ABSTRACT
Kurdish-born leader who united Muslim forces in Syria, Palestine, and Egypt against European Crusaders. Saladin became famous in his own lifetime for his devotion to Islam and was regarded even by his enemies as a shrewd commander, an honorable warrior, an astute politician, and a generous, highly principled person. An important ruler whose patronage of Islam, the arts, learning, and literature left a lasting cultural legacy alongside his political changes, Saladin founded the Ayyubid dynasty, which ruled over Egypt and parts of modern-day Syria, Iraq, and Yemen until the early thirteenth century.
