The Zangid and Ayyubid military elite in the Levant

Abstract— The Crusading invasion of the Levant created a new situation; It makes this area at a direct and instant threat. This in turn gave a great impulse to statue of the military elite. The duties of protecting the inner cities like Damascus and Aleppo, and starts the (Jihad) counter- crusade movement to liberate the occupied territories, especially the Al-Kuds Al-Shareef . This article manages to examine the real statue of the military elite, by discussing the process of it rising to power, and the main category and post it had. The second part of the article is the role this caste played in the politics of Jihad during the zenkid and Ayyubid period.