—and his other son⦗1⦘ took Mosul.

Nūr al-Dīn carried the twin banners of justice and jihad; scarcely have eyes beheld his like. He laid siege to Damascus, captured it, and resided there for twenty years.

At the outset he opened many fortresses—Famiyah, al-Rāwandān, the citadel of Ilbīrah, ʿAzāz, Tall Bāshir, Marʿash, and ʿAyntāb. He routed the prince of Antioch, killing him together with three thousand Franks; he revived the Sunnah in Aleppo and suppressed the Rāfiḍites.

He built madrasas in Aleppo, Ḥimṣ, Damascus, and Baalbek, as well as congregational and neighborhood mosques. Damascus was surrendered to him because of famine and fear; he fortified it, widened its markets, founded the bīmāristān, a Dār al-Ḥadīth, several colleges, and many mosques. He abolished the tolls on the melon-market, the sheep market, measures of grain, the farming of the canal tax, and on wine. Thereafter he wrested Banias and al-Munayṭirah⦗2⦘ from the enemy, shattered the Franks time and again, wore them down, and humbled them.

He was a valiant hero, awe-inspiring, an excellent archer, handsome in appearance, devout, deeply God-fearing, and scrupulously pious. He longed for martyrdom; his secretary Abū al-Yusr heard him imploring Allah to raise him from the bellies of wild beasts and the craws of birds.

He built the Dār al-ʿAdl (House of Justice), dealt fairly with his subjects, cared for the poor, the orphans, and resident scholars. He ordered the completion of the wall of the Prophet’s City, the re-excavation of the spring at Uḥud that a flood had buried, reopened the road to the Ḥijāz, and repaired khānqāhs, ribāṭs, bridges, and caravanserais in Damascus and elsewhere. He did the same after conquering Ḥarrān, Sinjār, Edessa, Raqqah, Manbij, Shayzar, Ḥimṣ, Ḥamāh, Ṣarkhad, Baalbek, and Tadmur.

He endowed a great many precious books,