raymond's severed head and arms.
Nur al-Din
Nuruddin (Arabic: nūr ad-dīn نور الدين) is a male Muslim given name, translating to "light of religion", nūr meaning "light" and dīn meaning "faith, religion". More recently, the name has also been used as a surname.
There are many Romanized spelling variants of the name. The element نور can be spelled Nur, Noor, Nor or Nour. The element دين can be spelled either Din, Deen or Dine. The definite article in front of the "sun letter" d is realized only as a gemination /dː/, the Arabic pronunciation being /nuːrudːiːn/. Syntactically, the name is an iḍāfah (genitive construction), in full vocalization nūru d-dīni. Consequently, depending on the system of Romanization, the definite article can be rendered as al, ad, ud, ed or d.
Among the variant romanized spellings in common use are Nuraddin, Nureddin, Noureddin, Noureddine, Nooradeen, Noordeen, Nourdin, Noordine, Nordine, Nuradin, Nurdin; historically also Nur ad-Din, Nur-ud-Din, Nur al-Din, etc.
