Saladin (1137–1193)

Saladin's Life

Saladin was born in Tikrit, Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), into a prominent Kurdish family. Saladin's father, Najm ad-Din Ayyub, moved to Aleppo to enter the service of ‘Imad ad-din Zangi, the powerful Turkish governor of Syria. As a young man, Saladin joined the army of Nureddin, the son and successor of Zangi. In spite of the complex and changing political situation, Saladin emerged in 1169 at the age of thirty-one as commander of the Syrian troops in Egypt and vizier of the weak and unpopular Shi'ite Muslim Fatimid dynasty there. Soon he was known as the sultan, and his position was consolidated when in 1171 he set aside the Fatimid dynasty and announced a return to Sunni Islam in Egypt, which Saladin now ruled. Saladin remained nominally under the rule of Nureddin until the latter's death in 1174. For all his growing power, Saladin remained the target of the fanatic's blade, almost murdered in 1175 by a Nizari agent (the Nizaris, like the Fatimids, were Shi'ites).

As sultan, Saladin vigorously pursued his dream of uniting the Muslim territories of Syria, Mesopotamia, [Page 1376]Palestine, and Egypt. He accomplished this through his growing reputation as a ruler of integrity, wisdom, and military skills. The stage was set for Saladin's greatest victory: the recapture of Jerusalem, then in the hands of the Crusaders.

In 1187, within three months, a united Muslim front under Saladin recaptured one after the other the key cities of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, including Acre, Nazareth, Nabulus, and Jaffa. On 2 October 1187, Saladin succeeded in taking Jerusalem itself, ending eighty-eight years of Crusader rule. In dramatic contrast to the Crusaders' treatment of the city's inhabitants upon their victory in 1099, when widespread slaughter had been seen and recorded, Saladin's forces were a model of civilized behavior.

The Brethren, written by Rider Haggard (1856–1925) at the high noon of the British empire, paid tribute to Saladin by describing the capture of Jerusalem:

The spectacular nature of Saladin's victory has overshadowed his other success: facing and containing Europe's reaction to the fall of Jerusalem, which came in the form of the third Crusade. Exhausted and often unwilling Muslim levies followed Saladin in that engagement because of his lustrous name and indomitable will, and had fought off the greatest champions of Christendom, including Richard I (“the Lionheart”) of England. When King Richard left the Middle East in October 1192, the might and fury of the Crusades was over. Saladin withdrew to Damascus, his capital, where he died the following year. His hard life, the endless campaigns, and the effort of uniting a divided people had taken their toll.

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