Saladin: Righteousness Of Religion

Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub aka Saladin, (1138–1193) was born in Tikrit, Iraq. Saladin (meaning "Righteousness of Religion"), was the founder of the Ayyūbid dynast. With the justification of Jihad, which united the Muslims, and his authority gained through conquest and diplomacy, Saladin gained victory at the decisive Battle of Hattin, which ended the dominance of the Franks in the holy land. In addition, the Franks were fighting amongst themselves which diminished their strength and led to their defeat in 1187. Furthermore, Saladin was born into power and enjoyed a high profile with Nur ad-Din whom he would later replace as Sultan of a unified Egypt, Palestine, Upper Mesopotamia and Syria. Jihad, coupled with Frankish discord, and Saladin’s …show more content…
Nur ad-Din saw Egypt as means to finance his efforts against the Franks in Syria. Saladin however was building up his army to keep the Egyptians in check and to field a force with enough manpower to resist the Franks. Nur ad-Din became suspicious after Saladin sent him a gift from the Fatimid treasury which failed to impress and Nur ah-din began to suspect Saladin of treachery but with the death of Nur ah-Din (1174) Saladin began his pursuit of Empire in earnest. The heir to Nur –ah-Din’s territory was his nine year old nephew Malik as-Salih. Initially Saladin acknowledged the boy as his Suzerain but on Oct 24, 1174, Saladin easily occupied Damascus with little resistance and spent 12 years bringing all Muslim held lands from Egypt to Syria, Palestine and Northern Mesopotamia under his control. …show more content…
The second time two adversaries met on the battlefield was in 1179 at the Battle of Marj Ayyun, this time Saladin defeated Baldwin IV who barely managed to avoid being captured by the Saracens. In 1183 Saladin once again went on the offensive against Raynald of Châtillon, Lord of Oultrejordain, whose castle fortress was at Kerak, after Raynald captured the town of Aqaba, which lay within striking distance of Mecca. Saladin lay siege to Kerak in 1183 and again in 1184 but made a tactical withdrawal after King Baldwin IV went to the aid of Raynald. Saladin had entered into various truces with the Franks in 1175, 1180, 1182 and the truce of 1185 which was supposed to last four years but in 1187 Raynald attacked a caravan. Saladin once again went to battle against the Franks culminating in his overwhelming victory which decimated the Frankish ranks to the extent most of the Crusader strongholds, including Jerusalem itself, fell easily to the Muslim army of