Salah al Din Yusuf Ibn Ayyub (1137-1193) is better known to westerners as Saladin. Unquestionably this Islamic ruler looms over the history of the Crusades. For a period of time usually conceptualized as one with chivalrous European knights, the truth is that most crusaders acted barbarously.

Saladin, by contrast, was known -- rightfully -- for his chivalry. In this day and age, it is perhaps beneficial for several reasons to discuss this hero of Islam.

Salah al-Din was bornat Tikrit on the river Tigris in modern Iraq, and was sent to Damascus to finish his education (it is interesting, is it not, how historical places emerge again and again?). His family was Kurdish.

Saladin lived for ten years at the court of Nur ad-Din, who was at that time the ruler of Syria. He distinguished himself by his interest in Sunni hadith (the hadith is a body of laws, legends and stories about Muhammad's way of life).

After an initial military education under the command of his uncle, the Seljuk statesman and soldier Shirkuh, who was representing Nur ad-Din on campaigns against a faction of the Fatimid caliphate of Egypt in the 1160s, Saladin eventually succeeded his uncle as vizier in 1169.

The Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt had been substantially weakened by a series of very young Caliphs when the Crusaders attacked in 1163. Shirkuh had convinced Nur al-Din to invade the following year, and the Syrian army drove out the Crusaders before battling the Fatimids (who were Shi'ite muslims). Egypt was taken over by Nur ad-Din in 1169; Saladin became the Sultan of Egypt.

When the last (and by now powerless) Fatimid caliph died, in September 1171, Saladin had the imams pronounce the name of the Abassid caliph in Baghdad at Friday prayers, and the weight of authority simply deposed the old line. Now Saladin ruled Egypt, but officially as the representative of Nur ad-Din, who himself conventionally recognized the Abassid caliph.

Saladin was treated as a usurper by many Seljuks, who refused to serve under a Kurdish "sultan." Nevertheless, Saladin proved to be the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty and restored Sunnism in Egypt.

On two occasions, in 1171 and 1173, Saladin retreated from an invasion of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. These had been launched by Nur ad-Din, and Saladin hoped that the Crusader kingdom would remain intact, as a buffer state between Egypt and Syria, until Saladin could gain control of Syria as well. Nur ad-Din and Saladin were headed towards open war on these counts, when Nur ad-Din died in 1174. His heir was a mere boy, in the hands of court eunuchs (he died in 1181). Saladin marched on Damascus, and was welcomed into the city. He reinforced his legitimacy there in the time-honored way, by marrying Nur ad-Din's widow. Aleppo and Mosul, on the other hand, the two other largest cities that Nur ad-Din had ruled, were never taken, but Saladin managed to impose his influence and authority on them in 1176 and 1186 respectively. While he was occupied in besieging Aleppo, on May 22, 1176 the "Assassins" attempted to murder him.

Saladin preferred to leave the Crusader kingdoms alone, but was repeatedly provoked by them. Raynald of Chatillon, in particular, harassed Muslim trading and pilgrimage routes with a fleet on the Red Sea, a water route that it was essential for Saladin to keep open. Worse, and what made him a legendary monster in the Muslim world, Raynald threatened to attack the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Then Raynald looted a caravan of pilgrims on hajj in 1185. In July of 1187, Saladin invaded the Kingdom of Jerusalem and annihilated the Crusader army at the Battle of Hattin, a major disaster for the Crusaders and a turning point in the history of the Crusades. Saladin captured and executed Raynald; he also captured the King, Guy of Lusignan. He then recaptured Jerusalem on October 2, 1187, after 88 years of Crusader rule. Soon he had taken back every Crusader city except Tyre.

This led to the Third Crusade, which took back Acre, and Saladin was defeated by King Richard I of England at the Battle of Arsuf in 1191. Saladin's relationship with Richard was one of chivalrous mutual respect as well as military rivalry; both were celebrated in the courtly romances that developed in northern Europe. The two came to an agreement over Jerusalem in the treaty of Ramla 1192, whereby it would remain in Muslim hands but would be open to Christian pilgrimages; the treaty reduced the Latin Kingdom to a strip along the coast from Tyre to Joffa.

Saladin died in 1193 at Damascus. When they opened Saladin's treasury they found there was not enough money to pay for his funeral; he had given his money away to those in need.

Despite his fierce opposition to the Christian powers, Saladin achieved a great reputation in Europe as a chivalrous knight, so much so that there existed by the 14th century an epic poem about his exploits, and Dante included him among the virtuous pagan souls in Limbo. The noble Saladin appears in a sympathetic light in Sir Walter Scott's The Talisman (1825).

The name Salah ad Din means "Righteousness of the Faith", and through the ages Saladin has been an inspiration for Muslims in many respects. A province centered around Tikrit in modern Iraq, Salah ad Din, is named after Saladin.