Nur al-Din founds Sunni madrasas

1158

The Zengid ruler founded a series of madrasas in Damascus and Aleppo to train a new generation of Sunni jurists. The schools would serve as the intellectual backbone of the jihad against the Crusaders and would outlast the dynasty itself. Nur al-Din's educational patronage created a scholarly infrastructure that Saladin would inherit and expand, producing the judges, administrators, and preachers who staffed the Ayyubid state.