Saladin
Saladin the Muslim sultan of Egypt and Syria (1137-1193), the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty and the commander who recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187. Celebrated in both Islamic and European tradition as a model of chivalry and generosity, he united the fragmented Muslim Near East against the Crusader states.
Origins and Rise in Egypt
Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, known in the West as Saladin, was born in 1137 at Tikrit in Mesopotamia into a Kurdish family of military standing. His father and uncle served the Zengid rulers of Syria, and as a young man Saladin came to Egypt with his uncle Shirkuh, who led an expedition to intervene in the affairs of the collapsing Fatimid caliphate.
On the death of his uncle in 1169, Saladin was appointed vizier of Egypt by the Fatimid caliph, though real power lay with the Zengid house. He quickly consolidated control, suppressed revolts, and in 1171 abolished the Fatimid caliphate and restored the name of the Abbasid caliph in the Friday sermon, an act of great significance in the Sunni world.
When the Zengid sultan Nur al-Din died in 1174, Saladin moved into Syria, ostensibly to protect the interests of the dead ruler's young son. After years of campaigning and skilful negotiation he brought Damascus, Aleppo, Mosul and the surrounding principalities under his authority, becoming the ruler of a realm that stretched from Egypt to northern Syria.
The Unification of the Muslim Front
Saladin's central aim was to unite the Muslim princes against the Crusader states, which had been established along the Levantine coast after the First Crusade. This task was as much diplomatic as military, for the Muslim lands were divided by dynastic rivalry and by the suspicion of local rulers toward an ambitious newcomer.
He fought and negotiated for more than a decade, marrying into local families, appointing capable relatives to govern the conquered cities, and combining patient pressure with occasional siege warfare. By the mid-1180s he had gathered under his rule a compact and well-organised state whose resources could be directed against the Franks.
He also cultivated the religious authority of the sultanate, founding schools and patronising scholars, and presenting his struggle as a holy war for the recovery of Jerusalem. This combination of political skill, personal piety and military determination made him the leader around whom the forces of Islam could rally.
Hattin and the Recovery of Jerusalem
In 1187 Saladin invaded the kingdom of Jerusalem, drawing the Crusader army away from its water supplies and destroying it at the battle of Hattin in July. The king of Jerusalem and a great many of the Crusader nobility were taken prisoner, and the military strength of the kingdom was shattered in a single day.
In the following months he overran the coastal cities and, in October 1187, entered Jerusalem, which had been in Christian hands for nearly a century. Unlike the Crusaders who had taken the city in 1099, he forbade a general massacre, allowed the inhabitants to ransom themselves, and permitted the Christians to leave in safety, acts that were remembered with admiration even in Europe.
He met the Third Crusade, led by Richard the Lionheart of England, Philip Augustus of France and the emperor Frederick Barbarossa, with stubborn defence and negotiation. Though he lost Acre and much of the coast, he held the interior and Jerusalem, and the peace concluded in 1192 left the Muslims in possession of the holy city while allowing Christian pilgrims access to it.
Rule, Character and Chivalry
Saladin ruled through a combination of personal authority and a network of relatives and loyal officers. He was generous with his revenues, distributing lands and money to secure support, and he died, by the testimony of his own household, with very little left in his treasury, having given away much of what he held.
He was renowned for the keeping of his word and for his treatment of prisoners and envoys. European chroniclers, including the writers of the Crusader states, described his courtesy and magnanimity, and he became in Western literature the very type of the noble and chivalrous enemy, honoured even by those who had fought against him.
His piety was sincere and public: he was known for his attention to the duties of religion, his patronage of learning, and his interest in the welfare of the poor. He patronised the building of schools, hospitals and fortifications, and his court at Cairo and Damascus gathered jurists, physicians and scholars.
Death, Dynasty and Legacy
Saladin died at Damascus in 1193, shortly after the truce with Richard, and was buried there. His Ayyubid dynasty divided his territories among his relatives, but it continued to rule Egypt and Syria for decades, and his descendants retained parts of the Near East well into the thirteenth century.
His recovery of Jerusalem is remembered as one of the great turning points of the Crusades, and it was the achievement that made his name. It secured his standing as the foremost champion of Islam in his age and cast the failure of the Christian powers into sharp relief.
He is remembered across the world as the ideal of the Muslim warrior king and as a symbol of generosity in victory. His reputation spans civilisations: honoured in the Islamic tradition as the restorer of Jerusalem, and admired in the West as an enemy of honour, he remains a rare figure of agreement between cultures that were bitterly opposed.
See also
- Ayyubid dynasty
- Battle of Hattin
- Third Crusade
- Richard the Lionheart
References
- ↑ H. A. R. Gibb, The Life of Saladin, Oxford University Press, 1973.
- ↑ Baha al-Din Ibn Shaddad, The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin, translated by D. S. Richards, Ashgate, 2001.
- ↑ Malcolm Cameron Lyons and D. E. P. Jackson, Saladin: The Politics of the Holy War, Cambridge University Press, 1982.
- ↑ Anne-Marie Edde, Saladin, translated by W. J. Ward, Harvard University Press, 2011.