Page 353 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

1654 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

European merchants supply the best
weaponry, contributing to their own
defeat. • Saladin (c. 1137–1193)

campaigns, Saladin managed to gain control over Dam-
Saladin ascus and Aleppo and forced Mosul to submit to his

(1137/38–1193) authority. Thus secure and with sufficient manpower to
Muslim ruler draw on, he was able to launch a decisive campaign
against the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which was suffering a
l-Malik al-Nasir Yusuf ibn Ayyub Salah al-Din period of divisiveness and disarray. After smashing the
A(“righteousness of the faith”), or Saladin, ruled over Crusader forces in a single battle at the Horns of Hattin
Egypt, Syria, and Palestine in the late twelfth century, (near Lake Tiberias) on 4 July 1187, Saladin was able to
was responsible for the near-total destruction of the sweep the Franks from Palestine and western Syria,
Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, and founded the although his failure to take Tyre (on the coast of southern
short-lived Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt and Syria, north- Lebanon) provided the protagonists of the Third Crusade
ern Iraq, and Yemen.Widely regarded as the epitome of (1189), Richard I of England and Philip II Augustus of
noble, pious, and martial virtues, he was revered in the France, with an embarkation point.The Franks captured
Muslim Middle East and romanticized in the medieval Acre (on the coast of present-day northern Israel, about
West. He remains today for Arabs a historical figure of 60 kilometers south of Tyre) after a bitter two-year siege,
near-mythic proportion. and a new treaty granted Christian pilgrims access to
Yusuf ibn Ayyub was born in Tikrit (in present-day Jerusalem. Saladin died six months later in March 1193.
Iraq) to a Kurdish family in the service of the Seljuk sul- Saladin’s success in uniting the Syrian military classes
tanate that at that time ruled much of the region. His was due to a number of factors, not the least the force of
father entered the service of the ruler of northern Syria, his own personality: He famously exhibited Arab and
‘Imad al-Din Zangi, and was rewarded with the lordship Islamic virtues of military prowess, bravery, piety, largesse,
of Baalbek in Lebanon. In the aftermath of European and integrity. His skillful use of diplomacy with Franks,
Christians’ failed Second Crusade (1145–1147), Zangi’s Byzantines, and Muslims allowed him to focus his ener-
heir Nur al-Din took Damascus, fulfilling his father’s gies, and his ideological program of jihad helped to gal-
ambition to unite the three great Syrian provinces of vanize popular political support in Syria and beyond. He
Aleppo, Mosul, and Damascus. In the 1160s Saladin was fortunate to be assisted by capable and trustworthy
accompanied an uncle on a series of missions against subordinates, including his prime minister and ideologue
Fatimid Egypt, which was regarded as a key territory for al-Qadi al-Fadil and his brother al-‘Adil, who acted as
the containment of the Crusader Kingdom and which governor of Egypt and who carried out the famous nego-
Zangi feared was becoming a Frankish protectorate. tiations with Richard I. Saladin preferred to give positions
Yusuf distinguished himself in these campaigns, and on of political responsibility to family members.
the death of his uncle in the course of the last of these mis- The same personal virtues that made Saladin attractive
sions, he managed to take control of the Syrian forces and to the Muslim world prompted his adoption by medieval
have himself appointed as vizier to the Fatimid caliph. Romance writers as a leading character and a paragon of
Taking the honorific title al-Malik al-Nasir (“the king vic- infidel virtue, a paradox that literary license rationalized
torious by God”), he became de facto ruler of Egypt. Hav- variably as the result of a Christian mother, secret con-
ing consolidated his position in a series of military version, or other factors. In the Muslim world contem-
campaigns, he dissolved the Fatimid caliphate in 1171. porary biographers, such as Baha’ al-Din, painted a
These successes troubled Nur al-Din, who planned to more realistic but also undoubtedly idealized portrait of
reassert his authority over Yusuf, but died in 1174, before Saladin as a pious yet pragmatic king and an advocate of
a mission could be launched. Over the course of the fol- holy war, an image that continues to resonate in the pop-
lowing twelve years, in a series of military and diplomatic ular consciousness.