Saladin - A Biography

Saladin was born in 1137 in Tikrit, modern Iraq. His family was Kurdish and his father rose to prominence serving first the Seljuk Turks and later the famed Atabeg Zengi. It was in Damascus under Zengi's son Nur ad-Din, ruler of Muslim Syria, that Saladin was first recognized for his talents as a general. By the 1160s the Shiite Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt was on the brink of collapse. Both Nur ad-Din and the Crusaders of the Kingdom of Jerusalem had their eye on Egypt's wealth as ripe for conquest. Saladin, alongside his uncle Shurka, would lead numerous campaigns to the Nile region. Initially the Crusaders, under King Amalric of Jerusalem, allied with the Fatimids to prevent Egypt from being conquered by Nur ad-Din's Syrian army. Saladin distinguished himself against Amalric as a commander at the Battle of al-Babayn in 1167, preventing Amalric from taking control of Egypt. Saladin's final campaign in Egypt resulted in the Fatimid state being brought fully under the control of the Syrian Zengid forces. However, rather than merely ruling on Nur ad-Din's behalf, Saladin established Egypt as a formidable power center for himself. After Nur ad-Din's death, Saladin would war energetically against the Zengids of Syria, taking control of Damascus by 1174. Once he'd subdued much of Zengid Syria, Saladin set sights on the conquest of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. A devout Muslim, Saladin was deeply committed to the Jihad and hoped to eliminate the Crusader states permanently. In 1177, his invasion of the kingdom ended in disaster when he was defeated at Montguisard by the leper King Baldwin IV. However, in 1179, Saladin would deal the kingdom a significant blow by capturing the Templar fortress of Jacob's Ford. Throughout the early 1180s, Saladin would campaign against the Crusaders, though the effective generalship of King However, after Baldwin's death, Saladin inflicted a crushing defeat on the army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem at the Battle of Hattin in 1187. Saladin's triumph at Hattin all but annihilated the Crusader army and allowed him to conquer virtually the whole of the kingdom, including important coastal cities like Acre, Caesarea, Jaffa, and Ascalon, as well as Jerusalem itself. Only the port city of Tyre effectively resisted him. Saladin's sweeping victories over the Crusaders reverberated across the Islamic world, enshrining him as a champion of Jihad. However, the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem also roused Christian Europe, where calls for revenge against Saladin led to the launching of the Third Crusade. By 1189, a Christian army began besieging Acre, but Saladin fiercely resisted, besieging the besiegers. With the arrival of the King of England, Richard the Lionheart, the Christians recaptured Acre. Saladin was defeated again by Richard at the Battle of Arsuf, which re-established Crusader control of the Palestinian coast. Saladin attempted to reverse this situation the following year, but once again Richard defeated him at the Battle of Jaffa. Saladin could not dislodge Richard from his domination of the coast, but Saladin's firm control of the hinterland meant that Richard could not make an effective attempt on Jerusalem. Richard and Saladin later agreed to a truce, which recognized Richard's conquests on the coast and confirmed Muslim control of Jerusalem, though Saladin agreed to allow unarmed Christian pilgrims to visit the holy city. Saladin died in March of 1193, only months after the closing of the Third Crusade. His memory passed into legend as one of the most remarkable Muslim opponents of the Crusaders. Saladin's biographer and servant, Baha' ad-Din, praised him for his piety and his courage as a general.