122 – The ruler of Mosul, Masʿūd ibn Mawdūd ibn Zankī the Turk

Al-Malik, ʿIzz al-Dīn, Abū al-Muẓaffar Masʿūd, son of al-Malik Mawdūd ibn the Atabeg Zankī ibn Aq Sunqur the Atabeg, a Turk. He fought a pitched battle with Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn on the Heights of Hama and was defeated in 570 AH. He later inherited Aleppo—his cousin al-Ṣāliḥ Ismāʿīl had bequeathed it to him—so he advanced, entered the citadel, and married al-Ṣāliḥ’s mother. Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn therefore made war on him and besieged Mosul three times. Many events ensued, after which they concluded a peace treaty, and their deaths occurred close together (1).

Masʿūd fell ill (2) and for ten days spoke only the testimony of faith and Qur’an recitation; if he said anything else, he would seek forgiveness. His life concluded in a good state.

He used to visit righteous men, and he was known for forbearance, modesty, devotion, nighttime prayer, and justice.

He died in Shaʿbān, 589 AH.

Ibn Khallikān said, in his biography of the lord of Mosul, ʿIzz al-Dīn Masʿūd ibn Mawdūd (3): “When the sultan Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn set out from Egypt and seized Damascus after the death of Nūr al-Dīn, the ruler of Mosul, Ghāzī, feared him, so he equipped his brother—this Masʿūd—to drive Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn away from the territory. Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn thereupon withdrew from Aleppo in Rajab of the year—”