ABSTRACT
The 330 years of Ayyubid and Mamluk rule in Jerusalem 1187–1517 brought an extended period of prestige to the holy city. Salah al-Din, known in English as Saladin, triumphantly reclaimed Jerusalem for Islam and for his own Ayyubid dynasty after defeating a Crusader army at the Battle of Hattin in 1187. The Ayyubid period officially started for Jerusalem with its surrender to Saladin in 1187. For about a decade before his death in 1193, bolstered by the success of his Jerusalem conquest, Saladin was able to unite Muslim-controlled territories in Egypt and Syria into a single polity. A key venue for the architectural patronage was Jerusalem, which fell within an administrative division centered on Damascus, as it had under the Ayyubids. Jerusalem during the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods attracted the attention of writers eager to bear witness to the city’s history, to praise those who recognized its special status, and to denounce those who failed to protect and promote it.
