Syrian Zengid ruler Nur al-Din, much admired for his integrity and piety, dies on May 15, 1174, thereby opening the way for his protégé, the Kurdish general Saladin, to plan the conquest of the Zangid Sultanate of Mosul as a preliminary to the holy war (jihad) against the Crusaders.

Although still officially serving as a vassal for Nur al-Din, Saladin has taken on an increasingly independent foreign policy.

This becomes openly so after the death of Nur al-Din.

Using his rich agricultural possessions in Egypt as a financial base, Saladin soon moves into Syria with a small but strictly disciplined army to claim the regency on behalf of the young son of his former suzerain.

On November 23, he is welcomed in Damascus by the governor of the city.

Soon abandoning this claim, however, Saladin begins the zealous pursuit of the goal of uniting, under his own standard, all the Muslim territories of Syria, northern Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Egypt.

This, Saladin will accomplish by skillful diplomacy backed when necessary by the swift and resolute use of military force.

Gradually, his reputation will grow as a generous and virtuous but firm ruler, devoid of pretense, licentiousness, and cruelty.

In contrast to the bitter dissension and intense rivalry that has up to now hampered the Muslims in their resistance to the crusaders, Saladin's singleness of purpose induces them to rearm both physically and spiritually.

Saladin's every act is inspired by an intense and unwavering devotion to the idea of jihad, or holy war—the Muslim equivalent of the Christian crusade.

It is an essential part of his policy to encourage the growth and spread of Muslim religious institutions.

He courts its scholars and preachers, founds colleges and mosques for their use, and commissions them to write edifying works, especially on the jihad itself.

Through moral regeneration, which is a genuine part of his own way of life, he tries to re-create in his own realm some of the same zeal and enthusiasm that had proved so valuable to the first generations of Muslims when, five centuries before, they had conquered half the known world.

Kilij Arslan II, who will rule nearly as long as his father, Masud I, is considered one of the most important of the Anatolian Seljuq sultans.

Having concluded an alliance with the Greeks to free his hand in dealing with the remnants of the Danishmendids, he is able to seize all their territories in 1174 after the death of their protector Nur ad-Din.

Saladin has sent his brother Turan-Shah to conquer Yemen and the Hejaz after the fall of the Fatimids to the new Ayyubid dynasty erected by him.

Muslim writers Ibn al-Athir and later al-Maqrizi will write that the reasoning behind the conquest of Yemen was an Ayyubid fear, that should Egypt fall to Nur al-Din, they could seek refuge in a faraway territory.

Turan-Shah sets out in 1174 and quickly conquers the town of Zabid in May and ...

…takes from the Shia Banu Karam tribe the strategic port city of Aden (a crucial link in trade with India, the Middle East, and North Africa) later this year.

He annexes Yemen to the Ayyubid Empire, and with this feat, almost the entire Yemen is united under one rule for the first time since the Abbasid heyday.

The Zaydi Shi'ites who dominate Yemen try to force the Jews here to convert to Islam.

A false messiah arises during the attendant persecutions.

The Jewish leadership writes to Maimonides in Egypt, asking for his advice.

He warns of false messiahs in his famous reply, Igeret Teiman (Epistle to Yemen).

Turan-Shah, following his success in Nubia, still seeks to establish a personal holding for himself while Saladin is facing an ever increasing amount of pressure from Nur al-Din, who seems to be attempting invading Egypt.

Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad, Saladin's aide, suggests that there is a heretical leader in Yemen who is claiming to be the messiah, and that this is the principal reason that Saladin dispatches Turan-Shah to conquer the region.

While this is likely, it also appears 'Umara has considerable influence on Turan-Shah's desire to conquer Yemen and may have been the one who pushed him to gain Saladin's approval to use such a large part of the military forces in Egypt when the showdown with Nur al-Din seems to be so near.

Turanshah's departure from Egypt does not bode well for his adviser, 'Umara, however, as the poet finds himself caught up in an alleged conspiracy against Saladin and is executed.

Saladin, further mobilizing Muslim enthusiasm to create a united front against the Crusades, has made Egypt the most powerful Muslim state in the world at this time.

Although he had remained for a time theoretically a vassal of Nur ad-Din, this relationship ends in 1174 with the Syrian emir's death.

Saladin now sets out to conquer the Zengid kingdom in Syria as a preliminary to the Islamic holy war (jihad) against the Crusaders.

Miles of Plancy had married Stephanie of Milly, daughter of Philip of Milly and widow of Humphrey III of Toron, in 1173.

Through his marriage to Stephanie, he has become lord of the castle of Montréal and Lord of Oultrejordain.

The inheritance of Montréal is, however, to prove controversial: Stephanie had gained it on the death of her young niece, Beatrice of Brisebarre.

Beatrice's father, Walter III of Brisebarre, had previously been forced to exchange his lordship of Beirut for a money fief; he had been compensated for his sister-in-law's inheritance of Montréal with the much-inferior fief of Blanchegarde.

The resentment of the Brisebarres may be a significant factor in Miles's eventual murder.

Amalric dies in 1174 and Miles acts as an unofficial regent for his son and successor Baldwin IV, who, although stricken with leprosy, is crowned king in his own right.

The chronicler William of Tyre does not like Miles, calling him "a brawler and a slanderer, ever active in stirring up trouble", and Miles insults the other barons of the kingdom, especially those who are native easterners, by refusing to consult them on any matter.

Count Raymond III of Tripoli comes to Jerusalem and claims the regency as Baldwin's nearest male relative.

Raymond is supported by the other powerful native barons, including the king's stepfather Reginald of Sidon, Humphrey II of Toron (grandfather of Miles' stepson), and the brothers Baldwin of Ibelin and Balian of Ibelin.

Miles is assassinated in October 1174 in Acre.

The Regni Iherosolymitani Brevis Historia in the Annals of Genoa blames the killing on Walter III of Brisebarre, former lord of Beirut, and his brother Guy.

As noted above, Walter had been married to Helena of Milly, older sister of Miles's wife Stephanie, and it is may be that the murder was a result of the private family feud over the fief of Montréal.

It is also possible, as William of Tyre hinted, that the Brisebarre brothers, already aggrieved, had been further incited by Miles's political opponents.

There is no direct evidence that Raymond was involved, but he was certainly the chief beneficiary.

William of Tyre also reported that the assassination occurred because Miles was so fiercely loyal to Baldwin IV: he had refused to grant away crown lands.

Within days, the Haute Cour officially designates Raymond regent.

The great families of Camposampiero, the Estes and the Da Romanos, have begun to emerge and ...

…to divide the Paduan district among themselves.

The citizens, in order to protect their liberties, are obliged to elect a podestà.

Their choice had first fallen on one of the Este family.

A fire devastates Padua in 1174, necessitating the virtual rebuilding of the city.

The cloister attached to the cathedral of Monreale, Sicily, built around 1174 in Norman-Arabic style, gains renown for the beauty and variety of its arches and columns.

Sharaf al-Din Qaraqush, an Ayyubid commander under Taqi al-Din Umar, conquers Tripoli from the Normans in 1174 with an army of Turks and Bedouins.