Turkic atabeg dynasty founded by Imad ad-Din Zengi at Mosul in 1127; under his son Nur ad-Din it united Aleppo and Damascus and spearheaded the Muslim counter-crusade, retaking the Crusader County of Edessa in 1144 and blunting the Second Crusade's 1148 siege of Damascus.
The Aleppo/Damascus branch was absorbed into Saladin's breakaway Ayyubid Sultanate by 1183; a junior Zengid line held on as an atabegate at Mosul and Jazirat ibn Umar under Ayyubid and then Mongol overlordship until the mid-13th century.
The atlas holds 5 border frames for Zengid Dynasty — the shape you scrub through changes in 1127 · 1150 · 1195 · 1226 · 1240.
Dedicated study of Imad ad-Din Zengi's rise and the founding of the dynasty that led the Muslim counter-crusade.