Who is salahuddin al ayyubi

As long as the Fatimids ruled Egypt, coordinated military action against the Crusader kingdoms was not possible. The race to Egypt was of great immediacy. In , there were two rival viziers in Cairo. One of them invited the Franks to intervene in Egypt. The other appealed to Nuruddin. Nuruddin prompted dispatched Shirkuh to Cairo.

In both the Seljuks and the Crusaders appeared in Egypt but neither was able to establish a base. Two years later Shirkuh returned to Egypt with his nephew Salahuddin. This time he was successful in establishing his authority in the Nile Delta. Mustadi, the last Fatimid Caliphwas forced to appoint Shirkuh as his vizier.

In , Shirkuh died and his nephew Salahuddin was appointed in his place. Salahuddin was the man of the hour. He fought off repeated attacks by the Crusaders on Egypt, put down revolts within the army and gave Egypt respite from incessant civil war. Despite three centuries of Fatimid rule, the Egyptian population had remained Sunni, following the Sunnah schools of Fiqh.

In , Salahuddin abolished the Fatimid Caliphate. The name of the Abbasid Caliph was inserted in the khutba.

So peaceful was this momentous revolution that the Fatimid Caliph Mustadi did not even know of this change and quietly died a few weeks later. The Fatimids, once so powerful that they controlled more than half of the Islamic world including Mecca, Madina and Jerusalem, passed into history. The Sunni vision of history, championed by the Turks, triumphed. With the disappearance of the Fatimid schism, a united orthodox Islam threw down the gauntlet to the invading Crusaders.

Historians often argue whether it is man that influences history or it is his circumstance and the environment that shape the course of events. This argument misses the point. There is an organic relationship between the actions of men and women and the circumstances under which they operate.

Those who chisel out the edifice of history do so with their power, bending the flow of events to their will and leave behind a blazing trail for others to follow and sort out. But they succeed because circumstances are in their favor. Ultimately, the outcome of historical events is a moment of Divine Grace. It is not obvious, a priori, what the outcome of a critical historical moment will be. Salahuddin, perhaps the most celebrated of Muslim soldiers after Ali ibn Abu Talib r , was a man who molded history with his iron will.

His accomplishment in evicting the Crusaders from Palestine and Syria are well known. What is less well known is his achievement in welding a monolithic Islamic body politic, free of internal fissures, which offered the Muslims, for a brief generation, the opportunity to dominate global events. It was the generation of Salahuddin that not only recaptured Jerusalem, but also laid the foundation of an Islamic Empire in India and briefly contained the Crusader advance in Spain and North Africa.

It was only a matter of time before the weight of this power was brought on the Crusaders. The cause for hostilities was provided by one of the Latin chiefs, Renaud de Chatellon. Renaud was the king of the coastal cities in Palestine and Lebanon. On one occasion, when there was a truce between the Muslims and the Franks, he treacherously attacked and carried off a caravan from Egypt that passed through his territory.

He seized these people, put them to torture, threw them into pits and imprisoned some in dungeons. Salahuddin, when he heard these words, vowed to slay the infidel with his own hands. Sybilla, daughter of the previous king Amaury and her husband Guy de Lusignan ruled the Frankish kingdom of Jerusalem at the time. Salahuddin demanded retribution for the pillage of the caravan from Guy de Lusignan.

The latter refused. Salahuddin sent his son Al Afdal to hunt down Renaud. His capital Karak was besieged. The Franks, upon hearing of this siege, united and advanced to meet Al Afdal. In turn, Salahuddin moved to assist his son. Saladin was born in AD in Tikrit, Iraq, and studied the Quran and theology along with astronomy, mathematics, and law.

He joined the military as a young man and was ably trained by his uncle Asad-al-Din Shirkoh, a commander of the Zengid Dynasty. His rise from a soldier to the King of Egypt and Syria was the result of both cleverly executed tactics and advantageous circumstances.

He held key posts in Egypt, enabling him to consolidate power and overthrow the Fatimids. Syria, at the time, was ruled by the Zengids; when the Zengid ruler unexpectedly died, leaving an underage successor, the road was eventually cleared for Saladin to capture Syria. During his reign, Saladin built many schools, hospitals, and institutions in his quest for intellectual and civic achievements.

He was also determined to bring justice, peace, and prosperity to those within his domain. Omar Suleiman tells us the story of Jerusalem. Can Jerusalem once again be home to all three faiths, Muslim, Jews and Christians. Once upon a time, they all lived together in theme.

This talk takes us back to Jerusalem to the time Muslim rule. Watch this brief video to get some answers. Salahuddin was born in in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit.

Military experience Salahuddin joined the staff of his uncle, an important military commander under ruler and military leader Nur al-Din, who was the son and successor of Sultan Imad ad-Din Zengi of Mosul.

Battle of Hattin After reuniting Syria and Egypt, Salahuddin set out to launch a campaign against the Crusaders, who controlled Jerusalem. He died in Damascus in and the Ayyubid dynasty succumbed to the Mamluk Sultanate in Please contact us for subscription options. Palestinian woman says she will protect her son's grave with her life. Once Nur ad-Din lost his life in May ,the Muslim state coalition started to break down, and that's when Saladin stood out, claiming he was the rightful heir.

It was at that time when he managed to takeover Egypt, something that was hard to fathom at that time. Saladin unified the Muslim world After he became the sultan of Egypt, he went on to capture Damascus in At that time, he claimed to be the Sunni Orthodoxy protector. The fact that he was removed from the Shiite caliph in Cairo actively brought a lot of weight to his claim.

He was accepted as protector, and then he went on to unify the Muslim world or at least create a coalition. Since there were so many city rulers and states,that felt very difficult in the beginning, yet Saladin was one of those people that never gave up. In order to create the coalition, Saladin had to rely on a combination of diplomacy and warfare. He fought and defeated an army at Hama in , so he had to deal with some battles here and there.

Another thing to note here is the fact that he cemented his power mostly thanks to the caliph of Baghdad recognized him to be the governor of Yemen, Egypt and Syria. Despite that, Aleppo was still independent,and it was ruled by Nur ad-Din's son. The son was bringing quite a lot of trouble from a diplomatic perspective. Since the Sultan of Egypt survived 2 attacks,Saladin replied to that by attacking the Masyaf Assassin castle. Not only did he defeat them, but he also pillaged the entire area, which was quite the achievement for that time.

But Saladin wasn't always about warfare. He usually tried to get things done the diplomatic way. Mevlana Museum Konya. He married Nur ad-Din's widow, as well as Unur's daughter later on. He managed to associate himself with 2 important ruling dynasties at that time.

The franks defeated Saladin at Mont Gisardin , however he did capture a Jordan fortress and he also had a victory in at MontGisard. He managed to show everyone that he wanted to eliminate westerners from the Middle East, something that brought him a lot of support during that time.

Saladin also had a reputation when it came to the way he behaved and how he worked with other people.