Saladin

Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub was born in 1137 or 1138 in Tikrit, into a Kurdish family originally from the region around Dvin in Armenia. His father, Najm ad-Din Ayyub, was commander of the fortress of Tikrit. According to his contemporary Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad, Saladin was born on the night the family left Tikrit.

The family went to Mosul and then settled in Baalbek, where Ayyub was appointed commander by Zengi; Saladin grew up mainly in Damascus. Little is known about his youth. Biographers describe an education in the Qur'an, law and other religious subjects, but this picture may be idealised.

In 1164 Saladin accompanied his uncle Shirkuh to Egypt on the orders of Nur ad-Din of Syria. After Shirkuh's death in 1169 he became vizier of the Fatimid caliph al-Adid. After the latter's death in 1171 he had the Friday sermon pronounced in the name of the Abbasid caliph and ended the Fatimid caliphate.

After the death of Nur ad-Din in 1174, Saladin entered Damascus and in the following years brought much of Syria and Upper Mesopotamia under his authority, often in conflict with other Muslim rulers. In Egypt he had the Citadel of Cairo fortified and founded madrasas and hostels for Sufis (khanqahs).

Since the First Crusade (1096–1099) the Levant had been divided between crusader states and Muslim principalities, which often rivalled one another. Zengids, Fatimids and Abbasids competed for influence. A large part of Saladin's career was spent uniting Muslim territories, frequently against other Muslim rulers.

Religion served as legitimation. Saladin presented himself as defender of Sunni Islam and of jihad against the crusaders; the crusader states derived their authority partly from the Christian holy places. Relations between the two sides also consisted of truces, trade and diplomacy.

At Hattin on 4 July 1187, Saladin defeated the field army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. In the following months his troops took many crusader strongholds, and on 2 October 1187 Jerusalem surrendered. The terms included ransom: those who could not pay were sometimes released and sometimes enslaved.

The fall of Jerusalem led to the Third Crusade (1189–1192). At Acre the crusaders besieged the Muslim garrison while Saladin's army in turn surrounded them; after the city fell in 1191, Richard I had prisoners executed. A truce in 1192 left the coast in crusader hands and gave pilgrims access to Jerusalem.

Saladin died of a fever on 4 March 1193 in Damascus and was buried beside the Umayyad Mosque. His realm was divided among relatives; Ayyubid rule in Egypt ended in 1250 when the Mamluks took power. Contemporaries such as Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad wrote a biography, which remains an important source.

In Europe, Saladin acquired a favourable image in medieval tales and later in Lessing's Nathan the Wise and Walter Scott's The Talisman; in the modern Arab and Kurdish world his fame grew. Among Egyptian Shi'is he is also judged critically because of the end of the Fatimid caliphate. Historians weigh Muslim and Christian sources against one another.