Badr al-Din Lu'lu' was successor to the Zengid emirs of Mosul, where he governed in variety of capacities from 1234 to 1259 following the death of Nasir ad-Din Mahmud. He was the founder of the short-lived Luluid dynasty. Originally a slave of the Zengid ruler Nur al-Din Arslan Shah I, he was the first Middle-Eastern mamluk to transcend servitude and become an emir in his own right, founding the dynasty of the Lu'lu'id emirs (1234-1262), and anticipating the rise of the Bahri Mamluks of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt by twenty years. He preserved control of al-Jazira through a series of tactical submissions to larger neighboring powers, at various times recognizing Ayyubid, Rûmi Seljuq, and Mongol overlords. His surrender to the Mongols after 1243 temporarily spared Mosul the destruction experienced by other settlements in Mesopotamia.
Badr al-Din Lu'lu'
Miniature of a Syriac gospel from around Mosul, c. 1220 (BL Ms. 7170). Badr al-Din Lu'lu' was tolerant of Christian religion.
Coinage of Badr al-Din Lu'lu. Classical head in profile, with mention of Abbasid Caliph al-Mustansir, Ayyubid overlords al-Kamil and al-Ashraf, and al-Din Lu'lu' himself. Mosul mint. Dated AH 631 (1233-4 CE).
Coinage of Badr al-Din Lu'lu' with the Mongol ruler Möngke Khan as overlord (top of the reverse field). Dated AH 656 (AD 1258).
The Zengid or Zangid dynasty was an Atabegate of the Seljuk Empire created in 1127. It formed a Turkoman dynasty of Sunni Muslim faith, which ruled parts of the Levant and Upper Mesopotamia, and eventually seized control of Egypt in 1169. In 1174 the Zengid state extended from Tripoli to Hamadan and from Yemen to Sivas. Imad ad-Din Zengi was the first ruler of the dynasty.
Nūr-ad-Din's victory at the Battle of Inab, 1149. Illustration from the Passages d'outremer, c. 1490.
Hunting scene on the Blacas ewer, 1232, Mosul, Zengid dynasty.
Saladin began his military career in the army of Nur ad-Din, during the Zengid conquest of Egypt in 1163-1169.
Zengid soldiers armed with long swords and wearing the aqbiya turkiyya coat, tiraz armbands, boots and sharbush hat, at the time of the atabegate of Badr al-Din Lu'lu' in 1218-1219. Kitab al-Aghani, Mosul.