‘ He was not always great and good; he was not always successful; many of his successes were reversed; but it is remarkable that he clung to the virtues of good leadership, resisted the evils of poor leadership, and achieved as much as he did.

Saladin was known for: founding the Ayyubid dynasty and capturing Jerusalem from the Christians. He was the most famous Muslim hero and a consummate military tactician.

Saladin (1137/1138–1193) was a Muslim military and political leader who as sultan (or leader) led Islamic forces during the Crusades. Participating in three campaigns into Egypt (which was governed by the Shi`ite Fatimid dynasty), Saladin became head of the military expeditionary forces in 1169.

Saladin all but destroyed the states of the Latin East in the Levant and successfully repelled the Third Crusade (1187-1192). Saladin achieved his success by unifying the Muslim Near East from Egypt to Arabia through a potent mix of warfare, diplomacy and the promise of holy war.

King Baldwin IV

Saladin planned to avenge the slaughter of Muslims in Jerusalem in 1099 by killing all Christians in the city, but he agreed to let them purchase their freedom provided that the Christian defenders left the Muslim inhabitants unmolested.

Saladin died of a fever on March 4, 1193, a few months after signing the treaty.

In Jerusalem, Saladin restored Muslim holy sites and practiced tolerance toward Christians.

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The Battle of Arsuf was a battle during the Third Crusade which took place on 7 September 1191. The battle was a Christian victory, with forces led by Richard I of England defeating a larger Ayyubid army led by Saladin….Battle of Arsuf.

Raynald was captured in the battlefield. Saladin personally beheaded him after he refused to convert to Islam. Most historians have regarded Raynald as an irresponsible adventurer whose lust for booty caused the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Salahuddin al-Ayyubi, popularly known in the West as Saladin, is a revered figure in Islam best known for recapturing Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187. Jerusalem was first conquered in 638 by the second Muslim caliph, Umar bin al-Khattab.

Jerusalem was conquered by the Christian First Crusade in 1099, after it had been under Muslim rule for 450 years. It became the capital of the Christian Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, until it was again conquered by the Ayyubids in 1187.

Battle of Jaffa, (5 August 1192). The final battle of the Third Crusade led directly to a peace deal between England’s King Richard the Lionheart and Muslim leader Saladin that restricted the Christian presence in the Holy Land to a thin coastal strip, but ensured its survival for another century.

These Christian defeats prompted the Third Crusade, which began two years after the Battle of Hattin….Battle of Hattin.

Then, after the surrender of Jerusalem, Saladin earned the eternal respect of Christians by offering more than reasonable terms, allowing all inhabitants to exit with their possessions, forbidding desecration of Christian holy places, and welcoming pilgrims. (Some of his officers were not pleased with his magnanimity.)

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