Founder of the Ayyubid Dynasty, a Famous Commander of the Crusades
Saladin (1137–1193) was a Kurdish Muslim commander and founder of the Ayyubid dynasty who, during the Crusades, retook Jerusalem after nearly ninety years of Crusader occupation; his military skill and relatively magnanimous conduct (he did not carry out reprisal massacres against the city’s Christians) won wide respect, including from his adversaries, and he was afterward portrayed in both Western literature and Eastern histories as a model of chivalry and tolerance — one of the few figures in medieval history who spans both Christian and Islamic narratives with a relatively positive reputation in each.
In 1187, Saladin routed the main Crusader force at the Battle of Hattin and then came before Jerusalem. The garrison sued for surrender, and Saladin — in sharp contrast to the bloody massacre when the First Crusade took the city in 1099 — allowed the Christians of the city to leave safely on payment of a ransom, a handling that historians have cited and discussed again and again since.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.
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