Ismat ad-Din Khatun
(d. 1186)
BIRTH
UNKNOWN
PLACE
Syria
DEATH
1186
PLACE
Damascus, Syria
FAMILY
HOMES
RELIGIOUS VIEWS
MUSLIM
DENOMINATION NOT DOCUMENTED
MEMBERSHIPS
AWARDS
Ismat ad-Din Khatun was the wife of two great Muslim rulers, Nur ad-Din of Syria and Saladin. In 1147 she married Nur ad-Din, the Zengid ruler of Aleppo, as part of an alliance between him and her father. In 1176 Saladin married Ismat ad-Din, which strengthened his claim to Nur ad-Din's legacy. According to medieval accounts, Saladin wrote to her often, by the end almost daily. After Nur ad-Din died in 1174, his general Saladin took power in Syria.
EARLY LIFE
Ismat ad-Din Khatun was born in the twelfth century, the daughter of Mu'in ad-Din Unur, the atabeg who governed Damascus for the Burid dynasty; her date of birth is unknown. Her father led the defense of Damascus against the Second Crusade in 1148. In 1147 she married Nur ad-Din, the Zengid ruler of Aleppo, as part of an alliance between him and her father. When Nur ad-Din took control of Damascus in 1154, she became the wife of the ruler of Syria.
After Nur ad-Din died in 1174, his general Saladin took power in Syria. In 1176 Saladin married Ismat ad-Din, which strengthened his claim to Nur ad-Din's legacy.
She was a patron of religious and charitable works in Damascus, founding a madrasa, a school for Islamic law, and a mausoleum for her father. According to medieval accounts, Saladin wrote to her often, by the end almost daily.
Ismat ad-Din Khatun died in Damascus in 1186, during a plague epidemic, while Saladin was ill; the news was kept from him for three months.
CAREER
DEATH
Ismat ad-Din Khatun was the wife of two great Muslim rulers, Nur ad-Din of Syria and Saladin. After Nur ad-Din died in 1174, his general Saladin took power in Syria. In 1176 Saladin married Ismat ad-Din, which strengthened his claim to Nur ad-Din's legacy. She was a patron of religious and charitable works in Damascus, founding a madrasa, a school for Islamic law, and a mausoleum for her father. According to medieval accounts, Saladin wrote to her often, by the end almost daily. Ismat ad-Din Khatun died in Damascus in 1186, during a plague epidemic, while Saladin was ill; the news was kept from him for three months. The available biographical account does not describe a continuous final medical course. It gives no dependable sequence of treatment and last symptoms from which to reconstruct a more detailed bedside narrative.
POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
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