Saladin (c. 1137 - 1193), in full Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, was a Kurdish military commander and ruler who became the first sultan of Egypt and Syria and founded the Ayyubid dynasty. [1] He unified Muslim territories from Egypt to upper Mesopotamia and led the campaign that destroyed the army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem at Hattin in 1187, recapturing Jerusalem and triggering the Third Crusade. [2] His reputation for chivalry made him a respected figure in European as well as Islamic tradition. [3]
Origins and rise in Egypt
Saladin was born at Tikrit, in what is now Iraq, around 1137 or 1138, into a Kurdish family in the service of the Zengid rulers of Syria. He was raised in Baalbek and Damascus, where he received a religious and literary education alongside military training. [1]
He entered Egypt in the 1160s as an officer in campaigns led by his uncle Shirkuh on behalf of Nur al-Din of Aleppo. After Shirkuh's death in 1169 Saladin succeeded him as vizier of the Fatimid caliphate. In 1171 he abolished the Shia Fatimid caliphate and restored Egypt's allegiance to the Sunni Abbasid caliph in Baghdad, making himself master of the country. [2]
Unification of Egypt and Syria
The death of Nur al-Din in 1174 opened the way for Saladin to extend his authority into Syria. Over the following decade he took Damascus, Aleppo and Mosul's dependencies through a mixture of warfare, diplomacy and marriage alliance, ending the division of Muslim power that had allowed the Crusader states to survive. [1]
He built fortifications including the Citadel of Cairo, endowed madrasas and religious institutions, and presented his rule as a jihad for the recovery of Muslim territory, which gave his campaigns wide legitimacy. [3]
Hattin and Jerusalem
In July 1187 Saladin drew the combined forces of the Kingdom of Jerusalem onto the waterless plateau near the Horns of Hattin in Galilee and annihilated them, capturing King Guy of Lusignan and the relic of the True Cross. The Crusader states were left without an army. [2]
Acre, Ascalon and other cities fell in quick succession, and on 2 October 1187 Jerusalem surrendered after a short siege. In contrast to the massacre that had accompanied the Crusader capture of the city in 1099, Saladin permitted the inhabitants to ransom themselves and let many leave unharmed, conduct that was noted with respect by his opponents. [1]
The Third Crusade and death
The Third Crusade brought the armies of Richard I of England, Philip II of France and Frederick Barbarossa of the Holy Roman Empire to the Levant. Richard recovered Acre in 1191 and defeated Saladin at Arsuf, but was unable to take Jerusalem. [2]
The war ended with the Treaty of Jaffa in 1192, which left Jerusalem in Saladin's hands while guaranteeing Christian pilgrims access to the city and preserving a coastal strip for the Crusader kingdom. Saladin died at Damascus on 4 March 1193, reportedly leaving so little personal wealth that his funeral had to be paid for by others. He is buried beside the Umayyad Mosque. [1]
Legacy
The Ayyubid dynasty he founded ruled Egypt and parts of Syria until it was displaced by the Mamluks in the mid-thirteenth century. [3]
Saladin became a celebrated figure in Arab, Kurdish, Turkish and Persian tradition and, unusually for an adversary, in European literature, where writers from Dante onwards treated him as a model of honourable conduct. His name has been repeatedly invoked in modern Middle Eastern politics as a symbol of unity and resistance. [2]
