But now appear the men destined to destroy the Fatimid dynasty of Egypt,—Nur ed din Mahmud Ben Amed Es Zenky, son of Zenky, son of Ak Sunkur, and Saladin, son of Eyub the friend of Zenky. Ak Sunkur, a slave whom Melik Shah made his court chamberlain and later the governor of the Province of Aleppo, died in 1094 leaving a son, Zenky, ten years of age. Not long after his [[227]]father’s death Zenky was summoned to the court of Kur Buga then Prince of Mosul. He soon became a favorite and companion of the prince and accompanied him on his campaigns. In 1122 the prince gave him Wasit and Basra in fief. When in March of the following year the Arabs, led by Dubeg a renowned Emir of the Asad tribe, marched against Bagdad, Mostershed the Kalif crossed the river with his army and was received on the bank by his vassals the Prince of Mosul, Zenky of Basra, and others. The combined armies then attacked Hilla the enemy’s stronghold, and though Dubeg’s army was much larger than that of the Kalif’s the Arabs were defeated owing chiefly to the skilful movements of Zenky. Somewhat later Zenky went to Hamadan to the court of the Seljuk Sultan, Mahmud, and soon married the widow of Kundughly, the richest noble of the court. In 1124 he returned to Basra and Wasit where he ruled with great severity. In a battle between the Sultan and the Kalif, Zenky took the part of the Sultan and sent him reinforcements, thus obliging the Kalif to make peace. When after this victory the Sultan took up his abode in Bagdad Zenky received a high office. In 1127 he was made governor of Mosul and Jezira and took upon himself the task of defending the country against the Crusaders. Not long after this he became master of Aleppo. In 1131 the Seljuk Sultan died and there was a bitter conflict over the succession. Zenky now determined to get possession of Damascus but his attempt, made four years after the death of the Sultan, brought him no success. In 1144 he besieged and captured Edessa held at that time by the Crusaders. Two years after this great victory he died by the hand of one of his own attendants, leaving a son, Nur ed din, to finish his work by becoming master of Damascus.
In 1132 when fleeing from Karaja by whom he had been defeated in battle, Zenky was saved by Eyub commandant of the castle of Tenkrit on the bank of the Tigris. This service was never forgotten. In 1138 on a night when Eyub, who had been driven from the castle of Tenkrit, was seeking an asylum with Zenky at Mosul a son was born to him. This son he named Yessuf Salal ed din (Saladin). A year later Zenky took possession of Baalbek and Eyub was made governor there. Saladin was nine years old when Zenky was murdered. Zenky’s possessions were shared by his two [[228]]sons, Seif ud din who received Mosul, and Nur ed din who ruled the Syrian province.
Nur ed din was a wise and just ruler, as well as a brave and fearless warrior, and a resolute defender of Islam. Being master of Mosul and Aleppo he was also master of North Syria, but in the south he lacked power through not having Damascus. Mejr ed din Abak the last of the Seljuks of Damascus ruled there, or more correctly, his vizir ruled at his commission. After Zenky’s death Damascus sent troops to retake Baalbek. Eyub made terms and surrendered the city receiving in return ten villages in that region. A few years later he became commander-in-chief of the Damascus army, a position which he held when Nur ed din marched against Damascus in 1154. Shirkuh, brother of Eyub, had meanwhile taken service with Nur ed din. When the Syrian army appeared before the city Shirkuh opened negotiations with his brother and Eyub surrendered the place to the son of his old friend. Thus Damascus abandoned its hereditary sovereign and Mejr ed din withdrew from the city. He received in exchange Emesa, then Balis, and went finally to Bagdad.
An earthquake had nearly ruined Damascus, but Nur ed din restored the city and made it his capital. During his reign of twenty-eight years he captured fifty castles or more and established mosques and schools in every city of his dominion. Policy as well as religion caused Nur ed din to favor the Abbasid line instead of the Fatimids of Cairo. The time seemed to him ripe then to end Cairo helplessness, a genuine helplessness since civil war raged there between Dargham a commander and Shawer the vizir who under the Kalif were struggling for mastery.
Early in 1163, the year following that in which Nur ed din had conquered Haram and taken possession of many Syrian fortresses, Shawer who had been driven from Cairo came to Damascus and promised not only to pay the cost of an invasion but afterward to yield up one third of the income of Egypt if Nur ed din would give him certain aid against Dargham. Nur ed din was not opposed to obtaining a foothold in the country, still he withheld assistance till April of the following year, when he sent his able and ambitious governor of Emesa, Essed ed din Shirkuh, with an army into Egypt. Dargham was slain and Shawer was restored to his former position. Freed from his enemy and safe, as he [[229]]thought, he refused to fulfil the conditions he had made. Shirkuh enraged by his treachery seized the eastern province, Sherkiya, and the chief town, Belbeis.
Shawer, who was an artful unprincipled man, false to his friends, to his warriors and to his own interests, then called in Amalric, Count of Askalon and king of Jerusalem, to act with the Crusaders against Shirkuh. The friend of the Egyptian vizir was now his foe, and the Crusaders had become the ally of their erstwhile enemy. Between Amalric and Nur ed din there was keen rivalry, for neither man would permit the other to become master in Egypt.
Shirkuh fortified Belbeis and for three months resisted all attacks from his opponent. Nur ed din now made an expedition to Palestine and Amalric had need to hasten home to protect his own kingdom. An armistice was arranged and both armies left Egypt.
But in 1167 Amalric again advanced at the head of a large army. Rumors of this advance having reached Nur ed din he at once sent Shirkuh to Egypt with a force of two thousand horsemen. He had barely crossed the Nile when Amalric appeared on the opposite bank. Shirkuh halted at Giza, and Amalric took up his position at Fustat. Shawer allied himself with Amalric, who dictated his own terms and insisted that the Kalif should ratify the treaty.
Shirkuh, alarmed by the strength of the combined armies, retreated to Upper Egypt. Pursued by his opponent, he turned and gave battle, April 18, 1167, at a place a few miles south of Minya. The Egyptians were defeated, but Shirkuh, not having troops sufficient for a march on Cairo, withdrew to Alexandria, where he left Saladin in command with one-half of the army, and moved toward the South to collect contributions. Alexandria was soon besieged and blockaded. Provisions were lacking in the city and there was talk of surrender when news came that Shirkuh was advancing rapidly to their relief. He halted before Cairo and invested that city. Amalric then raised the siege of Alexandria and a peace was made by which Shirkuh and the king promised to withdraw their troops from Egypt. It is stated that Shirkuh received fifty thousand ducats, and the king twice that amount from the revenues of Egypt. There remained at Cairo, moreover, a general of Crusaders with a large number of men as a guard against Nur ed din. [[230]]
But peace was of short duration; the advantage which came to the King of Jerusalem by the terms of the treaty induced him to violate his promise in the hope of eventually getting control of the country. Incited by the Hospitalers, whose chief wished to keep his Order in Belbeis which he had charged with a debt of more than one hundred thousand ducats, Amalric advanced early in the winter of 1168 but this time he entered Egypt as an enemy.