Saladin

Saladin: Conquest of Crusaders and Restoration of Ayyubid Rule

Saladin or Salah ad-Din Yusuf Ibn Ayyub was a crucial player during the medieval times and Crusades throughout Egypt and Syria. Saladin fought Crusaders out of Egypt and Syria while claiming territory in the name of Sunni Islam. Saladin is considered a hero to Islam and was immortalized in poems of his victories, while also a subject of study for 18th and 19th century English Scholars (Robinson 165). His accomplishments throughout the 12th century united a large amount of people and culture during the better part of the 12th century. In the work Islamic Civilizations In Thirty Years the author Chase F. Robinson discusses the impact Saladin has had on Egypt, Syria, and Western Europe. This era of Islamic civilization is best described through Saladin because of his military successes uniting the large territories of Egypt and Syria under Ayyubid rule.

Not much information was available about Saladin’s early life other than that he grew up in Baalbek which is now Lebanon (Robinson 165). As a teenager Saladin was put into the military service of Nur al-Din who was the leader of Northern Syria which he inherited after his father’s death. Saladin quickly rose up through the ranks of Nur al-Din’s army battling Crusaders from Western Europe in Egypt (Robinson 165). Soon he was only answering to Nur al-Din.

Understanding what happened in Egypt before Saladin is crucial to be able to see the extent of the changes Saladin brought to Egypt. The ruler of Egypt at the time before Saladin’s invasion was that of a Fatimid Caliphate who ruled because of divine right. The person who held the most power after that was the vizier, who over time stole much of the power from the Caliphate through military control. The rulers of Egypt during the time before Saladin were of Fatimid (Shi’ite) descent which the Sunni are against because of disagreement over the five pillars of Islam. Saladin became Egypt’s vizier by putting down the leaders of Egypt’s military while appointing his own upper ranking soldiers in charge of the rest of Egypt’s army (Dunn). Taking control of the military meant almost total control since the Caliphate did not have as much power as the vizier during this time. It is thought that Saladin possibly have poisoned the Fatimid Caliph in 1171 when he died leaving himself as the sole rightful leader of Egypt.

Saladin’s accomplishments throughout his lifetime reach farther than military victories against Crusaders and uniting Syrian cities under his control. Jimmy Dunn in his article “Saladin (Salah al-Din Yusuf Ibn Ayyub) and his Cairo” brings an interesting view of Saladin’s intentions for Egypt when he says, “Many historians have attributed Saladin's plan for Cairo to purely local or military considerations, but Saladin had what would now be called a world view. He was, in fact, trying to defend a whole culture as well as its territory, an ideology as well as a religion. He looked on Egypt as a source of revenue for his wars against Christian and European encroachments, and against the dissident Muslim sects who divided Islam at this time” (Dunn). What Saladin did after taking control of Egypt was the building of Madrasas which are Sunni schools of learning. Reeducating the people that lived in Cairo with Sunnism, Saladin safely made the transition of a Fatimid state to a Sunni state peacefully, and with little opposition.

With Saladin having so much more power, his master Nur al-Din began to assemble an army to take back Egypt because of Saladin’s campaigns in Palestine, Nubia, and Yemen. With the threat of war imminent, Nur al-Din died leaving his power to his eleven year old son. Seeing this as an opportunity for expansion Saladin quickly marched to Damascus where they arranged a peaceful exchange of power after which Saladin was declared the “Sultan of Egypt and Syria” (Robinson 166). The two greatest cities under Saladin’s control were Cairo, and Damascus. Inside both cities Saladin was loved by his people. His generosity was one of his greatest traits and why he was liked by a majority of his people. He built hospitals, hospices, mosques and many madrasas (Sunni schools for learning) in these two cities. These cities thrived in the economy and maintained their original culture because of the way Saladin ran the cities he ruled. He did not want rebellions, rather he wanted to preserve a world culture and Islam.

The next two cities that proved to be Saladin’s greatest accomplishments were Aleppo where the son of Nur al-Din, Saif al-Din, was in charge, and Jerusalem where the Christians had control. In the article “Saladin's Conquest of Syria, 1174-1185” the author J. Rickard gives a detailed account of the battles that took place during this time. Saladin had a number of skirmishes that took place between 1177 and 1187 but the two most important cities Saladin gained control of was Aleppo in 1183 (Rickard) and Jerusalem in 1187 (Dunn). Aleppo was under control by Imad al-Din when Saladin laid siege to the city but it was lack of resources for Imad al-Din that was the deciding factor for the city. Imad al-Din then surrendered the city to Saladin who now had control over most of Syria. After Saladin had the stronghold of Aleppo it was only a few short years until he took Jerusalem back.

Saladin’s success reached farther than just Syria. Dunn gives good insight into how Saladin had so much success when he states that, “Saladin left Cairo in 1182 to fight the crusaders in Syria, and he never returned. By the time he died in Damascus in 1193, he had liberated almost all of Palestine from the armies of England, France, Burgandy, Flanders, Sicily, Austria and, in effect, from the world power of the Pope, as well as establishing his own family in Cairo. In his battles against these European crusaders, he often had the aid of eastern Christians, who were as much the victims of the western armies as anybody else in the eastern lands. The Proud Georgians, for instance, preferred Saladin to the Pope, and so did the Copts of Egypt.” Now the only place left for Saladin to regain control of was the sacred sites such as Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. By 1187 when the siege at Jerusalem began Saladin had control of every crusader city in the areas surrounding and inside of Syria. Once Saladin’s forces had breached the wall surrounding Jerusalem surrender negotiations of the Crusaders began, and Saladin had control of one of Islam’s holy sites under control again.

Saladin died in Damascus in 1193 never getting to return back to Cairo. He died with very little money because it is said that he gave all his wealth to his closest people around him.  Saladin was the most revered general during this era and possibly ever in Islamic history. Not only did Europeans think highly of Saladin, but he was a subject of study by scholars such as Voltaire in the eighteenth century. Not to mention two biographies written about him, and many poems demonstrating his power in prose. Saladin was a hero to Sunni Islam who reclaimed the promised land through jihad tactics.

Image from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saladin



Saladin featured on a coin. Image by: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saladin

Saladin propoganda: Image by: https://article.wn.com/view/2017/02/17/Saladin_The_Powerful_General_Who_Pushed_Back_the_Might_of_th/

Saladin's citadel in Egypt (Rebuilt). Image by: http://www.willgoto.com/1/145951/liens.aspx

City of Damascus mosque. Photo by: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/20

More Links/Information:

Saladin during his time in Egypt:
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/saladin.htm


Saladin's battles, a descriptive list:
http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_saladins_holy_war.html






Written by: Dalton Pizzuti