Saladin

Sultan of Syria (r. 1174-1193)

• Born: 1138
• Birthplace: Tikrīt, Mesopotamia (now in Iraq)
• Died: March 4, 1193
• Place of death: Damascus (now in Syria)

In a period of disunity in the Muslim world, Saladin conquered and unified warring factions. As sultan of Syria, Saladin defeated King Richard I of England in the Third Crusade and drove the Christian rulers from Jerusalem.

Early Life

Saladin (SAHL-ehd-ehn), as he has been known since his own time, learned diplomacy at his father’s knee. Born in the town of Tikrīt on the banks of the Tigris River, Saladin was the third of eight children of the Kurdish Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb. Ayyūb had risen to prominence in the decade before Saladin’s birth in the service of the Seljuk Empire and was ruler of Tikrīt. As an ethnic outsider, Ayyūb had developed administrative skills that made him useful to his overlord, but he was also ambitious for wealth and power. After performing a favor for a rival leader, Ayyūb was forced on the very night of Saladin’s birth to flee Tikrīt with his family. Despite this episode, Ayyūb’s status as an outsider made him a logical compromise candidate for later positions in an atmosphere of jealousy and intrigue; later, Saladin would be elevated for similar reasons.

Ayyūb became governor of Baalbek, in Syria, and it was here that Saladin spent his childhood. Like many other well-born youths of his era, Saladin became an accomplished horseman and hunter lion and gazelle were favored prey and he learned hawking. He was a highly skilled polo player. Following the accepted educational program for young ruling-class men, Saladin studied the Qur՚ān and learned poetry, grammar, and script. He spoke Kurdish, Arabic, and probably Turkish. Also, in his early years, he drank wine.

Saladin early followed his father and brothers in a military career. His brother Shāhān Shāh fought in the Second Crusade and was killed in 1148. During this period, Ayyūb attained leadership of Damascus, and even before his brother’s commander, Sultan Nureddin (d. 1174), conquered that city, Saladin became a member of Nureddin’s military establishment.

When he was only fourteen, Saladin had his own fief, and at sixteen, he had considerable property holdings. He may have had a wife by this time, according to some historians, but others say there is no evidence of his marriage before age thirty.

At the beginning of his military career Saladin was posted near Nureddin in Aleppo, but at age eighteen he became a deputy in Damascus, responsible for administrative and judicial matters. There Saladin cultivated a love for the fairness and impartiality of Qur՚ānic law, and he rendered judgments with loyalty and compassion. When he found that his chief accountant was dishonest, Saladin resigned his position and returned to Nureddin as an aide-de-camp.

Their close relationship led to a turning point for Saladin, one of importance to the entire Islamic world for a century: He was sent to Egypt, a major battleground of Islam in the Middle Ages. There he gained his vision for unification of the Muslim world and expulsion of the Christian Crusaders.

Life’s Work

The Muslim world was rent by religious differences. The Seljuk caliphate, ruled by Nureddin, was of the more liberal Sunni sect and had its seat of power in Baghdad. The Fāimid caliphate of Egypt, which had embraced the more orthodox Shia sect, was a volatile agglomeration with weak rulers. Like a splinter between them was the Latin kingdom, a Christian stronghold along the eastern Mediterranean coast, ruled by Amalric I (r. 1163-1174). Nureddin believed that if Amalric were able to join forces with the Byzantine emperor to conquer Egypt, the whole Islamic world would be threatened. The stakes were great: Rich trade routes to Asia, religious and educational centers, and plentiful agricultural lands could be lost.

Saladin, as one of Nureddin’s principal advisers, helped plan three Syrian invasions of Egypt between 1164 and 1169 to conquer the Fāimid caliphate. During part of this period, Amalric had a treaty to defend Cairo against Syrian invaders. Saladin’s first command came at Alexandria, where he was in charge of one thousand men under difficult conditions. After a short time back in Damascus, Saladin returned on Nureddin’s orders to Egypt after the Fāimid alliance with Amalric broke down.

Saladin had grave misgivings about returning to Egypt, in part because he distrusted the motives of his powerful uncle Shirkuh, who was leading the return. The political situation there was dangerous and unstable. When Shirkuh suddenly died, however, Saladin was well placed to assume Shirkuh’s place as vizier of Egypt commanding Nureddin’s forces there; in this case, he was the compromise candidate among many factions.

Now thirty years old, Saladin drew strength from Qur՚ānic exhortations to fulfill God’s purpose. Saladin, like Nureddin, was pious. He kept little money, acting instead as custodian for the whole Muslim community; the proper function of wealth, he believed, was to further the aims of Islam. Both men saw stable leadership in Egypt as a key to preserving Muslim unity. Still, Nureddin was suspicious when Saladin insisted on autonomy to do this including lessened payments of tribute. Not only did Saladin have military bases on the Egyptian front, but he also had to fight political battles at his rear.

Saladin consolidated power in Egypt by getting rid of Fāimid commanders and substituting loyalists; uprisings continued in the provinces for some years, but finally Fāimid rule was abolished. Saladin then built up the military and raided nearby areas. His strength was growing just when Ayyūb, Nureddin, and Amalric died in quick succession. Both Nureddin’s and Amalric’s successors were young boys; thus, both kingdoms were weakened.

Saladin swore fealty to al-SŃāliḥ, Nureddin’s successor, but quickly moved to consolidate the empire under his own rule, citing the need for a unified Islam. He struck quickly at the Frankish kingdom, taking a string of small towns, but the important town of Aleppo did not fall and remained a refuge for al-SŃāliḥ. Mosul, too, was a holdout, but with other victories Saladin became sultan of Syria, succeeding Nureddin.

The Damascus-Cairo axis was all-important to Saladin as he set out on a jihad (holy war) to drive the Franks from the region. After 1176, he undertook major public works and religious and educational projects in Egypt, but at the same time he needed military action to convince his critics that the jihad was not a fraud merely intended to further his personal power.

After a serious reverse at the strategic outpost of Ascalon, he quickly returned to the attack. Angered by the Franks’ breaking of a truce, Saladin was successful against them in southern Lebanon, and he consolidated troops from Syria and Egypt in order to destroy the fort at Jacob’s Mill. In capturing Frankish defenses, Saladin often destroyed them so they could not be recaptured. He hoped to win strategic territory in Mesopotamia as a base from which to move against Christian-held Jerusalem, his ultimate target.

With the death of young al-SŃāliḥ in 1180, Saladin had to contend with more Muslim infighting. Aleppo finally surrendered to Saladin, and eventually Mosul did too. Struggling with a serious illness, the conqueror tried to fix the succession among some of his seventeen sons. He managed, however, to recover.

The Latin Kingdom, on the brink of civil war, was rocked when Saladin’s forces captured the walled city of Hattin, along with many Frankish leaders. The Christian defenses were weakened, and Jerusalem surrendered after a two-week siege.

Saladin’s troops became tired and were not easily disciplined; the European forces were regrouping for a Third Crusade , led by Richard I (the Lion-Hearted) of England. Muslim-held Acre, after a long siege, was finally given up in 1191. Yet the cost was high for the Crusaders, and Richard did not want to be gone too long from England.

The final confrontation between Saladin and Richard came in July, 1192. After a day of prayer, Saladin and his troops were ready to face the Crusaders as they poised for an attack on Jerusalem. Suddenly, the Crusaders withdrew. Saladin attributed the retreat to divine intervention, but military historians say that Richard had decided to attack Egypt instead. Such an attack, however, was not undertaken. The Third Crusade was over.

Saladin retired to Damascus to spend time with his wives and children. In the winter of 1193, he rode out in bad weather to meet a group of pilgrims returning from Mecca. He became ill and died a short while later at age fifty-five, penniless by choice.

Saladin’s title, al-Malik al-Nāṣir, or “strong to save the faith,” was appropriate in his lifetime. Within a hundred years of his death, however, the many tensions beneath the Muslims’ surface unity split apart what Saladin had accomplished.

Significance

Saladin stands out in Western accounts of the Middle Ages because his beliefs and actions reflected supposedly Christian characteristics: honesty, piety, magnanimity, and chivalry. Unlike many Muslim rulers, he was not cruel to his subordinates; Saladin believed deeply in the Qur՚ānic standard that all men are equal before the law. He set a high moral tone; for example, he distributed war booty carefully to help maintain discipline in the ranks.

As an administrator, Saladin demonstrated great vision. He altered the tax structure in Egypt and elsewhere to conform to Qur՚ānic instructions, and he supported higher education. It was his vision together with luck and military skill that enabled him to begin a quest for Muslim unification that would bear fruit many years later.

The failure of Saladin’s empire to survive him was a result of factors beyond his control: polygamy and the lack of primogeniture. The inevitable fighting for political inheritance caused ruptures again and again in the Muslim world.

Saladin and the Beginning of the Ayyūbid Sultanate

Reign

• Ruler

1138

• Birth of Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb (Saladin)

1147-1169

• Second Crusade

1147-1174

• Mahmud Nur al-Din (Nureddin) reigns in Aleppo and Damascus (Syria)

1169

• Saladin and uncle Shirkuh return to Egypt; death of Shirkuh

1171

• Last Fāṭimid caliph dies

1174-1193

• Saladin reigns in Egypt and Syria

1180 s

• Saladin begins to divide succession among sons

1183

• Damascus and Aleppo fall to Saladin

1186-1196

• al-YAfḍal Nūr al-Dīn rules Damascus

1187

• Jerusalem falls to Saladin

1189

• Third Crusade begins

1191

• Acre falls to to Richard I

1192

• Richard retreats; end of Third Crusade

1193

• Death of Saladin; empire divided

1202-1204

• Fourth Crusade

Bibliography

Ehrenkreutz, Andrew S. Saladin. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1972. Presents details of Saladin’s early life and of his first years in Egypt not included elsewhere. A chapter on Saladin in historical perspective gives a dissenting view highly critical concerning his efficacy as a leader. Detailed bibliography.

Gibb, Hamilton A. R. The Life of Saladin. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1973. A short account of Saladin’s life, this densely footnoted book is based on two famous accounts of Saladin by men who knew him. There is no discussion of his fiscal or administrative policies. Bibliography.

Gibb, Hamilton A. R. Saladin: Studies in Islamic History. Edited by Yusuf Ibish. Beirut: Arab Institute for Research and Publishing, 1974. Collection of some of the author’s earlier articles and chapters, including material on the caliphate, the Ayyubids, and Saladin’s military career and translations of contemporary chronicles. Bibliography, index.

Hindley, Geoffrey. Saladin. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1976. General biography traces Saladin’s rise to power. Emphasis on historical context. Many fine illustrations of desert locations and artifacts of the era. Bibliography, index, notes on sources.

Hodgson, Marshall G. The Expansion of Islam in the Middle East. Vol. 2 in The Venture of Islam. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974. This seminal work places the dynamic of Islamic culture in the world context. Glossary of terms and names, bibliography (which includes coverage of visual arts), maps, and timetables.

Jubb, Margaret. The Legend of Saladin in Western Literature and Historiography. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 2000. Traces early hostile views and later views of Saladin that turned more positive. Also considers the legends surrounding his life, such as knighthood and influential French predecessors. Bibliography, index.

Lane-Poole, Stanley. Saladin: All-powerful Sultan and the Uniter of Islam. New York: Cooper Square Press, 2002. This is the forerunner of other modern biographies of Saladin, first published under a different title in 1898, and draws extensively on original chroniclers; includes discussions of major campaigns. Illustrations, map, bibliography, index.

Lev, Yaacov. Saladin in Egypt. Boston: Brill, 1999. An exploration of Saladin’s time in Egypt and his rise to power there. Also considers the fall of the Fāimids. Part of the Medieval Mediterranean series. Bibliography, index.

Lyons, Malcolm Cameron, and D. E. P. Jackson. Saladin: The Politics of the Holy War. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Explores Saladin in the context of the Crusades and his administrative, diplomatic, and political power. Uses Arabic texts and documents, some before unpublished and some from Saladin’s court, as resources. Maps, bibliography, index.

Newby, P. H. Saladin in His Time. 1963. Reprint. London: Phoenix Press, 2001. A concise and readable account of the Muslim and Christian background to Saladin’s accomplishments. Presents major battles and Saladin’s methods of government. Contains convenient map of the Middle East around 1170. Bibliography, index.

Reston, James, Jr. Warriors of God: Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade. New York: Knopf, 2002. This history of the Third Crusade presents Saladin as a sophisticated political leader. Richard is depicted as a complex and at times brutal figure.