SALADIN

While Saladin is famous for his mercy, most notably at Jerusalem, he was savage in his treatment of Reynald of Châtillon and the Military Orders at Hattin, as well as ordering executions after several of his earlier battles against the Franks and in the aftermath of the Acre massacre. He also put down revolts in Egypt with considerable harsh- ness. Hattin aside, the need to be seen to act firmly after a recent setback often seems the trigger for these killings.

Overall, however, he was widely regarded in his lifetime. As Abd al-Latif, a visitor to the sultan in the last months of his life, wrote: ‘I found a great king who inspired both respect and affection, far and near, easy-going and willing to grant requests. His companions took him as a model ... men grieved for him as they grieve for prophets. I have seen no other ruler for whose death the people mourned, for he was loved by good and bad, Muslim and unbeliever alike.’6

The memory of Saladin is open to manipulation and appropriation and as we have seen offers a vast range of elements to be borrowed or admired. In the West, early in the thirteenth century, Gervase of Canterbury summed up the problem perfectly: the sultan was ‘a pagan man but a distinguished knight’. The Third Crusaders had, contrary to expectation, discovered an individual worthy of their estimation and, his faith aside, bearing so many of the characteristics they esteemed themselves. The failure of the crusade also meant a need to accord their opponent respect, not least for the reputation of the great warrior-king, Richard the Lionheart. In conjunction with the dominant cultural movement of the day, chivalry, came the audacious literary kidnapping of someone from a culture and a faith usually regarded with hostility. Saladin acquired not only the ability to move across continents, but to seduce western women, to have a western family heritage, to become a knight and also, on occasion, to even become a Christian. His reputation for generosity and mercy have fused him into the consciousness of Europe down to this day.

In the Near East his memory endured by reason of his success in recovering Jerusalem for Islam and resisting the might of western Europe. His personal qualities were acknowledged and burnished his

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memory brighter, although some critical voices can be heard, most notably from the Shi’ites on account of his termination of the Fatimid caliphate. The ongoing fear of crusades in the centuries after the end of Frankish rule in the Levant helped to preserve Saladin’s memory as well, and once the western imperialist powers started to engage directly with the Near East on a large scale, Saladin was already there, enfolded into the region’s consciousness and collective heritage to be utilised as part of the response to this. His accomplishments and personal qualities have been taken on by a remarkable, and ever- growing range of actors, ideologies and institutions; to this day the name Saladin conjures hope and admiration. In 2001, the film director Youssef Chahine commented, ‘The legend will not go away easily. It triggers a feeling of pride, a feeling of strength ... When [people] go back and say, Saladin, they are trying to find somebody that is as honourable, who is as charitable, as tolerant, and as great as Saladin.’7

To support the depth to which this feeling permeates I can only proffer an anecdote. A couple of years ago I gave a public lecture on Saladin in Oakland University, Michigan, not far from Detroit, a city with a significant Syrian refugee community. Afterwards a student came up to chat. We talked about the lecture and then she told me how she and her friends in their home town of Hama remembered and connected with Saladin: he was the screensaver on their mobile phone. Beautifully mundane and beautifully modern. This, to me, was in some respects a thousand times more revealing than seeing the grand gestures of politicians. A screensaver is a pretty basic tech- nological object of the early twenty-first century. Yet there was Salah al-Din ibn Ayyub, the Righteousness of the Faith, and the fact that it was something so very personal demonstrates perfectly just what symbolic power Saladin still bears. He has evolved to the point where there is no need for him always to be affixed to an individual or an ideology; in this instance he is acting for people looking to a leader whom they could admire without fear.

Combining thorough research with vivid storytelling, Jonathan Phillips offers a fresh and captivating look at the triumphs, failures, and contradictions of one of the Crusades’ most unique figures. Bringing the vibrant world of the twelfth century to life, this book also explores Saladin’s complicated legacy, examining the ways Saladin has been invoked in the modern age by Arab and Muslim leaders ranging from Nasser in Egypt, Asad in Syria, and Saddam Hussein in Iraq to Osama bin Laden, as well as his huge appeal across popular culture in books, drama, and music.

Table of contents :  Cover Half Title Title Copyright Dedication Contents Maps Dramatis Personae and a Note on Names Preface Introduction: Damascus 2009 Part I: The Life of Saladin 1 The Muslim Near East and the First Crusade 2 Nur al-Din and the City of Damascus 3 Nur al-Din and the Rise of the Jihad 4 Shirkuh, Saladin and the Conquest of Egypt 5 Saladin’s Succession in Egypt 6 Steps Towards Independence: The Break with Nur al-Din 7 Saladin’s Takeover of Damascus: Open Ambitions 8 Progress Stalls 9 Victory at Jacob’s Ford 10 Saladin, Cairo and the River Nile 11 Progress in Syria and Reynald’s Red Sea Raid 12 Final Preparations: The Sieges of Kerak and Mosul 13 The Battle of Hattin 14 The Capture of Jerusalem 15 The Siege of Tyre 16 The Siege of Acre, Part I: 1189–90 17 The Siege of Acre, Part II: The Threat from the North 18 The Arrival of Philip Augustus and Richard the Lionheart: The Fall of Acre 19 Battles of Sword and Words: Arsuf and Diplomacy 20 1192: Family Feuding, the Battle of Jaffa and the End of the Third Crusade 21 Peace at Last Part II: Afterlife 22 Saladin’s Reputation in the West 23 The View from the East: From the Medieval Age to the late Nineteenth Century 24 Early Arab Nationalism Expressed Through Theatre, Books and Newspapers 25 Struggles for Independence in Syria, Egypt and Palestine 26 Look ing for a New Saladin, c.1950–2001 Conclusion Writing the History of Saladin Acknowledgements