Yarankash

Who was Yarankash?

Yarankash was a Frankish slave who assassinated his owner Zengi, the atabeg of the Syrian city of Aleppo. According to Damascene chronicler Ibn al-Qalanisi:

Yaranqash stabbed the atabeg numerous times and then fled to the fortress of Dawsar, and then from there to Damascus, "in the confident belief that he would be secure there, openly putting forward his action as a claim to consideration, and imagining that he would be made welcome." The governor, Mu'in ad-Din Unur, instead had him arrested and sent him to Zengi's son Nur ad-Din in Aleppo. Nur ad-Din sent him along to his brother Saif ad-Din Ghazi I in Mosul, who had him executed.