Salah Al-Din’s name is so closely tied to the history of Jerusalem that, oftentimes, people instinctively associate Jerusalem with him. In this article, we will learn about the life and achievements of Salah Al-Din.

Who is Saladin? 

Salah Al-Din, also known as Yusuf Ibn Ayyub 1138-1193,^[1] was a Kurdish leader who ruled over Egypt and Syria in the Middle Ages. He was born near Baghdad in 1137 to the well known Ayyubi family. ^[2]His father and uncle moved to Mousel, where they formed an alliance with the ruler of Iraq at the time, Imad Al-Din Zengi. The strong Sultan Zengi took care of the new family, who ultimately prospered under his government. .^[3] The family was known for their military intelligence and soon reciprocated the sultan’s kindness by conquering new territory for him. This territory included Damascus, where Salah Al-Din was later sent to receive an education.^[4]

After Imad Al-Din’s death, his son Nour Al-Din Zengi took over. The close relationship with the Ayyubi family continued, and the new sultan became particularly close to Salah Al-Din, who showed early signs of brilliance.^[5] Soon after, Salah Al-Din progressed rapidly to high ranks in Nour Al-Din’s military. Eventually, became his confidant and assistant..^[6]

^Achievements

^{Salah Al-Din was the real founder of the Ayyubid dynasty [7]} that ruled in Egypt and Syria for decades.^[8]The Arab hero who came from Kurdish origins was able to unify wide territories of the Arab and Islamic world. He ruled over Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, the Hejaz and Yemen.^[9]

Why is Saladin Important? What is He Most Famous For?

Salah Al-Din is best known for his role as a leader, liberating Jerusalem from the Crusaders, but even before that, Salah Al- Din played an important role in the history of the region. Nour Al-Din Zengi sent Salah Al-Din and his uncle to Egypt, which, at the time, was the capital of the Fatimid Dynasty.^[10] Once in Egypt, Salah Al-Din started calling for the establishment of a Sunni state in support of the Abbasid dynasty in Syria. Upon the death of the last Fatimid ruler,.^[11]Salah Al-Din was able to take over Egypt where he built the walls of Cairo, established a great army, and fought internal discord and rebellion .^[12]

^{Only then, after 16 years of hard work, was he able to attack Crusaders in Palestine and surrounding territories, which later became known as his crowning military victory[13]}

Liberating Jerusalem

Upon establishing a strong army in Egypt and Syria, other suitable circumstances paved the way for Salah Al-Din to fight Crusaders and restore Jerusalem to Muslim rule. Most notably, the death of the Crusaders King Baldwin V caused the Crusaders to suffer from internal weakness, as power struggles took the stage. Salah Al-Din took advantage of an incident, known historically as Safouria, when the Crusader ruler of Kerak attacked a pilgrimage convoy in violation of a peace agreement with the Muslims.^[14]This incident led to the Battle of Hattin, which liberated Jerusalem from Crusader rule and established Muslim governance over the region. ,^[15]Shortly before his death, Salah Al-Din stopped another Crusade attack that was led by Richard the Lionheart, King of England, by signing a peace treaty with him. which allowed western Christians access to Jerusalem for pilgrimage, so long as the Crusader Christians formally left the city and did not live within its boundaries.^[16]

Religious Tolerance

Salah Al-Din, after liberating Jerusalem, was gracious and noble in his governance. The Muslim leader indeed gained his fame not from the success of his battles, but from his personal traits and noble characteristics .^[17]Despite the atrocities committed by the Crusaders, Salah Al-Din allowed them to leave Jerusalem upon paying a ransom in which men paid ten Dinars, women paid five and children paid two. He paid money for those who were not able to do so from his own pocket, while he allowed the Arab Christians who were original inhabitants of Jerusalem to stay in the city. He also allowed the Jews to return to the city after years of exclusion.^[18]

Influence on Jerusalem

Salah Al-Din and his ancestors from the Ayyubid dynasty left a great influence on Jerusalem and its rich cultural heritage. Jerusalem gained a special status in the newly emerging power. Right after the liberation, Salah Al-Din started extensive renovations and construction in Jerusalem, where he and his followers cleaned Al-Aqsa mosque, rebuilt the walls, and washed the mosque with rose water. ^[19]Salah Al-Din personally worked on these projects, using his own two hands to aid in the construction projects .^[20] There is a stone monument in the southern part of Al-Aqsa Plaza that mentions the work of Salah Al-Din in Jerusalem.^[21]

Personal Traits and Characteristics

Although Salah Al-Din was a well known militant ruler, he never liked the sight of blood, as it indicated too much killing. He advised his sons after him not to shed blood as, according to him, “blood does not sleep.” ^[22]

Many influential characters in modern history praised Salah Al-Din and considered him a rare example of a great leader. The British Prime Minister Churchill considered him one of the greatest kings humanity has ever known, while the British author Reid Richard described him as the greatest man on earth.^[23]

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A Divided Kingdom

After the death of Solomon, the Israelite presence in Palestine became divided into two kingdoms: the kingdom of Israel in the north with Samaria as its capital, and the kingdom of Judah in the south with Jerusalem as its capital. The two kingdoms were ruled by weak kings and plagued not only by wars both among themselves and with neighboring nations but they were also not independent since they had to pay tributes to Egypt and Assyria.^[1]

Who are the Assyrians?

The Assyrians originated in the Middle East at the city of Ashur which was located in the same area as current day northern Iraq.  At its peak, the Assyrian empire controlled an area stretching from Libya to Iran.

When Did the Assyrians Attack Israel?

The Assyrian Empire expanded in Syria and Palestine under the Assyrian king Sennacherib.^[2] In 722 BC, the Assyrians attacked the kingdom of Israel and destroyed it.^[3]

When and Why Did the Assyrians Siege of Jerusalem Occur?

The kingdom of Judah remained under the Assyrian rule and paid tribute to Assyria. Later, nonetheless, Judah stopped paying tax to the Assyrian Empire which led Senncherib to attack Jerusalem and lay siege to the city in 701 BC. The city remained under the leadership of its ruler Hezekiah and did not fall.^[4]

How Did Jerusalem Prepare for the Assyrian Siege?

(As recorded in the Hebrew Bible)

The Second Book of Kings in the Hebrew Bible narrates this story and speaks about the preparations taken by Hezekiah to protect the city against the Assyrians. The arrangements included an excavation of a tunnel inside the city walls to ensure access to the water springs and prevent the invading armies from reaching it. Hezekiah also built a dam in a valley to the north of the Temple Mount and created the Bethesda pools or Siloam Pools^[5] which provided enough water for the inhabitants of Jerusalem during the time of siege.^[6]

In 597 BC, Babylonians, under the King Nebuchadnezzar, attacked Judah and destroyed it.^[7] Jerusalem was not destroyed until 587 BC^[8] after which time it remained under Babylonian rule from 587 BC to 538 BC when it was captured by the Persians.^[9]

Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian Captivity

The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem, the capital of Judah, for the first time in 597 BC.^[10]

Nebuchadnezzar then assigned his own rulers to the city . The Torah, particularly in the Second Book of Kings, narrates the stories of the ruler Zedekiah who was appointed by the Babylonian king on Jerusalem 597 BC.^[11] The Babylonian Chronicles, contemporaneous texts, now available at the British Museum, records the story of Nebuchadnezzar and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.^[12]

In 593 BC, the Israelites under Zedekiah revolted against Babylon. Jerusalem stopped paying tribute to Babylon and aligned himself with the Egyptians against the Babylonians.^[13] This prompted a second attack on the city in 587 BC^[14] when Nebuchadnezzar Laid siege to the city, and then destroyed its walls, burned the temple,^[15] and took most of the Jewish population to Babylon in what was historically known as “the Babylonian Captivity.”^[16] Zedekiah fled the city with his sons towards Egypt, however, he was captured and returned to Nebuchadnezzar who killed his sons in front of him and put out his eyes before taking him to Babylon where he ultimately died.^[17] This is how the Kingdom of Judah came to an end in 586 BC.^[18]

Jerusalem then became a Babylonian colony. It paid tribute to Babylon, used its language in official political and commercial transactions and kept the Canaanite language as a spoken language among the people who remained in the city.^[19] Unlike the Assyrians who were only preoccupied with looting the captured nations, the Babylonians helped Jerusalem to thrive and caused it commerce and manufacture to flourish up until the Persian conquest.^[20]

Cyrus the Persian

In 539 BC the Babylonian empire came to a fall when the Persian king Cyrus the Great attacked it and defeated its army.^[21] Jerusalem was ruled by the Persians for another 200 years.^[22] The Persian king, who allegedly got married to a Jewish captive woman named Astir, issued an edict allowing the Jewish captives in Babylon to return to Jerusalem and build the temple again in 593 BC after 50 years of exile.^[23] Some Jews returned to the city but the vast majority of them stayed in Babylon.^[24] The Persian Some of the jewish inhabitants served as spies for the Persian King, and helped strengthen his rule in the area, as well as facilitate his plan to read both Egypt and Morocco..^[25]

Jerusalem remained under the Persian Empire for two centuries until the Greek conquest in 332 BC, when Alexander the Great took over the city.^[26]

The Persians invaded Jerusalem two times after that: the first time in 614 AC when the city was under the Rome. The Persians raided Jerusalem, which at that time represented a thriving civilization, destroyed it walls, burned its churches and killed thousands of Christians in the city.^[27]However, the city was restored under the Rome in 627 AC when Hercules defeated the Persians. The second Persian attack against Jerusalem was in 1077 AC when the city was under Fatimid rule. This time the Persians merely looted the city and left.^[28]

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Jerusalem has appeared in the Pharaonic records many times. In the Tel-Amarna letters, which were correspondences between Egypt Pharaoh and local rulers of Jerusalem around 1350 BC, Abdu-Heba, the ruler of Jerusalem or Urushamem at the time, pleads for military aid from the Pharaoh to face the tribes of Hapiru, who frequently attacked the city.. The Pharaoh sent help and actually ruled the area across different historical eras..^[1]

Eventually, around 1200 BC, plagued by internal political and social problems, the Pharaoh’s ruling class was unable to protect the city, and the Israelites left Egypt and entered the holy land..

The Exodus of the Children of Israel

Around 1200 BC, Israelites left Egypt under the leadership of Prophet Moses to escape the persecution of the Pharaoh (Merenptah). They crossed the Sinai Desert, and according to the Judeo-Christian and Islamic scriptures, only entered the city after 40 years.^[2]

It was not until Joshua^[3] took over that the Israelites could enter Palestine. According to the Bible, the Israelites destroyed many of the towns and killed tens of thousands of the original Canaanite Arab inhabitants.^[4] Recent archeological records deny that such mass destruction ever took place..^[5] The Bible also mentions the Jebusite king of Jerusalem Adoni-Zedek who conducted a pact with four Canaanite kings to fight the people of Jabon who surrendered to the army of Joshua.^[6]

According to Joshua 63:15 upon entrance into the holy land, Joshua divided Palestine between the Twelve tribes of Israel and gave Jerusalem to Judah and Benjamin.^[7] However, the Israelites were unable to enter Jerusalem for two hundred years up until the era of David.^[8] The city remained Arab and kept its Jebusite name until the hebrew king and prophet David ruled over it and it was called the city of David. Even under the rule of David however, and for centuries following it, the city’s original Canaanite inhabitants remained in their city.^[9] The Bible refers to the non-Jewish origins of the city in Ezekiel 16:3^[10] and mentions that when David wanted to build the temple he bought the land for it from the Jebusite Arnan.^[11]

The City of David and the Temple of Solomon

The twelve tribes of Israel were ruled by the judges^[12]. The israelites and their neighboring Phillistines, who lived in the south and along the coast until 1000 BC, fought frequently, ,^[13] until David was able to occupy Jerusalem after besieging the water channel that connected the city with spring Jihon.^[14] The city was called the City of David because, according to the Bible, David united the twelve tribes of Israel under his kingdom. David, who ruled the city for 33 years,^[15] planned to build the temple in Jerusalem but died before implementing his plan.^[16]

After the death of David, his son Solomon was named a king of Jerusalem. The bible claims that Solomon, who ruled the city for 40 years, finished building the temple and expanded the Hebrew kingdom from the Nile to the Euphrates in present-day Iraq.^[17]

Division of the Kingdom

Upon his death, Solomon’s kingdom was divided into two kingdoms: the kingdom of Judah in the south, formed by the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, capital of which was Jerusalem and which was ruled by Solomon’s son Rehoboam and the kingdom of Israel in the north, where the other 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel lived, the capital of which was Samaria and was ruled by Yeroboam.^[18] The two kingdoms waged war among themselves and with their neighboring nations in a trail to take over the kingdom and extend its borders. Jerusalem was invaded by many nations who took advantage of the status quo between the two Israelite kingdoms and was destroyed, burned and looted by many nations but mainly Pharaonic Egyptians..^[19]

The End of the Two Kingdoms

The two Israelite kingdoms, Judah and Israel were exhausted by the continuous wars and internal and external problems which made them susceptible to their enemies..

In 733 BC, the Assyrians invaded the kingdom of Israel and 721 BC and it completely fell apart. The kingdom of Judah was raided by Philistines, Syrians, Babylonians, and Egyptians and the jewish residents paid tribute to both Babylon and Egypt until it was finally attacked and destroyed in 587 BC. Babylonians, under Nebuchadnezzar, attacked Jerusalem, destroyed it, and carried the Israelites into captivity at Babylon. This marked the end of the kingdom of Judah.^[20]

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The city of Jerusalem is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in our world.^[1] While some Historians believe that the city was inhabited by humans long before the Bronze Age, around 5000 BC,^[2] archaeologists believe that the first settlement was founded around the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC.^[3] In 3000 BC, Jebusites, members of Canaanite tribes,migrated to the Arabian Peninsula, an area that includes modern-day Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the Gulf countries..^[4] The new settlers chose high hills and mountains to start their new life in, which will later make up the city of Jerusalem.^[5] The new land was called Jebus or Yabus in Arabic.^[6]

First Appearance in Written History

Due to the limited historical records available from this time, the period 3000 BC is often called the prehistory and proto-history of the city of Jerusalem. Mentions of the the city from this time are often found in religious scripture or literary texts, which can prove useful to historians when they match the historical documentation available to them.^[7]

The City of Canaanite made its first appearance in written records at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC.^[8] The city was referred to as Rusalimum in the Middle Egyptian Execration texts, hieratic texts found on small statues that listed the names of cities and nations considered enemies of the Pharaoh.. Another mention of the city was found in the Amarna Tablets, clay tablets which record the “diplomatic correspondence from the region of Akhenaten 1350 BC”.^[9]

The Jebusite tribes, or the Arab Canaanites, believed to be the first inhabitants of the city, remained in the city for centuries even after Israelites entered the city..^[10] Joshua 15:63 of the Torah mentions the Jebusites: “As for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out; but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day.”^[11] In Judges Book 19:11 and 19:12 state: “And when they were by Jebus, the day was far spent; and the servant said unto his master, Come, I pray thee, and let us turn in into this city of the Jebusites, and lodge in it. And his master said unto him, We will not turn aside hither into the city of a stranger, that is not of the children of Israel…”^[12]

A Note on the Sacredness of the City

One of the names of the city was “Ursalem” or “Ursalim” which either means the city of peace or the city of the Jebusites’ god “Shalem”. The city of Jerusalem was considered holy by Jebusites who built a temple for their god Shalem on the hills of the city.^[13] The Torah mentions one of the Jebusite kings Melchizedek or Malki Sadiq , which, in Arabic, means the just and straight king.^[14] Melchizedek was also called the Priest of the Great God. It is believed that he met the Prophet Abraham in his way from Iraq to Egypt, and that Abraham blessed him.

edek, which means righteousness in Hebrew, is a common component in the names of the priestly rulers of the city as mentioned in Judeo-Christian scriptures.^[15]

A Note on the Flourishing Urban Culture and Lifestyle

Archaeological evidence shows that Jebusites who lived in the city were culturally advanced. The city had a flourishing religious, cultural, and economic life.^[16] Its inhabitants exceeded in architecture, industry and commerce. They began the cultivation of olives in the area,^[17] set their own laws and regulations, produced arms and weaponry, clothes, and were knowledgeable about minerals and metallurgy, and the making of pottery.^[18] Archaeological excavations in the area revealed a city wall built in the eastern part of the city to protect the water channels that led from the springs of Gihon and Shiloach to Jerusalem from outside invaders in the 17th century BC.^{[19] [20]}.

Excavation also uncovered the existence of a tunnel chiseled in rock used to connect the city and the spring of Gihon. Research reveals that while the Jebusites did not actually build the tunnel, which was natural, Jebusites enhanced and used it in times of siege.^[21]

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The city of Jerusalem has been inhabited by different nations from different cultures and backgrounds throughout history. Every time Jerusalem was invaded, destroyed, and rebuilt, it was given a different name by the new residents. Oftentimes, the names given to this city were religious or holy in nature.

The first name Jerusalem was given was its Canaanite name Ursalim.^[1] In the Akkadian language, city names often include the prefix Ur which means city or place. Salim could refer either to the Canaanite god Shalim ^[2] or the akkadian word for “peace.” The city was also called Jebus after Jebusites who first settled in the city in 3000 BC.^[3] The name Jubus is mentioned in Torah and in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics which refer to the name with the words Yapthi or Yabti.^[4]

The city was also referred to by the Romans as Aelia Capitolina, or the capital “sun center” of the Roman Emperor Elia Eileus Hadrian who destroyed the city and built it again.,^[5]

The Arabs and Christians referred to Jerusalem as Ilya’, a variation on the Roman name, previous to the Islamic conquest.^[6]

In Greek, the city was referred to as Hierosolma.,^[7]

Following the Islamic conquest, the Muslims renamed the city Bt Al-Maqdis or the abode of holiness, after the name by which Prophet Mohammed referred to it during his life.Arabs now refer to the city as Al-Quds, the pure and immaculate land that has no defects or shortcomings.^[8]

The hebrew name for the city is Yerushalayim, and it is a variation on the original Jebusite name. The name refers either to the “city of peace” or “rain of peace,”^[9] but as with the Jebusite name for the city, , historians believed that the name probably refers to a city founded by the god Salem.^[10]

Historical Records of the City

The first mention of Jerusalem historians have come across is in the Egyptian Execration texts.^[11] The texts are two sets of Egyptian Hieratic inscriptions on bowls and clay figurines that belong to the 19th and 18th centuries BC.^[12] The inscriptions list the names of distant cities, nomadic clans and their chiefs who were considered enemies to the pharaoh at the time..^[13] The statuettes on which these inscriptions were carved were meant to be broken and shredded in an attempt to strip the power of the mentioned enemies.^[14] In the texts, Jerusalem is referred to as “Urushamem”.

The city is also referred to in the Amarna tablets or “Tel el-Amarna Letters,”^[15] which are clay tablets containing the correspondence between two pharaohs and the vassal prince of the Egyptian Empire. found 1891-2 in Amarna southern Egypt along with many other royal archives.^[16] Jerusalem appears in written Egyptian records in the time of Pharaoh Amenhotep and his son Ikhnaton (1397-1362 BC).. Eight of those letters are written by the king or local ruler of Jerusalem, Abdu-Heba in which he asks for military aid^[17] against the Habiru, a tribe that frequently attacked Jerusalem..^[18]

It is not until six centuries later in the late 8th century BC, that Jerusalem mention comes up in the historical record again, this time in the writings^[19] of the Assyrian king Tiglath Pileser iii (744-727 BC).^[20]

In the 5th century BC, Herodotus (484-425 BC) refers to the city as Qadishta or “Arab Holy City” in Aramaic.^[21]

Scriptural Mentions of the Holy City

Jerusalem is mentioned in the Torah over 680 times by different names. Among these names are Shalim, the City of God; the city of Quds; the city of peace; the city of Justice; Jebus’ the city of Jebusites; and by its Hebrew name Yerushalayim.^[22]

The first mention of the city in the Christian Bible s in Genesis 14:18, when it is referred to as “Salem.” The chapter speaks about the meeting between Abraham and the King of Salem “Melchizedek,” and that Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.”^[23]

The name Jerusalem first appeared in the Bible in the book of Joshua 10:1 when the city’s king “Adonai-Tzedek fights against Joshua but gets defeated in the Valley of Ayalon.^[24] The chapter states “… Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem heard that Joshua had taken Ai and totally destroyed[a] it…”^[25]

While the Quran does not mention Jerusalem by name,it does refer to it as the holy land, the land that God blessed and upon which is built the the Al-Aqsa mosque. The ahadith or traditions of the Prophet Mohammed, on the other hand, do refer to it by the name Bayt al-Maqdis.

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