*[[Siege of Alexandria (1174)|Siege of Alexandria]]

*[[Battle of Belvoir Castle]]

*[[SiegeBattle of Kerakal-Fule]]

*[[BattleSiege of HattinKerak]]

*[[SiegeBattle of Belvoir CastleHattin]]

'''Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub'''{{efn|{{lang-langx|ar|صلاح الدين يوسف بن أيوب}} / [[ALA-LC]]: ''Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb''; full name: '''al-Malik al-Nāṣir Abūʾl-Muẓaffar Yūsūf ibn Ayyūb'''{{Sfn|Richards|1995|p=910}}}} ({{Circa| 1137}} – 4 March 1193), commonly known as '''Saladin''',{{efn|{{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|æ|l|ə|d|ɪ|n}}. 'Saladin' is a contraction of an honorific {{transliteration|ar|[[laqab]]}}, from the {{lang-langx|ar|صلاح الدین|lit=Honour of the Faith|translit=Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn}}.{{sfn|Lane-Poole|1906|p=6}}}} was the founder of the [[Ayyubid dynasty]]. Hailing from a [[Kurds|Kurdish]] family, he was the first [[sultan]] of both [[Egypt in the Middle Ages#Ayyubid period|Egypt]] and [[Syria (region)|Syria]]. An important figure of the [[Third Crusade]], he spearheaded the Muslim military effort against the [[Crusader states]] in the [[Levant]]. At the height of his power, the Ayyubid realm spanned Egypt, Syria, [[Upper Mesopotamia]], the [[Hejaz]], [[South Arabia|Yemen]], and [[Nubia]].

Alongside his uncle [[Shirkuh]], a Kurdish Mercenarymercenary commander in service of the [[Zengid dynasty]],<ref name=":1" /> Saladin was sent to [[Fatimid Caliphate|Fatimid Egypt]] in 1164, on the orders of the Zengid ruler [[Nur ad-Din (died 1174)|Nur ad-Din]]. With their original purpose being to help restore [[Shawar]] as the [[Vizier (Fatimid Caliphate)|vizier]] to the teenage Fatimid caliph [[al-Adid]], a power struggle ensued between Shirkuh and Shawar after the latter was reinstated. Saladin, meanwhile, climbed the ranks of the Fatimid government by virtue of his military successes against Crusader assaults as well as his personal closeness to al-Adid. After Shawar was assassinated and Shirkuh died in 1169, al-Adid appointed Saladin as vizier. During his tenure, Saladin, a [[Sunni Islam|Sunni Muslim]], began to undermine the Fatimid establishment; following al-Adid's death in 1171, he abolished the [[Cairo]]-based [[Ismailism|Isma'ili]] [[Shia Muslim]] Fatimid Caliphate and realigned Egypt with the [[Baghdad]]-based Sunni [[Abbasid Caliphate]].

In 1174, Saladin ordered the arrest of a Sufi mystic, Qadid al-Qaffas ({{lang-langx|ar|قديد القفاص}}), in [[Alexandria]].<ref name=":0" /> In 1191, he ordered his son to execute the Sufi philosopher [[Shihab al-Din Yahya ibn Habash Suhrawardi|Yahya al-Suhrawardi]], the founder of the [[Illuminationism|Illuminationist]] current in [[Islamic philosophy]], in [[Aleppo]]. Ibn Shaddad, who describes this event as part of his chapter on the sultan's piety, states that Al-Suhrawardi was said to have "rejected the Holy Law and declared it invalid." After consulting with some of the ''[[ulama]]'' (religious scholars), Saladin ordered al-Suhrawardi's execution.<ref name=":0" /> Saladin also opposed the [[Order of Assassins]], an extremist [[Isma'ili]] [[Shi'i]] sect in Iran and Syria, seeing them as heretics and as being too close with the [[Crusades|Crusaders]].<ref name=":0">{{cite book |author=Caldwell Ames |first=Christine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aPgGBwAAQBAJ |title=Medieval Heresies |date=2015 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1107023369 |page=171}}</ref>

The battle ended in a Zengid victory, and Saladin is credited with having helped Shirkuh in one of the "most remarkable victories in recorded history", according to [[Ibn al-Athir]], although more of Shirkuh's men were killed and the battle is considered by most sources as not a total victory. Saladin and Shirkuh moved towards [[Alexandria]] where they were welcomed, given money and arms, and provided a base.{{sfn|Lyons|Jackson|1982|p=15}} Faced by a superior Crusader–Egyptian force attempting to besiege the city, Shirkuh split his army. He and the bulk of his force withdrew from Alexandria, while Saladin was left with the task of guarding the city, where he was [[Siege of Alexandria (1167)|besieged]].{{sfn|Lyons|Jackson|1982|p=16}}

Although Saladin faded into history after the [[Middle Ages]], he appears in a sympathetic light in modern literature, first in [[Gotthold Ephraim Lessing|Lessing]]'s play ''[[Nathan the Wise]]'' (1779), which transfers the central idea of "Saladin's table" to the post-medieval world. He is a central character in Sir [[Walter Scott]]'s novel ''[[The Talisman (Scott novel)|The Talisman]]'' (1825), which more than any other single text influenced the romantic view of Saladin. Scott presented Saladin as a "modern [19th-century] liberal European gentlemen, beside whom medieval Westerners would always have made a poor showing".{{sfn|Riley-Smith|2008|p=67}} 20th-century French author [[Albert Champdor]] described him as ''"Le plus pur héros de l'Islam"'' ({{lang-langx|en|The purest Hero of Islam}}).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cahen |first1=Claude |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b7sieLyg-EEC&dq=champdor+historian&pg=PA166 |title=Introduction to the History of the Muslim East: A Bibliographical Guide |last2=Sauvaget |first2=Jean |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |year=1965 |page=166 |language=en |chapter=The Seljuks and Their Descendants – Historical Bibliography}}</ref> Despite the Crusaders' slaughter when they originally conquered Jerusalem in 1099, Saladin granted amnesty and free passage to all common Catholics and even to the defeated Christian army, as long as they were able to pay the aforementioned ransom (the [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Greek Orthodox]] Christians were treated even better because they often opposed the western Crusaders).{{cn|date=October 2024}}