50 Fun Facts About Saladin

Saladin was born in Tikrit, in which modern country?

His family were Kurds who had come from near Dvin in Armenia; a governorate around Tikrit is now named after him.

Saladin founded which ruling house, becoming the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria?

It was named after his father, Najm ad-Din Ayyub, and outlived him by only 57 years.

Saladin's personal name was Yusuf. What does the honorific 'Salah ad-Din' mean?

It is a laqab, an epithet; Egyptian Shias later punned it into 'Kharab ad-Din', destroyer of religion.

Saladin is frequently described as the most famous figure in history from which people?

He spoke Kurdish and Arabic and knew Turkish and Persian.

Under which uncle, a mercenary commander, did Saladin's military career begin?

They were sent to Egypt in 1164 to restore the vizier Shawar; Shirkuh died in 1169 and Saladin took his place.

Which Zengid ruler sent Saladin and his uncle to Egypt in 1164?

After Nur ad-Din died in 1174 Saladin married his widow and took over his Syrian lands.

In 1171 Saladin abolished which Cairo-based Shia regime and realigned Egypt with the Sunni Abbasids?

He had served as vizier to its last caliph, al-Adid, while quietly undermining the state.

After defeating the Zengids at the Horns of Hama in 1175, Saladin was proclaimed sultan by which Abbasid caliph?

He then spent years conquering northern Syria, taking Aleppo by 1182 but never Mosul.

Saladin survived two attempts on his life by which sect?

He regarded the Isma'ili sect as heretics who were too close to the Crusaders.

Saladin's decisive 1187 victory over the Crusader army was at which battle?

The Crusader force, marched away from its water at La Saphorie, was largely annihilated near Lake Tiberias.

After his great 1187 victory, Saladin personally executed which Crusader lord, fulfilling a vow made after attacks on Muslim caravans?

Raynald had raided Red Sea pilgrim routes and threatened Mecca and Medina from his fortress at Kerak.

Why did Saladin strike a goblet from Raynald's hand after Guy of Lusignan passed it to him?

'I did not ask this evil man to drink,' Saladin said, 'and he would not save his life by doing so.'

Saladin spared King Guy of Lusignan with which remark?

He released Guy in 1188 and returned him to his wife Sibylla.

Jerusalem surrendered to Saladin on which date in 1187?

Balian of Ibelin negotiated terms after threatening to kill 5,000 Muslim hostages and destroy the Dome of the Rock.

Who commanded the defence of Jerusalem and negotiated its surrender to Saladin?

Orlando Bloom played him in Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven, with Ghassan Massoud as Saladin.

After taking Jerusalem, Saladin invited which community to resettle in the city?

Residents of Ascalon, a large Jewish settlement, answered the call.

Roughly how many of Jerusalem's poorer citizens had their ransoms paid by a collection organised by Patriarch Heraclius?

Another 15,000 were enslaved, though Saladin's brother al-Adil asked for a thousand and freed them on the spot.

Which coastal city, held by Conrad of Montferrat, withstood two sieges and remained the last major Crusader stronghold after 1187?

Strategically Saladin should have taken it before Jerusalem, but chose the holy city first.

Which queen sent envoys to Saladin after 1187 and reportedly offered 200,000 gold pieces for the relic of the True Cross?

Georgian pilgrims were later allowed into Jerusalem with banners unfurled, unlike other Christians.

The Third Crusade, launched in response to the disaster of 1187, was partly financed in 1188 by a special English tax known as what?

Richard I spent his father's treasury, filled by the tithe, and sold offices to fund his expedition.

After capturing Acre in 1191, Richard I executed roughly how many Muslim prisoners of war?

Ibn Shaddad recorded two explanations: reprisal for Christian deaths, or Richard's unwillingness to guard them while marching on Ascalon.

Saladin's army suffered heavy losses to Richard at which battle on 7 September 1191?

A Hospitaller charge broke the Ayyubid line, but Richard restrained his knights from a rash pursuit.

During truce talks Richard proposed that his sister Joan marry Saladin's brother. What was to be their wedding gift?

Saladin rejected it when Richard insisted his brother al-Adil convert to Christianity.

Under the 1192 peace, Saladin recognised Crusader control of the coast from Tyre to which city?

Richard agreed to demolish Ascalon's walls, Christians could visit Jerusalem as unarmed pilgrims, and peace held for three years.

How many times did Saladin and Richard the Lionheart meet face to face?

They exchanged gifts and praised each other; Richard called him the greatest leader in the Muslim world.

Saladin died of a fever in 1193 in which city?

He had lived there as a boy and is buried in a mausoleum beside the Umayyad Mosque.

What did Saladin's personal treasury contain at his death?

He had given away his wealth to the poor, leaving nothing to pay for his own funeral.

Saladin's tomb stands in a garden beside which great house of worship?

It now holds two sarcophagi: the original wooden one and a marble one donated by Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Which German emperor visited Saladin's tomb in 1898 and donated a marble sarcophagus?

The visit helped revive Saladin's image in the Arab world as a hero against the West.

Before the 19th-century revival, Saladin's reputation in the Muslim world had been eclipsed by which more successful Egyptian ruler?

Walter Scott's The Talisman did more than any text to create the romantic Western Saladin.

The Eagle of Saladin, adopted after the 1952 revolution, is the coat of arms of Egypt and which other countries?

Nasser's Arab nationalists saw Saladin's unified realm as a model.

Saladin began fortifying which Cairo landmark in 1176, introducing the Syrian-style stronghold to Egypt?

Before that the site had been a domed pleasure pavilion with a fine view.

Which 1825 Walter Scott novel, set during the Third Crusade, shaped the romantic Western image of Saladin?

Scott made him a 'modern liberal European gentleman' beside whom medieval Westerners looked poor.

Dante places Saladin where in The Divine Comedy?

Boccaccio's Decameron also treats him favourably, and Lessing's Nathan the Wise built on the 'Saladin's table' legend.

Who played Saladin in Ridley Scott's 2005 film Kingdom of Heaven, drawing praise as 'cool as a tall glass of water'?

The Syrian actor shared the screen with Orlando Bloom, Eva Green and Jeremy Irons.

Saladin leads the Arabian civilisation in several instalments of which video game series?

Age of Empires II also has a whole campaign built around his exploits.

Ibn Shaddad tells how Saladin used his own money in 1191 to buy back what for a weeping Frankish woman?

The three-month-old had been taken from her camp and sold in the market; Saladin then gave her a horse home.

Saladin's biggest defeat came in 1177 at Montgisard against a Crusader army led by which leper king of Jerusalem?

Muslim historians thought the defeat so severe that only Hattin ten years later redeemed it.

Which fortress in Oultrejordain, the base of the lord he later executed, did Saladin besiege unsuccessfully in both 1183 and 1184?

Relief forces from the kingdom outmanoeuvred him both times.

In 1176 Saladin married Ismat ad-Din Khatun, the widow of whom?

The marriage helped legitimise his takeover of the Zengid lands in Syria.

The dynasty Saladin founded was overthrown in 1250 by whom?

The slave-soldiers went on to defeat the Mongols at Ain Jalut and rule Egypt for centuries.

Ibn Shaddad wrote that Saladin was more zealous about which duty than anything else?

He was also a patron of Sufi hostels and Sunni madrasas, though he had the philosopher al-Suhrawardi executed.

Saladin's family had banished from Tikrit on the very night he was born, according to his biographer, after his uncle did what?

His father Ayyub had earlier sheltered the defeated Zengi, who repaid the debt with the command of Baalbek.

A university named after Saladin stands in which city, the largest in Iraqi Kurdistan?

A suburb of the city, Masif Salahaddin, is also named for him.

Which brother did Saladin send in 1174 to conquer Yemen and its port of Aden for the Ayyubids?

The same year his father Ayyub died after a riding accident, and Nur ad-Din's death opened the way for Saladin's conquest of Syria.

Which Fatimid caliph appointed the Sunni Saladin as vizier of Egypt in 1169?

According to Ibn al-Athir, advisers recommended him as the weakest and youngest candidate whom none of the emirs obeyed.

What habit did Saladin reportedly renounce on becoming vizier of Egypt in 1169?

Arabic sources say he 'turned from frivolity to assume the dress of religion' as he gained unprecedented power.

How many knights made up the Crusader force that surprised and routed Saladin at Montgisard in 1177?

Saladin had hesitated to ambush Baldwin IV's Gaza-based Templars because of their skilled commanders, and was caught with most of his army absent.

Which Sufi philosopher, founder of the Illuminationist school, did Saladin have executed in 1191?

Saladin had his son carry out the sentence; he had also arrested the mystic Qadid al-Qaffas in Alexandria in 1174.

Raynald of Châtillon's Red Sea raiders were rumoured to be planning to seize Muhammad's body from where?

Ibn Jubair reported sixteen Muslim ships burnt and a pilgrim ship captured at Aidab, outrages that fed Saladin's vow against Raynald.