Zangid dynasty

Zangid dynasty, Muslim Turkic dynasty that was founded by Zangī and which ruled northern Iraq (Al-Jazīrah) and Syria in the period 1127–1222. After Zangī’s death in 1146, his sons divided the state between them, Syria falling to Nureddin (Nūr al-Dīn Maḥmūd; reigned 1146–74) and Al-Jazīrah to Sayf al-Dīn Ghāzī I (reigned 1146–49). Nureddin’s expansionist policy led him to annex Damascus (1154), subjugate Egypt (1168), and present a broad and competent Muslim front against the Crusaders, especially under such generals as Saladin, subsequent founder of the Ayyūbid dynasty of Egypt.

The Syrian branch of the Zangids was reunited with the Iraqi line in 1181 and was eventually absorbed into Saladin’s new empire. The Zangids held on to Al-Jazīrah and successfully repulsed several attempts made by Saladin to capture Mosul (1182 and 1185); they were, however, forced to accept his suzerainty. The rise to power of Badr al-Dīn Luʾluʾ, a former slave, as regent for the last Zangid, Nāṣir al-Dīn Maḥmūd (reigned 1219–22), marked the end of the dynasty. Luʾluʾ ruled Mosul as atabeg from 1222 to 1259; soon afterward the city fell to the Mongols.

A third branch of the Zangids had established themselves in Sinjār, west of Mosul, in 1170 and ruled there for about 50 years. The Ayyūbids completed several architectural works begun by the Zangids. The most noteworthy is the Great Mosque in Aleppo, whose renovation was completed in 1190. The building, a perfect continuation of the Zangid artistic tradition, demonstrates simplicity in decorative architecture. It is built around a large, open, marble-floored court, with a polychrome mihrab (prayer niche facing Mecca). Large areas of wall are left undecorated in contrast to the expressive but delicately carved marble inlay ornaments. The tall square minaret built by the Zangids was the oldest structure of the mosque completely intact when it was destroyed in 2013 during the Syrian Civil War.

The Zangids are famous for their patronage of the 13th-century Mosul schools of metalwork and painting. Mosul produced the finest metal inlay pieces (usually bronze with silver inlay) in the Islamic world at that time. Their craftsmen carried the technique to Aleppo, Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, and Iran, influencing the metalwork of those areas for centuries following. The Mosul school of painting was rivaled in Iraq only by the Baghdad school. Stylistically, Mosul miniatures were based heavily on Seljuq traditions, but they had an iconography of their own. Of somewhat less importance were knotted carpets made by Zangid craftsmen, two-coloured silks being the speciality.