Timeline Explorer · Saladin (Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub) · Stop 1 of 16
between 1137 and 1138 CE · c. 532 AH approximate debated before the Hijra
Sultan of Egypt and Syria and founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, born at Tikrit in 1137 or 1138 and died at Damascus on 4 March 1193.
Birth: Saladin (Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub) — between 1137 and 1138 CE · c. 532 AH
Sultan of Egypt and Syria and founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, born at Tikrit in 1137 or 1138 and died at Damascus on 4 March 1193. He became vizier of Egypt in 1169, ended the Fatimid caliphate in 1171, united Syria, northern Mesopotamia, Palestine and Egypt between 1174 and 1186, and recovered Jerusalem on 2 October 1187.
death of Asad al-Dīn Shīrkūh — Saladin chosen vizier in his place — c. 1168 CE · 564 AH
Shīrkūh died days into his vizierate — said to have choked on the rich marrow he loved. Al-ʿĀḍid invested his nephew Saladin Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb, the youngest of the emirs, because the Nūrid commanders had written recommending him: they saw his humility, his good conduct, his kindness to his companions .
Shirkuh enters Egypt, Shawar is killed, and Shirkuh takes the vizierate — c. 1168 CE · 564 AH
In Rabīʿ I Shirkuh entered Egypt with the Nūrid armies and took it. The Franks had stormed Bilbays — killing and enslaving — then besieged Cairo while Shawar burned Fusṭāṭ (the fire ran fifty-four days) and bought their withdrawal for a promised million dinars; al-ʿĀḍid had sent his womenfolk's hair to Nūr al-Dīn begging rescue. When Shirkuh arrived Shawar was killed — as commonly told, Saladin's hand at his uncle's order — and Shirkuh took the vizierate, dealt justly with the people, then died days later, choked, it was said, on a feast of rich food .
Ending the Ubaydid Khutba and Restoring the Abbasid Khutba in Egypt — c. September 1171 CE · Muharram 567 AH
Al-Imad al-Katib: Salah al-Din opened the year 567 with Egypt's greatest obedience — the Abbasid khutba, first Jumu'a at Fustat's mosque, the second at Cairo; al-Adid died that Ashura, and the palace's treasures sold for ten years. Shihab al-Din ibn Abi Asrun bore the news to Baghdad, and al-Imad wrote a general proclamation read across the lands of Islam — 'no minbar remains in those lands but the khutba for our lord al-Mustadi' is upon it'. Ibn al-Athir adds: Nur al-Din ordered it, Salah al-Din feared an Egyptian rising, and the Ajami called al-Amir al-Alim mounted the minbar before the khatib and prayed for al-Mustadi' — 'not two goats butted over it'. The khutba spread to Yemen, Barqa, Tawzar and Egypt to Aswan; Ibn al-Jawzi wrote his book al-Nasr ala Misr .
Salah al-Din enters Damascus without fighting in 570 — c. 1174 CE · 570 AH
In 570 Salah al-Din took Damascus without a blow or a thrust — the young al-Salih Isma'il, Nur al-Din's heir, rode in his entourage to Aleppo — then besieged Homs with mangonels, took Hama in Jumada II, besieged Aleppo, doubled back to Homs and Baalbek, and routed Izz al-Din Mas'ud of Mosul's army at the Qurun of Hama in a crushing defeat; he left his brother Sayf al-Islam over Damascus while al-Adil held Egypt .
Building the wall of Egypt and the Citadel — c. 1176 CE · 572 AH
In 572 Salah al-Din ordered the great wall girding Fustat and Cairo — Baha' al-Din Qaraqush over its building, 29,300 Hashimi cubits round — and the citadel on the Muqattam mount, seat of sultans finished only under al-Malik al-Kamil, its first dweller. He also built Imam al-Shafi'i's turba .
Battle of Montgisard — 1177 CE · 572 AH†
Draft card for the Battle of Montgisard in 1177, the surprise victory of King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem over Saladin's army; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
Battle of Jacob's Ford — 1179 CE · 575 AH†
Draft card for the Battle of Jacob's Ford in 1179, Saladin's destruction of the new Crusader castle on the Jordan; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
Salah al-Din takes the north and Aleppo in 578 — c. 1182 CE · 578 AH
In 578 Salah al-Din swept the north — Harran, Saruj, Sinjar, Nisibis and al-Raqqa — besieged Mosul till the caliph's envoy ordered him off, then took Aleppo from Izz al-Din Mas'ud in exchange for Sinjar .
Salah al-Din's siege of Mosul and the settlement of Shahrazur in 581 — c. 1185 CE · 581 AH
In 581 Salah al-Din besieged Mosul; its people fought their hardest and its strength turned him back. He took Mayyafariqin by safe-conduct, returned to the siege, and peace came on terms: the khutba in his name, the city's lord his liege, and Shahrizur and its fortresses ceded. He withdrew, then fell gravely ill at Harran until his death was rumoured and the hair of his beard and head fell out .
Battle of Hattin — c. 4 July 1187 CE · 25 Rabi' II 583 AH
On Saturday, five days before the end of Rabi' al-Akhir in 583 AH, Saladin and the Muslims engaged the Franks, who were tormented by thirst and had lost heart. The Muslim vanguard shot arrows like locusts spreading across the ground and killed many of the Franks' horses. The Franks were heading for Tiberias to reach water, but Saladin blocked their path, drew up his army against them, and rode among the Muslims urging them on. One of his young Mamluks charged fiercely and fought until he was killed; then the Muslims launched a violent charge that broke the Franks. Some volunteers set fire to the dry grass, which was abundant; the fire burned, and the wind carried its heat and smoke toward the Franks, so that thirst, the heat of the day, the fire and the fighting came upon them together. The Muslims surrounded them like a circle around its diameter, and those who remained climbed a hill near Hattin, where they could pitch no tent except their king's. The Muslims took their great cross, which the Franks call the Cross of the Crucifixion and which they believe contains a piece of the wood on which Christ was crucified. Al-Malik al-Afdal, Saladin's son, recounts that he stood beside his father at the first clash: when the Franks charged repeatedly until they drove the Muslims back toward the tent, his father grew downcast, gripped his beard and cried, 'The Devil lied!'; al-Afdal, joyful, cried, 'We have defeated them!' His father turned to him and said, 'Be quiet; we will not defeat them until that tent falls.' When the tent fell, the sultan dismounted, prostrated in thanks and wept for joy. The king and his brother were captured, along with Prince Arnat, lord of Karak, the lord of Jubayl, the Grand Master of the Templars and a group of Hospitallers. Whoever looked at the dead would not think any prisoners had been taken, and whoever looked at the captives would not think anyone had been killed. Saladin gave the king iced water, and the king gave what was left of it to Arnat. Saladin said, 'He did not drink the water with my permission, so he will not obtain what he wishes'; he rebuked him for his wrongs, rose, and struck his neck, saying that he had twice vowed to kill him if he ever prevailed over him: once when Arnat meant to march on Mecca and Medina, and once when he seized the caravan treacherously. He ordered the Templar and Hospitaller prisoners gathered; two hundred were brought before him and their necks were struck, because they were fiercer than all the other Franks. Ibn al-Athir says that about a year later he passed the site of the battle and saw the ground full of their bones .
Salah al-Din recovers Jerusalem — 2 October 1187 CE · 583 AH
In 583 Salah al-Din took many Frankish-held towns of Syria — Jerusalem greatest of them, ninety-one years in their hands. He cleared their traces, razed their new churches, built a Shafi'i school on one site, yet spared the Holy Sepulchre as Umar had before him. Ibn Barrajan had read in 'Alif Lam Mim — the Romans were defeated' that Jerusalem would stay Roman till 583, then be a house of Islam for ever — 'one of the strangest coincidences', says Abu Shama, 'and Ibn Barrajan died long before' .
Siege of Acre — 1189 CE · 585 AH†
Draft card for the Siege of Acre from 1189 to 1191, the Third Crusade's long investment that ended with the Crusaders retaking the city from Saladin; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
Battle of Arsuf — 1191 CE · 587 AH†
Draft card for the Battle of Arsuf in 1191, Richard the Lionheart's victory over Saladin's army during the Third Crusade; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
Battle of Jaffa — 1192 CE · 588 AH†
Draft card for the Battle of Jaffa in 1192, the last action of the Third Crusade between Saladin and Richard; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
Death: Saladin (Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub) — 4 March 1193 CE · c. 589 AH
Sultan of Egypt and Syria and founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, born at Tikrit in 1137 or 1138 and died at Damascus on 4 March 1193. He became vizier of Egypt in 1169, ended the Fatimid caliphate in 1171, united Syria, northern Mesopotamia, Palestine and Egypt between 1174 and 1186, and recovered Jerusalem on 2 October 1187.
