SALADIN
Name: Salah al-Din Yusuf Ibn Ayyub
Born c. 1138 Tikrit, Iraq
Died 4 March 1193 Damascus, Syria
Saladin, properly known as Salah al-Dīn Yusuf ibn Ayyub (c. 1138- March 4,
1193),[1] Sultan of Egypt and Syria, was a 12th-century Kurdish[2] Muslim
political and military leader from Tikrit, Iraq. At the height of his power the
Ayyubid dynasty, which he founded, ruled over Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Hejaz, and
Yemen. He is best-known for leading the Muslim armies during the Crusades.
Saladin was born c. 1138 into a Kurdish family in Tikrit, Iraq, and was sent
to Damascus to finish his education. His father, Najm ad-Din Ayyub, was governor
of Baalbek. For ten years Saladin lived in Damascus and studied Islamic theology,
at the court of Nur ad-Din (Nureddin). After an initial military education under
the command of his uncle, Nur ad-Din's lieutenant Shirkuh, who was representing
Nur ad-Din on campaigns against a faction of the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt in
the 1160s, Saladin eventually succeeded the defeated faction and his uncle as
vizier in 1169. There, he inherited a difficult role defending Egypt against the
incursions of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, under Amalric I (see Crusader
invasion of Egypt). His position was tenuous at first; no one expected him to
last long in Egypt where there had been many changes of government in previous
years due to a long line of child caliphs fought over by competing viziers. With
a Sunni Syrian powerbase he had little control over the Egyptian army, which had
been dominated by Shias since the rise of the Fatimads, and which was led in the
name of the now otherwise powerless caliph Al-Adid.
Name: Salah al-Din Yusuf Ibn Ayyub
Born c. 1138 Tikrit, Iraq
Died 4 March 1193 Damascus, Syria
Saladin, properly known as Salah al-Dīn Yusuf ibn Ayyub (c. 1138- March 4,
1193),[1] Sultan of Egypt and Syria, was a 12th-century Kurdish[2] Muslim
political and military leader from Tikrit, Iraq. At the height of his power the
Ayyubid dynasty, which he founded, ruled over Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Hejaz, and
Yemen. He is best-known for leading the Muslim armies during the Crusades.
Saladin was born c. 1138 into a Kurdish family in Tikrit, Iraq, and was sent
to Damascus to finish his education. His father, Najm ad-Din Ayyub, was governor
of Baalbek. For ten years Saladin lived in Damascus and studied Islamic theology,
at the court of Nur ad-Din (Nureddin). After an initial military education under
the command of his uncle, Nur ad-Din's lieutenant Shirkuh, who was representing
Nur ad-Din on campaigns against a faction of the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt in
the 1160s, Saladin eventually succeeded the defeated faction and his uncle as
vizier in 1169. There, he inherited a difficult role defending Egypt against the
incursions of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, under Amalric I (see Crusader
invasion of Egypt). His position was tenuous at first; no one expected him to
last long in Egypt where there had been many changes of government in previous
years due to a long line of child caliphs fought over by competing viziers. With
a Sunni Syrian powerbase he had little control over the Egyptian army, which had
been dominated by Shias since the rise of the Fatimads, and which was led in the
name of the now otherwise powerless caliph Al-Adid.