Mujir ad-Din Abaq

Mujir ad-Din Abaq (d. 1169 in Baghdad ) was the last emir of Damascus from the Burid dynasty .

Abaq succeeded his father, who died in 1140, as a child in the rule of Damascus, the actual power of government was held by his Atabeg Unur. The Atabeg countered the threat posed by the Zengids of Aleppo through a protection treaty with the Kingdom of Jerusalem , in which Damascus committed itself to the payment of 20,000 gold dinars per month in exchange for military assistance. Unur was also able to recapture banyas from the Zengids, although according to the contract he had to hand over the Franks.

The alliance with the Christians has seriously damaged the reputation of the Burid among the Muslims of Syria, while that of the Zengid as a spearhead in the fight against the Christians ( jihād ) has increased in equal measure. The Burid cause had finally lost its legitimacy among the population when the Christians declared Damascus their target during the second crusade , in breach of the mutual assistance agreement . Unur was able to repel the siege of the city undertaken in 1148 , but only with the active help of the Zengids. Only shortly afterwards the regent died and the population as well as the last followers of the Burids switched to the side of the Zengids. Abaq had renewed the alliance with the Christians, but when they had tied up their military capacities for the conquest of Ascalon in 1154 , the Zengide Nur ad-Din was able to enter Damascus almost without a fight and take over rule. The resistance of the outnumbered garrison of the city wall was then conducted only very half-heartedly.

Abaq was held under princely conditions in Homs ; later he was allowed to go into exile in Baghdad to the court of the caliph , where he died in 1169.

swell

• Abū l-Fidāʾ : “A Brief History of Humanity” (al-Mukhtaṣar fī akhbār al-bashar), in: RHC, Historiens Orientaux , Vol. 1 (1872), pp. 25-27, 31.
• ʿIzz ad-Dīn Abūʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Athīr : "The Perfect Chronicle" (Al-Kāmil fī ʾt-taʾrīḫ), in: RHC, Historiens Orientaux, Vol. 1 (1872), pp. 435, 459, 467, 497.
• Kamāl ad-Dīn ʿUmar ibn Aḥamd ibn al-ʿAdīm : “The cream of milk from the story of Aleppo” (Zubdat al-ṭalab min taʾrīḫ Ḥalab), in: RHC, Historiens Orientaux, vol. 3 (1884), p. 682.

predecessor	Office	successor
Jamal ad-Din Muhammad	Emir of Damascus (Burid dynasty) 1140–1154	Conquest by the Zengid Nur ad-Din