Following Nur al-Din’s death in 1174, the commander of Zengid forces in Cairo, Saladin, returned to Damascus and took control of the city. It took Saladin years of campaigning, however, to take the Zengid states of northern Syria whose forces (along with Egypt’s) were needed to mount a sustained offensive against the Crusaders. His victory against the Crusader armies at Hattin in Palestine in 1187 was the first sign of a real Muslim effort to turn the tide. Saladin’s brilliant victory, however, came too close to his death in 1192 to build the momentum of the Islamic offensive across Syria. His successors from the Ayyubid family spent more time vying with each other than threatening the Crusaders.