Editing Damascus (section)

===Seljuq and Ayyubid periods===

With the arrival of the [[Seljuq Turks]] in the late 11th century, Damascus again became the capital of independent states. It was ruled by [[Tutush I|Abu Sa'id Taj ad-Dawla Tutush I]] starting in 1079 and he was succeeded by his son [[Duqaq (Seljuk ruler of Damascus)|Abu Nasr Duqaq]] in 1095. The Seljuqs established a court in Damascus and a systematic reversal of Shia inroads in the city. The city also saw an expansion of religious life through private endowments financing religious institutions (''[[madrasa]]s'') and hospitals (''maristans''). Damascus soon became one of the most important centers of propagating Islamic thought in the Muslim world. After Duqaq died in 1104, his mentor (''[[atabeg]]''), [[Toghtekin]], took control of Damascus and the [[Burid Dynasty|Burid line]] of the Seljuq dynasty. Under Duqaq and Toghtekin, Damascus experienced stability, elevated status, and a revived role in commerce. In addition, the city's Sunni majority enjoyed being a part of the larger Sunni framework effectively governed by various Turkic dynasties who in turn were under the [[moral authority]] of the Baghdad-based Abbasids.<ref name="Burns142">{{Harvnb|Burns|2005|p=142}}</ref>

While the rulers of Damascus were preoccupied in conflict with their fellow Seljuqs in Aleppo and [[Diyarbakir]], the Crusaders, who arrived in the [[Levant]] in 1097, conquered [[Jerusalem]], [[Mount Lebanon]] and Palestine. Duqaq seemed to have been content with Crusader's rule as a buffer between his dominion and the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. Toghtekin, however, saw the Western invaders as a viable threat to Damascus which, at the time, nominally included [[Homs]], the Beqaa Valley, Hauran, and the Golan Heights as part of its territories. With military support from Sharaf al-Din [[Mawdud]] of [[Mosul]], Toghtekin managed to halt Crusader raids in the Golan and Hauran. Mawdud was assassinated in the Umayyad Mosque in 1109, depriving Damascus of northern Muslim backing and forcing Toghtekin to agree to a truce with the Crusaders in 1110.<ref name="Burns147">{{Harvnb|Burns|2005|p=147}}</ref> In 1126, the Crusader army led by [[Baldwin II of Jerusalem|Baldwin II]] fought Burid forces led by Toghtekin at [[Battle of Marj al-Saffar (1126)|Marj al-Saffar]] near Damascus; however, despite their tactical victory, the Crusaders failed in their objective to capture Damascus.

[[File:Kuppel Nur ad-Din Madrasa.JPG|thumb|The twin domes of the funerary-Medresa of [[Nur ad-Din (died 1174)|Nur ad-Din]] also Known as the Madrasah Nuriyya al-Kubra<ref name="madainkubra">{{cite web |title=Madrasa Nuriya al-Kubra |url=https://madainproject.com/madrasa_nuriyya_kubra |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200507215612/https://madainproject.com/madrasa_nuriyya_kubra |archive-date=7 May 2020 |website=Madain Project |access-date=7 May 2020}}</ref><ref name="archnet-nuriya">{{cite web |title=Madrasa al-Nuriyya al-Kubra (Damascus) |url=https://archnet.org/sites/1840 |website=Archnet |access-date=7 May 2020 |archive-date=29 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729011551/https://archnet.org/sites/1840 |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
Following Toghtekin's death in 1128, his son, [[Taj al-Muluk Buri]], became the nominal ruler of Damascus. Coincidentally, the Seljuq prince of [[Mosul]], [[Imad ad-Din Zengi|Imad al-Din Zengi]], took power in Aleppo and gained a mandate from the Abbasids to extend his authority to Damascus. In 1129, around 6,000 [[Isma'ili|Isma'ili Muslims]] were killed in the city along with their leaders. The Sunnis were provoked by rumors alleging there was a plot by the Isma'ilis, who controlled the strategic fort at [[Banias]], to aid the Crusaders in capturing Damascus in return for control of [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]]. Soon after the massacre, the Crusaders aimed to take advantage of the unstable situation and launch an [[Crusade of 1129|assault]] against Damascus with nearly 2,000 knights and 10,000 infantry. However, Buri allied with Zengi and managed to prevent their army from reaching the city.<ref name="Burns148-9">{{Harvnb|Burns|2005|pp=148–149}}</ref> Buri was assassinated by Isma'ili agents in 1132; he was succeeded by his son, [[Shams al-Mulk Isma'il]] who ruled tyrannically until he was murdered in 1135 on secret orders from his mother, [[Zumurrud Khatun|Safwat al-Mulk Zumurrud]]; Isma'il's brother, Shihab al-Din Mahmud, replaced him. Meanwhile, Zengi, intent on putting Damascus under his control, married Safwat al-Mulk in 1138. Mahmud's reign then ended in 1139 after he was killed for relatively unknown reasons by members of his family. [[Mu'in al-Din Unur]], his ''[[mamluk]]'' ("slave soldier") took effective power of the city, prompting Zengi—with Safwat al-Mulk's backing—to lay siege against Damascus the same year. In response, Damascus allied with the Crusader [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]] to resist Zengi's forces. Consequently, Zengi withdrew his army and focused on campaigns against northern Syria.<ref name="Burns151">{{Harvnb|Burns|2005|p=151}}</ref>

In 1144, Zengi [[Siege of Edessa (1144)|conquered Edessa]], a crusader stronghold, which led to [[Second Crusade|a new crusade]] from Europe in 1148. In the meantime, Zengi was assassinated and his territory was divided among his sons, one of whom, [[Nur ad-Din Zangi|Nur ad-Din]], emir of Aleppo, made an alliance with Damascus. When the European crusaders arrived, they and the nobles of Jerusalem agreed to attack Damascus. [[Siege of Damascus (1148)|Their siege]], however, was a complete failure. When the city seemed to be on the verge of collapse, the crusader army suddenly moved against another section of the walls and was driven back. By 1154, Damascus was firmly under Nur ad-Din's control.<ref>{{cite book|first=Jonathan|last= Phillips|title=The Second Crusade: Extending the Frontiers of Christendom |publisher=[[Yale University Press]]|year= 2007|pages= 216–227}}</ref>

In 1164, King [[Amalric of Jerusalem]] [[Crusader invasions of Egypt|invaded Fatimid Egypt]], requested help from Nur ad-Din. The Nur ad-Din sent his general [[Shirkuh]], and in 1166 Amalric was defeated at the [[Battle of al-Babein]]. When Shirkuh died in 1169, he was succeeded by his nephew Yusuf, better known as [[Saladin]], who defeated a joint crusader-Byzantine siege of [[Damietta]].<ref>Hans E. Mayer, ''The Crusades'' (Oxford University Press, 1965, trans. John Gillingham, 1972), pp. 118–120.</ref> Saladin eventually overthrew the Fatimid caliphs and established himself as Sultan of Egypt. He also began to assert his independence from Nur ad-Din, and with the death of both Amalric and Nur ad-Din in 1174, he was well-placed to begin exerting control over Damascus and Nur ad-Din's other Syrian possessions.<ref>{{cite book|first=Christopher |last=Tyerman|author-link = Christopher Tyerman|title=God's War: A New History of the Crusades|publisher=Penguin|year=2006|page=350}}</ref> In 1177 Saladin was defeated by the crusaders at the [[Battle of Montgisard]], despite his numerical superiority.<ref>{{cite book|first=Bernard|last= Hamilton|title=The Leper King and his Heirs: Baldwin IV and the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year= 2000|pages=132–136}}</ref> Saladin also [[siege of Kerak|besieged Kerak]] in 1183, but was forced to withdraw. He finally launched a full invasion of Jerusalem in 1187 and annihilated the crusader army at the [[Battle of Hattin]] in July. [[Acre, Israel|Acre]] fell to Saladin soon after, and Jerusalem itself [[siege of Jerusalem (1187)|was captured]] in October. These events shocked Europe, resulting in the [[Third Crusade]] in 1189, led by [[Richard I of England]], [[Philip II of France]] and [[Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor]], though the last drowned en route.<ref>"The Third Crusade: Richard the Lionhearted and Philip Augustus", in ''A History of the Crusades'', vol. II: The Later Crusades, 1189–1311, ed. R. L. Wolff and H. W. Hazard (Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969), pp. 45–49.</ref>

The surviving crusaders, joined by new arrivals from Europe, put Acre to a [[Siege of Acre (1189–1191)|lengthy siege]] which lasted until 1191. After re-capturing Acre, Richard defeated Saladin at the [[Battle of Arsuf]] in 1191 and the [[Battle of Jaffa (1192)|Battle of Jaffa]] in 1192, recovering most of the coast for the Christians, but could not recover Jerusalem or any of the inland territory of the kingdom. The crusade came to an end peacefully, with the [[Treaty of Jaffa (1192)|Treaty of Jaffa]] in 1192. Saladin allowed pilgrimages to be made to Jerusalem, allowing the Crusaders to fulfill their vows, after which they all returned home. Local crusader barons set about rebuilding their kingdom from Acre and the other coastal cities.<ref>Wolff and Hazard, pp. 67–85.</ref>

Saladin died in 1193, and there were frequent conflicts between different [[Ayyubid dynasty|Ayyubid sultans]] ruling in Damascus and Cairo. Damascus was the capital of independent Ayyubid rulers between 1193 and 1201, from 1218 to 1238, from 1239 to 1245, and from 1250 to 1260. At other times it was ruled by the Ayyubid rulers of Egypt.<ref>R. Stephen Humphreys, ''From Saladin to the Mongols: The Ayyubids of Damascus, 1193–1260'' (State University of New York Press, 1977), ''passim''.</ref> During the internecine wars fought by the Ayyubid rulers, Damascus was besieged repeatedly, as, e.g., [[Siege of Damascus (1229)|in 1229]].<ref>Kenneth M. Setton, Robert Lee Wolff, Harry W. Hazard (editors), ''A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The Later Crusades, 1189–1311'', p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=2dsycrclykIC&pg=PA695 695] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230102170609/https://books.google.com/books?id=2dsycrclykIC&pg=PA695 |date=2 January 2023 }}, University of Wisconsin Press, series "History of the Crusades", 2006</ref>

The patterned Byzantine and Chinese silks available through Damascus, one of the Western termini of the [[Silk Road]], gave the English language "damask".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h1s8K0_hCfoC&q=Damascus%2C++damask+silk+road&pg=PA149|title=All Things Medieval: An Encyclopedia of the Medieval World|last=Johnston|first=Ruth A.|date=2011-08-31|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9780313364624|language=en|access-date=7 October 2020|archive-date=2 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230402185750/https://books.google.com/books?id=h1s8K0_hCfoC&q=Damascus%2C++damask+silk+road&pg=PA149|url-status=live}}</ref>