Saladin, properly known as Salah al-Dīn Yusuf ibn Ayyub (c. 1138 – March 4, 1193), Sultan of Egypt and Syria, was a 12th-century Kurdish Muslim political and military leader from Tikrit, Iraq. At the height of his power, the Ayyubid dynasty he founded ruled over Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Hejaz, and Yemen. He is renowned for leading Muslim resistance to the European Crusaders and eventually recapturing Palestine from the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. As such, he remains a widely admired figure in Arab, Kurdish, and Muslim culture.
History ExtractSaladin was born c. 1138 into a Kurdish family in Tikrit, Iraq and was sent to Damascus to finish his education. His father, Najm ad-Din Ayyub, was governor of Baalbek. For ten years Saladin lived in Damascus and studied Islamic Theology, at the court of Nur ad-Din (Nureddin). After an initial military education under the command of his uncle, Nur ad-Din's lieutenant Shirkuh, who was representing Nur ad-Din on campaigns against a faction of the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt in the 1160s, Saladin eventually succeeded the defeated faction and his uncle as vizier in 1169. There, he inherited a difficult role defending Egypt against the incursions of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, under Amalric I. His position was tenuous at first; no one expected him to last long in Egypt where there had been many changes of government in previous years due to a long line of child caliphs fought over by competing viziers. With a Sunni Syrian powerbase he had little control over the Egyptian army, which had been dominated by Shias since the rise of the Fatimads, and which was led in the name of the now otherwise powerless caliph Al-Adid.
When the caliph died, in September 1171, Saladin had the ulema pronounced the name of Al-Mustadi, the Sunni and, more importantly, Abbassid caliph in Baghdad, at sermon before Friday prayers; authority simply deposed the old line. Now Saladin ruled Egypt, but officially as the representative of Nur ad-Din, who himself conventionally recognised the Abbassid caliph.
Saladin revitalized the economy of Egypt, reorganized the military forces and, following his father's advice, stayed away from any conflicts with Nur ad-Din, his formal lord, after he had become the real ruler of Egypt. He waited until Nur ad-Din's death before starting serious military actions: at first against smaller Muslim states, then directing them against the Crusaders .
With Nur ad-Din's death (1174), he assumed the title of Sultan in Egypt founding the Ayyubid dynasty and restoring Sunnism in Egypt. He extended his territory westwards in the Maghreb, and when his uncle was sent up the Nile to pacify some resistance of the former Fatimid supporters, he continued on down the Red Sea to conquer Yemen. He is also regarded as a Waliullah, a person religiously close to God in the Sunni Muslim tradition.
LegacyThough the Ayyubid dynasty he founded would only outlive him by 57 years, the legacy of Saladin within the Arab World continues to this day. With the rise of Arab nationalism in the 20th Century, particularly with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict, Saladin's heroism and leadership gained a new significance. Saladin's liberation of Palestine from the European Crusaders was taken as the inspiration for the modern-day Arabs' struggle against Zionism. Moreover, the glory and comparative unity of the Arab World under Saladin was seen as the perfect symbol for the new unity sought by Arab nationalists, such as Gamal Abdel Nasser. It was for this reason that the Eagle of Saladin became the symbol of revolutionary Egypt, and was subsequently adopted by several other Arab states (Iraq, Palestine, and Yemen).
BurialSaladin is buried in a mausoleum in the garden outside the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria. Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany donated a new marble sarcophagus to the mausoleum. Saladin was, however, not placed in it. Instead the mausoleum, which is open to visitors, now has two sarcophagi: one empty in marble and one in wood containing the body of Saladin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saladin