Editing Urfa (section)

===Zengid and Ayyubid rules===
Although Nur ad-Din was an active builder elsewhere, only one building at Urfa can be attributed to him: the "rather plain" Great Mosque, which was probably on the site of an earlier church.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|6}} After Nur ad-Din's death in 1174, Urfa was captured by his nephew [[Sayf al-Din Ghazi II]].<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|591}}

[[File:Umar Farrukh's Salah ad-Din.png|thumb|[[Saladin]] captured Urfa in 1182 after a siege, but the citadel continued to hold out and required a second siege.]]
[[Saladin]] captured Urfa in 1182 after a siege; he then separately besieged the citadel.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|48}} He ended up paying the defenders off to let him take control of the citadel.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|48}} He then appointed [[Muzaffar al-Din Gökböri]] as governor of Urfa along with Harran.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|48}} During Saladin's reign, the cathedral of the Melkites was demolished.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|6}} Part was used as building material for Urfa's citadel, and part was taken to Harran.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|6}}

The [[Ayyubid dynasty|Ayyubid empire]] essentially functioned as a dynastic "confederation of principalities united under one leading prince".<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|212}} During Saladin's reign, he established a principality based at Harran; Urfa was part of this principality.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|213}} After Gökböri, the Harran-Urfa principality was also held by Saladin's brother [[al-Adil I|al-Adil]], who later ruled as the Ayyubid sultan himself.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|213}}

During Ayyubid rule, Edessa had a population of approximately 24,000, according to J.C. Russell's estimate (Russell generally favored smaller, more conservative estimates).<ref name="Shatzmiller 1993">{{Cite book|last=Shatzmiller|first=Maya|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bzo0Skd1kcYC&q=Population+of+Egypt+Ayyubid&pg=PA59|title=Labour in the Medieval Islamic World|date=1993-12-31|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-09896-1|language=en}}</ref>{{rp|59}}

In June 1234, the city was taken by the Seljuk sultan [[Kayqubad I]]'s army, and its inhabitants were deported to Anatolia.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|591}} However, it was recaptured within four months by the Ayyubid ruler [[al-Kamil]].<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|591}} Sometime shortly thereafter, the citadel was [[slighting|slighted]] on al-Kamil's orders.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|9–10}}