Saladin: The Kurdish Sultan Who Reclaimed Jerusalem and Founded an Empire
- Sherko Sabir
- 3 days ago
- 10 min read
Who Was Saladin?
Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub — Saladin — was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty and the greatest Kurdish ruler in history. Born in 1137 CE in Tikrit (in modern Iraq), the son of the Kurdish nobleman Najm ad-Din Ayyub and nephew of the great general Shirkuh, Saladin rose from a privileged but unremarkable background to become the most celebrated Muslim leader of the medieval world. He conquered Egypt, unified Egypt and Syria under Kurdish rule, retook Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187, fought Richard I of England (the Lionheart) to a standstill in the Third Crusade, and died in 1193 having given virtually everything he owned to charity. He was Kurdish, he knew he was Kurdish, and the dynasty he founded — which Kurdish-History.com rightly calls 'the pinnacle of Kurdish geopolitical supremacy in the medieval world' — was explicitly Kurdish in identity and origin.
The Ayyubid Empire that Saladin founded encompassed Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Hejaz (the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina), Yemen, and northern Iraq — the most strategically important territories of the Islamic world. At its peak, the Ayyubid state was the dominant power in the eastern Mediterranean and the Islamic east, rivalling even the Crusader states in military organisation and far surpassing them in territorial extent, economic strength, and cultural sophistication. The empire lasted in various forms from 1171 CE to the mid-13th century, with successor states enduring until 1341 CE.
For the Kurdish people, Saladin is not merely a historical figure: he is the proof that Kurdish civilisation could produce a ruler of world-historical importance. He reclaimed the holiest city in Islam for the Muslim world; he was known for his chivalry toward defeated enemies at a time when warfare was characterised by massacre; he died penniless because he had given his wealth to his people. His Kurdish identity was no secret — medieval sources consistently identify him as Kurdish, and he never denied it. He is the greatest Kurd who ever lived.
Key Takeaways
Saladin (1137–1193 CE) was the Kurdish founder of the Ayyubid dynasty — the greatest Kurdish empire in history, encompassing Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Yemen, Hejaz, and northern Iraq.
He was of the Hadhbani Kurdish tribe, the son of Najm ad-Din Ayyub and nephew of Shirkuh — the family whose Egyptian conquest gave him his throne.
His greatest military achievement was the Battle of Hattin (1187 CE), where he decisively defeated the Crusader army and recaptured Jerusalem after 88 years of Crusader rule.
He fought Richard I of England (Lionheart) in the Third Crusade (1189–1192), ending in the Treaty of Jaffa — a diplomatic achievement as much as a military one.
He was renowned throughout the medieval world — by enemies as well as allies — for his extraordinary chivalry, generosity, and personal integrity.
He died in Damascus in March 1193 having given all his personal wealth to charity: a Kurdish emperor who left the world with less than he entered it.
Quick Facts
Table of Contents
Early Life and Kurdish Origins
Saladin was born in 1137 CE in Tikrit, on the night that his uncle Shirkuh's family was forced to flee the city after a killing that implicated Shirkuh. The family moved to Aleppo and then to Mosul, entering the service of Imad ad-Din Zengi. Saladin's early life was therefore shaped by the Kurdish political and military world of the Zengid court — a world of Islamic governance, military organisation, and the constant awareness of the Crusader presence on the edges of the Muslim world.
His father Najm ad-Din Ayyub eventually became a senior administrator in Damascus, and it was in Damascus that Saladin spent his formative years. He received the education appropriate for a Kurdish nobleman: Islamic learning, military training, and the political sophistication of a major Islamic court. He was not, by his own account, a particularly enthusiastic young soldier — medieval sources suggest he preferred scholarly pursuits in his youth. It was the Egyptian campaigns with his uncle Shirkuh that transformed him.
Saladin's Kurdish identity was never ambiguous to him or his contemporaries. Ibn Khallikan, the great medieval biographer, identified him explicitly as Kurdish, from the Hadhbani tribe. Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad — Saladin's personal biographer who knew him intimately — identified his Kurdish family origins. Ibn al-Athir, the foremost medieval Islamic historian, discussed the Kurdish character of the Ayyubid dynasty. Saladin himself referred to his Kurdish background in at least some medieval accounts. There is no historical ambiguity about the Kurdish identity of the founder of Islam's greatest medieval empire.
Rise to Power: Egypt
Saladin's path to empire began with his uncle Shirkuh's three Egyptian campaigns. On the first campaign (1163 CE) he accompanied Shirkuh as a junior commander; on the second (1167 CE) he took a more active role, leading a successful defense of the city of Alexandria; on the third (1169 CE) he was Shirkuh's deputy when the Kurdish general became Vizier of Egypt. When Shirkuh died just two months after his appointment, Saladin was the natural — and politically savviest — choice for successor.
As Vizier and then effective ruler of Egypt, Saladin moved with deliberate skill. He reorganised the Egyptian army, replacing Fatimid units with Syrian and Kurdish troops loyal to him. He gradually shifted Egypt's religious orientation from Ismaili Shia (the Fatimid tradition) toward Sunni Islam (the majority tradition he represented). In 1171 CE, he abolished the Fatimid Caliphate entirely, ordering the Friday prayers to be said in the name of the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad rather than the Fatimid one in Cairo. Egypt became Sunni; Saladin became its master.
Unifying the Muslim World
When Nur ad-Din, Saladin's nominal overlord, died in 1174 CE, Saladin moved to fill the power vacuum. He declared himself Sultan of Egypt and Syria, absorbed the Syrian cities of Damascus, Aleppo, and Mosul into his realm, and over the following decade assembled the most powerful Islamic state since the early Abbasid Caliphate. His unification campaign was not without difficulty — he fought other Muslim rulers, including members of the Zengid dynasty that had been his family's patron. But he consistently framed these campaigns not as conquest but as the necessary unification of the Muslim world against the Crusader threat.
By the mid-1180s, the Ayyubid Empire encompassed Egypt, Syria (including Damascus and Aleppo), northern Mesopotamia (including Mosul), Yemen, the Hejaz (including Mecca and Medina), and parts of Libya and Sudan. It was an empire stretching from the Nile to the Tigris, governed by Saladin from his capitals at Cairo and Damascus. This was Kurdish imperial sovereignty on a scale that no Kurdish people had achieved since the Medes — and the Ayyubid Empire was far better documented than the Median. The 'pinnacle of Kurdish geopolitical supremacy' had arrived.
The Recapture of Jerusalem
The Battle of Hattin (4 July 1187)
The Battle of Hattin was the decisive military engagement that broke the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. Saladin drew the Crusader army into a desert march without water in the height of summer, then surrounded them at the Horns of Hattin near Tiberias. The Crusader army — the largest military force the Kingdom of Jerusalem had ever assembled, led by King Guy of Lusignan — was virtually destroyed. Almost every major Crusader knight was killed or captured. King Guy himself was taken prisoner. The Kurdish sultan had shattered the military power of the Crusader kingdom in a single afternoon.
Jerusalem, 2 October 1187
Jerusalem fell to Saladin's forces on 2 October 1187 CE — 88 years after the First Crusade had taken it by massacre. Saladin's conduct in victory was in deliberate, conscious contrast to the Crusaders' original conquest, when Christian soldiers had waded through Muslim and Jewish blood. He offered terms: Christian citizens could ransom themselves for a fixed sum. The wealthy paid; for those who could not, he instructed his brother Al-Adil I to negotiate their release. Thousands of poor Christians left Jerusalem freely. He allowed the Latin patriarch to depart with the church treasures rather than seizing them. The Islamic world rejoiced; the Christian world was horrified; and Saladin's reputation for chivalry was established across both civilisations simultaneously.
The Third Crusade and Richard I
The recapture of Jerusalem triggered the Third Crusade, led by the three most powerful monarchs of Western Europe: Frederick Barbarossa (who drowned en route), Philip II of France, and Richard I of England ('Lionheart'). Richard was a military commander of exceptional skill and physical courage, and his arrival in the Holy Land in 1191 CE transformed the military balance. His victory at the Battle of Arsuf demonstrated his ability to maintain formation under fire. His march along the coast toward Jerusalem was a masterpiece of medieval logistics.
Saladin and Richard never met in person, but they exchanged gifts, negotiated through intermediaries, and conducted a war characterised on both sides by notable acts of chivalry. When Richard was ill, Saladin reportedly sent him fresh fruit and ice. When a Crusader horse was killed under Richard, Saladin sent him another. These personal gestures across the battle lines became legendary in both East and West. The war ended with the Treaty of Jaffa in 1192: the Crusaders kept a coastal strip; Jerusalem remained in Muslim hands; Christian pilgrims would have access to the holy sites. Saladin had not lost.
Richard left for England in October 1192. Saladin died in Damascus on 4 March 1193. He had governed an empire stretching from the Nile to the Tigris; he left an estate of approximately one gold dinar and forty silver dirhams — not enough to pay for his burial. He had given everything else away. His treasurer, the Kurdish nobleman Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad, recorded this with evident emotion. It remains one of the most extraordinary testaments to personal character in the entire medieval period.
Character and Governance
Saladin's character was his most powerful political weapon. He was known to enemies and allies alike for three qualities: justice, generosity, and piety. His justice was practical — he personally intervened in cases he felt were unfair and maintained a reputation for impartiality that was remarkable in an era of dynastic politics. His generosity was almost reckless — medieval sources describe him giving away horses, gold, and land with such frequency that his treasury was perpetually empty. His piety was genuine rather than performative — he fasted, prayed, studied Islamic jurisprudence, and reportedly wept when reading accounts of the Prophet.
He was also, by the standards of his era, remarkably humane toward defeated enemies. His treatment of Jerusalem's Christian population in 1187 — in contrast to the massacre of 1099 — shocked contemporaries on both sides. His exchanges with Richard I during the Third Crusade, characterised by mutual respect and even personal admiration between the two commanders, became legendary. The Western world's image of the 'chivalrous Saracen' owes more to Saladin than to any other figure in medieval history.
Timeline of Key Events
Debates, Controversies, and Misconceptions
The most persistent misconception about Saladin is that his Kurdish identity is secondary or uncertain. It is neither. Multiple medieval primary sources — written by scholars who knew him personally or had direct access to those who did — identify him as Kurdish. His personal biographer Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad, who accompanied Saladin for years, provides detailed biographical information that places the family's Kurdish Hadhbani tribal origins beyond serious dispute. The attempt in some nationalist historiographies to claim Saladin as Arab, Turkish, or pan-Islamic rather than Kurdish is a political exercise, not a historical one.
Some Western historians have portrayed Saladin's chivalry as exaggerated by later medieval legend. Kurdish historians note that the contemporary evidence — both Islamic and Crusader sources — strongly affirms his exceptional personal character. Ibn Shaddad's biography, written by someone who knew him personally, is consistent with Crusader sources that describe his generosity and fairness. The 'chivalrous Saladin' of medieval legend is based on real historical behaviour.
Saladin's battles against other Muslim rulers — including the Zengids and the Abbasid Caliph's nominal authority — are sometimes used to challenge his credentials as a unifier of the Muslim world. Kurdish historians contextualise these conflicts as the necessary political work of state-building: no empire is built without displacing existing powers. The end result — a unified Muslim state that successfully defended the Holy Cities against the most powerful Crusader offensive in history — vindicates the strategy.
Legacy and Cultural Impact
Saladin's legacy spans civilisations. In the Islamic world, he is revered as the liberator of Jerusalem, the defender of the faith, and the model of just Islamic governance. In the Western world, he is the 'noble Saracen' of medieval legend and Shakespeare — an enemy so chivalrous that European writers made him a symbol of virtue that put Christian knights to shame. In Kurdish culture, he is the supreme achievement: the proof that the Kurdish people produced one of the greatest rulers in human history.
The Ayyubid Kurdish Empire he founded outlasted him by nearly 150 years, with successor states governing Egypt, Syria, and parts of the Islamic world until the mid-13th century and regional Ayyubid principalities surviving until 1341 CE. His descendants governed in Damascus, Aleppo, Mosul, Homs, Baalbek, Yemen, and across the eastern Mediterranean — each a testimony to the empire that the Kurdish son of Najm ad-Din Ayyub and nephew of Shirkuh had built.
For the Kurdish people today, Saladin is not just historical pride: he is living proof of Kurdish civilisational depth. In an era when Kurdish sovereignty is contested and Kurdish identity is under pressure from multiple directions, Saladin stands as the undeniable, historically documented, enemy-corroborated answer to any claim that the Kurdish people lack a civilisational tradition equal to any other. He built an empire. He took back Jerusalem. He gave everything he had to his people. He was Kurdish.
Kurdish Empire Connections
Saladin was the son of Najm ad-Din Ayyub (the dynasty's namesake) and the nephew of Shirkuh (who conquered Egypt to give him his throne).
His sons who ruled after him: Al-Afdal ibn Salah ad-Din (Damascus), Al-Aziz Uthman (Egypt), and Az-Zahir Ghazi (Aleppo).
His brother Al-Adil I became the great consolidator who reunited the empire after the sons' disputes, and Al-Muazzam Turanshah was an early son who governed Yemen.
Frequently Asked Questions
Was Saladin Kurdish?
Yes. Multiple medieval primary sources — including his personal biographer Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad, the historian Ibn al-Athir, and the biographer Ibn Khallikan — identify Saladin as Kurdish, from the Hadhbani Kurdish tribe. His family came from Dvin in historical Armenia. His father Najm ad-Din Ayyub and uncle Shirkuh were both identified as Kurdish in contemporary sources. There is no serious historical ambiguity about this.
What was Saladin's greatest achievement?
Saladin's greatest achievement was the recapture of Jerusalem on 2 October 1187 CE, following his decisive victory at the Battle of Hattin in July 1187. Jerusalem had been under Crusader rule for 88 years; his retaking of it was accomplished not through massacre (as the Crusaders had done in 1099) but through negotiated terms that allowed the Christian population to depart safely — an act of chivalry that his enemies admired even as they mourned the loss.
What happened to Saladin's empire after his death?
The Ayyubid Empire fragmented after Saladin's death in 1193, with his sons and brother competing for control. His brother Al-Adil I eventually reunited much of the empire. The dynasty continued in various forms until the Mamluks abolished the last Ayyubid sultanate of Egypt in 1250. Regional Ayyubid states survived in Syria, Palestine, and elsewhere until the 14th century.
References and Further Reading
Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad, The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin, c. 1228 CE — primary biography by Saladin's personal companion.
Ibn al-Athir, Al-Kamil fi'l-Tarikh, 13th century — foremost contemporary history of the Crusade era.
Lyons, M.C. and Jackson, D.E.P. — Saladin: The Politics of the Holy War. Cambridge University Press, 1982.
Ehrenkreutz, A.S. — Saladin. SUNY Press, 1972.
Ayyubid Sultanate: The Kurdish Empire — Kurdish-History.com, 2026.
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