Saladin: a hero of Islam and scourge of the crusaders

• On the podcast | Jonathan Phillips details the astronomic rise of Saladin

Only six months after securing a truce with Richard the Lionheart, one of his most significant achievements, he died. Saladin was, and remains, a hero of Islam, and was praised by his enemies in the West for his military skills, his lack of vanity, and his generous and virtuous nature.

What was Saladin’s full name?

Saladin’s full name was Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub. He was known as Yusuf, a name he remained particularly fond of during his life since it had connotations to the Biblical figure Joseph (the Latinised version of Yusuf), who had been sent to Egypt as a slave but rose to be a powerful leader – a story that shared similarities to Saladin’s own career path.

The name Salah ad-Din (westernised to Saladin) was actually a title, meaning ‘righteousness of the faith’. Ayyub was his father’s name, hence ibn Ayyub, meaning son of Ayyub.

What was Saladin’s early life like?

Born in either 1137 or 1138 in the city of Tikrit (now in Iraq), Saladin was raised in a prominent Kurdish family, with his father and uncle holding prestigious positions in the ranks of the Muslim Syrian rulership.

As a boy, Saladin moved with his family to one of the great cities of the Near East: the wealthy and bustling Damascus, ruled over by the powerful Nur al-Din. With the growing sentiment of counter-crusade in the air, the young Saladin was thrust into an environment where the idea of jihad was prominent.

It was under his uncle Shirkuh, a stocky, grizzled warrior and arguably Nur al-Din's best general, that Saladin began his own military career and accompanied him on his campaigns in Egypt.

How did Saladin become a military leader and ruler?

During the 1160s, a struggle erupted between the Syrian Muslims and the crusader states over the control of Egypt. The region’s great wealth and declining rulership under the Fatimid Shi’ite Caliphate made it a tempting target.

Shirkuh, with a young Saladin in his ranks, seized control of the region in January 1169, but died just two months later from complications brought on by overeating. In his early 30s, Saladin was appointed commander of the Syrian forces and the new vizier of the Fatimids.

Despite facing revolts, assassination attempts and crusader aggression, Saladin’s rise continued apace. Two years later, he would abolish the Fatimid Caliphate and, at the head of the new Ayyubid dynasty, become the governor of Egypt.

“This was one of the most exciting moments in Saladin’s life,” says crusades historian Jonathan Phillips, speaking on the HistoryExtra podcast. “He was a Kurd at the head of a Sunni Syrian invasion army that had conquered Shiite Egypt. That rapid ascent from a relatively unknown position to having this authority was truly remarkable.”

How did Saladin draw together the Muslim Near East?

With Egypt under his control, Saladin was quick to learn the required skills of rulership. He took harsh punitive measures against those who tried to remove him from power, while surrounding himself with a stable and loyal group of administrators. To understand his new domain better, he commissioned a survey of Egypt's economy and a book of local etiquette.

All the while, he remained theoretically loyal to Nur al-Din, his patron in Syria, but that eventually fell apart. Saladin rejected all advances from Nur al-Din to plan a coordinated attack upon the crusader states, and in 1174 ordered the conquest of Yemen in the name of the Ayyubids (so-called for Saladin’s father, who died in 1173).

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Nur al-Din recognised Saladin’s challenge to his authority and marched against him. Over the next few months, however, Saladin proved to be extremely lucky: Nur al-Din died, soon followed by the king of Jerusalem.

Saladin set about taking control of Nur al-Din’s empire. He returned to Syria with an army and secured Damascus; he married his former patron’s widow, Ismat al-Din (sometimes known as Asimat); and he announced his intention to rule over the Muslim territories of Egypt (now a Sunni regime), Syria, Mesopotamia and Palestine and to take the holy war to the crusader states.

It took 12 years, and the result was a fragile confederation rather than a fully united Muslim world, but Saladin had achieved his aim through force and diplomacy by 1186.

Was Saladin motivated by personal ambition or religious fervour?

Saladin was driven by both ambition and religious devotion. There was no question that he was out to build a dynastic empire for his family, the Ayyubids. Yet as the writers around him show, he was clearly a pious Muslim.

He actively extended Sunni control over Egypt, which had been ruled by Shiite Muslims under the Fatimids, and sponsored the religious classes considerably. His devotion shines through most clearly in his determination to recover Jerusalem, the third most holy city in Islam as the place the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven during his Night Journey.

What do we know about Saladin’s personality?

“Pious, merciful, generous, devoted – according to contemporary Muslim sources Saladin ticked all the boxes. If social media had been around in the 12th century, Saladin's entourage would have been all over it,” says Phillips. “They were great propagandists who wrote constantly about how great their frontman was, so Saladin has this strong, outward-facing PR profile.”

While his exaggerated image might appear to have elements of a literary confection conjured up by his admiring inner circle, Saladin certainly achieved many successes that earned him praise from both ally and enemy alike. “Examining sources written by Christian writers can be a good litmus test,” adds Phillips. “You might expect them to be negative about Saladin – and many of them are – but some provide us with a more nuanced picture.”

William of Tyre, a contemporary Christian historian and chronicler of the crusades, described how Saladin possessed three qualities to frighten any opponent: he was wise in counsel, valiant in war, and generous beyond all measure.

Saladin was regarded as a model of chivalric behaviour, a lover of poetry and hunting, modest in the way he presented himself (he reportedly refused to dye his hair when it turned grey), and his generosity saw him give away money in huge amounts. Incidentally, it was said that after he died his personal treasury was so empty that money had to be borrowed for his funeral. Such munificence to all came at a price though – unwavering loyalty.

What was Saladin’s relationship like with the crusader states?

Saladin’s ultimate aim was a holy war against the crusaders and to oust the Latin Christian forces, or Franks, from the states they had established after the First Crusade in 1099. These included the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Yet securing his domain had to be achieved first, leading to years of fighting against his fellow Muslims and the seizure of important cities like Damascus, Aleppo and Mosul. Fighting against the crusader states was intermittent and, initially, unsuccessful.

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Saladin’s crushing defeat at the battle of Montgisard in 1177, near Ramla in modern-day Israel, was a severe blow and ended with him fleeing all the way back to Egypt. But gradually the tide turned in his favour: almost two years later, his forces besieged and captured a newly constructed castle at Jacob’s Ford, over the Jordan River.

As momentum built, Saladin set his sights firmly on Jerusalem and attempted a number of invasions between 1183 and 1184. The Franks who had controlled Jerusalem since 1099, however, adopted a frustrating but sensible response, according to Phillips. “They simply refused to engage in conflict. Saladin wanted and needed to fight them, but they always stayed out of range, like a boxer dodging out of the path of their opponent’s blows.”

It would not be until 1187 that he launched a full-scale attack. Utilising a Frankish attack on a Muslim caravan in the trans-Jordan area as a cause for war, he invaded the kingdom of Jerusalem with a huge force of troops gathered from across his domain, and laid siege to the crusader castle at Tiberias. This finally provoked the Franks into battle.

What happened at the battle of Hattin?

The Franks decided to relieve the besieged castle, sending a large army that was ultimately trapped and harassed by Saladin’s forces. “They hoped to march across about 32 kilometres of arid land in the middle of the summer while being bombarded,” explains Phillips. “Saladin had so much water, his men poured it onto the ground in front of the Franks, [and] set alight any dry brush to choke them with smoke.”

On 4 July 1187, the two armies met near an extinct volcano, known as the Horns of Hattin. Saladin outnumbered the crusaders, led by the king of Jerusalem himself, Guy of Lusignan, and secured a resounding victory.

So complete was the destruction of the Christian army at the battle of Hattin that Saladin’s troops were able to capture their great talisman, the True Cross, a large piece of wood encased in silver that was believed by the crusaders to be from the cross upon which Christ was crucified.

The victory had broken the military strength of the Franks. Over the next few months, Saladin captured many cities that had been in crusader control, such as Acre, Nazareth and Jaffa, but more importantly it opened the way to Jerusalem.

How did Saladin recapture Jerusalem?

In September 1187, Saladin took up position outside the strong walls of Jerusalem. If he captured the holy city, some expected him to avenge the massacre of the Muslim defenders in 1099. When the time came, though, he acted differently.

“The Frankish commander of the city did not have many cards to play, but he played them well,” explains Phillips. He gave Saladin two options: agree to their surrender or attack the city and face the consequences. With the fate of potentially thousands of Muslim prisoners and the holy shrines of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock on the line, Saladin chose the former.

Jerusalem was captured on 2 October with minimal bloodshed, after 88 years of Frankish control.

Saladin allowed those inside to be ransomed, often at low prices or, if they could not pay, for nothing at all. While Christian churches were converted into mosques, Saladin did permit Eastern Orthodox and Coptic Christians to remain in Jerusalem and he ensured the protection of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

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“This is the moment where Saladin’s great reputation for mercy really comes to the fore,” says Phillips. “Rather paradoxically, he’s both stuck a stake in the heart of Christianity by capturing the city, and yet has shown great power in this unexpected act of mercy to those of the Christian faith.”

Saladin’s authority, and status in Islam, had never been greater. Yet the capture of Jerusalem simultaneously created an immediate problem, as Phillips explains. With much already in the balance in terms of preserving his large empire and safeguarding the Islamic faith, “he had essentially just pressed the starting button on what we now call the Third Crusade.”

What did Saladin do in the Third Crusade?

The news that Jerusalem had been lost shocked Christian nations in the West, and then rallied them. Pope Gregory VIII called for a crusade with the intention of reconquering the Holy Land and the call was answered by three mighty heavyweights of Western Europe: Philip Augustus of France, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, and England’s Richard the Lionheart.

Saladin would have to face them all. To create a strong defensive position, he seized as much land from the crusader states as possible and called the Muslim people to action. He could do nothing to stop tens of thousands of Christian men and women, inspired by the loss of Jerusalem, from signing up to the cause and making their way from Europe. In 1188, the first of these crusaders landed on Saladin’s doorstep.

Yet the fact that Saladin had failed to capture the city of Tyre was significant, as the fortress on the coast became a rallying point for what was left of the Christian forces he had already defeated. From there, Guy of Lusignan laid siege to Acre (modern-day Akko).

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This would be the great set piece of the Third Crusade, described by contemporaries as akin to the ancient Siege of Troy.

“Saladin was not expecting this, and he ended up besieging Guy, the man who was besieging Acre,” says Phillips. His attempts to break through the crusader ranks led nowhere, and a long and arduous siege dragged on. At one stage, a truce was decided upon due to the physical and mental exhaustion on both sides.

Saladin struggled to maintain morale amidst his own dire health. “Suffering from colic, he had terrible stomach pain and vomiting,” explains Phillips. “It was as if his immune system had packed in.”

Luck did strike once again, though: in 1190, while travelling through modern-day Turkey, Frederick Barbarossa drowned and his army broke up before getting anywhere near Jerusalem. But with the arrival of kings Philip Augustus and Richard I in the summer of 1191, the fate of Acre was sealed. With momentum and sheer number of troops, the siege was broken and the city fell into crusader hands.

Those inside were forced to surrender, but Richard did not treat them with the same understanding that Saladin had shown in Jerusalem. “In what can only be described as a war crime, Richard executed around 2,500 prisoners in cold blood,” says Phillips, “As well as a horrifying atrocity, this was something that humiliated Saladin. It showed he was incapable of looking after his people.”

Did the Third Crusade succeed in recapturing Jerusalem?

From Acre, Richard marched his army down the coastline and defeated Saladin at the battle at Arsuf in September 1191. Following a final defeat for the Muslim forces at Jaffa, in July 1192, the need for diplomacy was at an all-time high. Saladin was ill – as was Richard – and both were running out of money and morale.

While Richard seemed convinced that negotiations could get somewhere, Saladin refused to attend himself, noting that rulers only met once they had an agreement in place. Instead, Richard spent a lot of time talking with Saladin’s brother (and later, successor) Saphadin. Yet despite them getting on remarkably well, they failed to reach a truce at this point.

Richard had to deliver on the main goal of the crusade: he marched his army to Jerusalem. At such a long distance inland across both mountains and plains, and with the crusader forces depleted and tired, it would have been a monumental task to capture the city.

Saladin was able to stall Richard’s progress, forcing the crusade into the harsh winter of 1191. Facing appallingly bad weather and fears of being surrounded, Richard’s forces retreated from the idea of any attack on Jerusalem.

Then when a second attempt failed in the summer of 1192, Richard concluded that even if he could capture the city, he would not be able to hold it. “His justification was that he did not want to go down in the annals as the man who reclaimed Jerusalem and then lost it,” says Phillips. “It's a curious calculation, and one which devastated his army.”

he Third Crusade ended with a negotiated truce in September 1192. Saladin’s forces had been battered, yet he had held the mighty crusader armies to a draw, secured a three-year and eight months peace treaty and kept hold of Jerusalem. While it was agreed that Christian pilgrims could have access to the city and its holy sites, the ultimate aim of the crusade set out by the pope had been unsuccessful.

How did Saladin die?

Saladin died on 4 March 1193, just a matter of months after the Christian armies of the Third Crusade had left. He was in his mid-50s.

He had returned to his favourite city, Damascus, where he fell ill. Suffering from crippling stomach pain and vomiting, his physicians attempted to aid him using treatments like bleeding and emetics. These ultimately worsened his condition and likely, along with the toll of his many years as a warrior and leader, caused his death.

Jonathan Phillips is Professor of History of the Crusades at Royal Holloway, University of London. He was speaking to Emily Briffett about Saladin’s life and legacy on the HistoryExtra podcast.