Draft:Salah al-Din Ayyubi

Salah al-Din Ayyubi
Name	Salah al-Din Ayyubi
Other Names	Salah al-Din Ayyubi
Personal Details
Birth Place	Tikrit
Brith Date	532 AH (1137 CE)
Death Place	Damascus
Death Date	589 AH (1193 CE)
Religion	Islam

Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadhi ibn Marwan (Kurdish: سه‌لاحه‌دین ئهوبی, Selah'edînê Eyubî) who later became known as Salah al-Din Ayyubi, was one of the most famous rulers and commanders in the history of Islam. He achieved many conquests for Muslims and protected Islamic borders against European Christians.

Najm al-Din Ayyub, the father of the Ayyubid kings, lived in Tikrit, and Salah al-Din was also born in the same city. The Kurdish people lived in this city, and the Ayyubid family was also part of the Kurdish people. However, due to the predominance of Arab identity at that time, they were less known as Kurds, and this was because at that time non-Arab ethnicities had less power to assert themselves as distinct ethnicities.

Najm al-Din Ayyub was the ruler of the city of Baalbek during the time of Imad al-Din Zengi. From early childhood, Salah al-Din had a strong interest in learning military arts, especially swordsmanship and dagger fighting, and eventually acquired skills in these arts. He likely became familiar with jurisprudence of the Shafi'i school from childhood; a jurisprudence which he later strove hard to promote.

Salah al-Din was undoubtedly a zealous Sunni and a full-fledged Shafi'i, and when he came to power in the Arab Republic of Egypt, he made every effort to spread this sect and replace it with the Shi'a sect, which we will explain further in the following sections of this article.

Salah al-Din's Entry into Egypt and the End of the Fatimid Caliphate

In the early years of the Crusades, Christians had managed to conquer many Muslim-populated cities, and these conquests gave them great morale until they coveted the conquest of Cairo, the center of the Fatimid Caliphate. "The large Christian army moved towards Cairo and conquered cities along the way, including the large city of Bilbais, plundering it and killing the people". Eventually, they reached Cairo and besieged it. However, the people of Cairo, fearing that the Franks would do in Cairo what they had done in Bilbais, rose to defend the city.

Al-Adid, who ruled there as the Fatimid Caliph, requested help from the Abbasid government and asked them to send military forces to resolve the Crusader problem. Knowing well that he had no power to confront the Westerners without help, he requested the expedition of Asad al-Din Shirkuh, the great commander who was Salah al-Din's uncle.

"Asad al-Din departed for the Arab Republic of Egypt with six thousand soldiers and before moving, he addressed the needs of the soldiers and gave twenty dinars to each rider. A group of commanders were in his service, and Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub along with his father Ayyub, Shirkuh's brother, accompanied him. When he approached Cairo, the Franks retreated and returned to their cities. He also entered Cairo in the middle of that year. 'Al-Adid li-Din Allah', the Fatimid Caliph, bestowed robes of honor upon him and assigned a fixed stipend for him and his army".

After some time of entering Cairo, Asad al-Din managed, with the help of commanders and the wish of Al-Adid the Fatimid Caliph, to kill the Caliph's vizier named "Shawar", who effectively managed all affairs".

With the death of Shawar, Asad al-Din became the master of Cairo, and Al-Adid only bore the name of the Caliphate. However, Asad al-Din did not live long after the conquest of Cairo and died two months later. After him, his commanders disagreed over his succession until, with the wish of the Fatimid Caliph and the companionship of some commanders, Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub became his uncle's successor, and thus Salah al-Din's rule over Egypt began.

Only the name of Al-Adid remained as Caliph, and he had no role in state affairs until he was removed from power during his illness, the details of which we will bring in the section on the Fatimid government.

Fatimid Caliphate

The Fatimid Caliphate, which can be called the Alid State, "was a state whose territory was vast and whose reign was long, as it began in the year 296 AH (909 CE) and ended in the year 567 AH (1171 CE). The first Fatimid Caliph was named al-Mahdi Billah. He was Abu Muhammad Ubayd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Ismail III ibn Ahmad ibn Ismail II ibn Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Araj ibn Ja'far al-Sadiq (peace be upon him). Of course, other genealogies have been narrated for the Fatimids in which there is disagreement, but what is certain from these various genealogies is that they are Alid and Ismaili, and their connection to Ali (peace be upon him) is correct and valid".

The Fatimid Caliphs endeavored to publish and spread Shiism in Egypt, which requires another article and is beyond the scope of this writing. But we suffice with mentioning this point that the Fatimids raised the symbols of Shia and proposed Shiism as the official religion of the Egyptians.

The decline of the Fatimids was due to two characteristics they had in their later period:

1. Fatimid ministers gained extraordinary power, which was accompanied by the weakening of the Fatimid Caliphs.
2. Weakening of the government foundations; thus, the empowered ministers engaged in conflict and dispute over seizing power, and these internal conflicts severely weakened the government's power.

Al-Adid was the last Fatimid ruler who was not old in his rule; thus, most state affairs fell into the hands of ministers, one of the most important and powerful of whom was a person named Shawar, who was killed by Asad al-Din Shirkuh.

Status of Shias

After Shawar's death, Asad al-Din took control of Egypt. Asad al-Din, who was considered a Sunni sect and an ally of the Caliph of Baghdad, took hold of the ministry of a government that was a promoter of Shiism and considered itself opposite to the Baghdad government, and this itself indicates the miserable state of the Fatimid government. Asad al-Din's ministry, along with the ruler's weakness, paved the way for the end of the Fatimid government. After Asad al-Din, 'Salah al-Din gained control over the state, and gave valuable pieces of land to each of his relatives who came to him, and curtailed the hands of Adid's associates and personally took hold of government affairs. After a while, Adid became ill, and his illness increased, and he died in the year 567 AH (1171 CE). At this time, people showed reluctance regarding the person whose name should be mentioned on pulpits as Caliphate, until Friday came and a man went up the pulpit and preached, and mentioned the name of al-Mustadi (Abbasid Caliph) for Caliphate and no one objected to his words. From then on, the sermon continued to be read in Egypt in the name of the Abbasids, and the Fatimid state suddenly fell from the land of Egypt, and Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub undertook the rule of Egypt independently and without the presence of a rival and contestant '. And thus the Fatimid government ended and Salah al-Din Ayyubi became the undisputed ruler of Egypt.

Saladin Ayyubi and the Shias

Sunni governments generally did not have good relations with Shias and usually tried their best to eliminate them. Even in many cases, Sunni rulers had appropriate behavior towards religious minorities such as Jews and Christians, even granting them positions, but they never accorded this respect to Shias and fought them in the hardest possible way. Many arguments and evidence can be cited for this matter, which requires another opportunity and is beyond the scope of this article.

The Ayyubid government, headed by Saladin, also followed this tradition and made many efforts to eradicate Shiism in Egypt. These efforts could have had different reasons, but certainly the most important ones were religious. Saladin, as a full-fledged Shafi'i, could not tolerate minorities like Shia and considered fighting this minority part of his religious duties. In addition, there were political reasons for him; since the Fatimid government was Shia and Saladin had taken the government from them, he consequently considered the Shias as his rivals and highly suspected that the Shias would rise up against him. For this reason, Saladin fought against the Shias.

However, due to the many wars he had outside Egypt, he tried to engage fewer military forces in Egypt; for this reason, he tried to prioritize cultural struggle. Here we briefly mention some of Saladin's struggles and sometimes unchivalrous actions regarding the Shias:

1. Fighting Shia teachings and symbols: Saladin isolated Shia scholars and destroyed their schools or converted them into Sunni seminaries. He also ordered the large Fatimid library to be burned. Most importantly, he ordered the suspension of Shia rituals, including declaring the Day of Ashura as a day of joy and happiness, thereby preventing Shias from holding Ashura ceremonies. He also removed the phrase "Hayya ala khayr al-amal" (Hasten to the best of deeds), which was proposed as a slogan for the Shia school, from the adhan. This incident occurred on the 10th of Dhu al-Hijjah 565 AH (24 August 1170 CE). .
2. He ordered that the names of the Rashidun Caliphs, which are a symbol of the Ahl al-Sunnah, be mentioned in every sermon.
3. Changing Shia judges was another of his actions towards eradicating Shiism. By placing Shafi'i judges instead of Shia judges, he tried to eliminate Shia jurisprudence and implement Shafi'i jurisprudence in society so that people would become accustomed to this type of ruling.
4. At some times, Shia uprisings took place in various parts of Egypt, and although Saladin preferred the cultural and ideological path, he engaged in military struggle against the Shias. Toppling and pursuing Shias was among the serious tasks of the rulers appointed by Saladin. In the era of Saladin, being Shia was considered a crime, and Shias were legally pursued as criminals by judges whom Saladin had chosen from among the Sunnis.
5. Organizing economic affairs with a prominent role for the government: In the late Fatimid government, the economic situation of the people became difficult, and the amount of two hundred thousand dinars per year was the tax burden on the people. However, Saladin exempted the people from paying taxes all of a sudden. This matter and points like this, which were all done during Saladin's vizierate or the early years of his government, were done to make people forget the Shia government and Shia thought and to attach the people to Saladin and his religion.
6. Establishment of Shafi'i seminaries: Saladin, in line with promoting the Shafi'i school, established Shafi'i scientific schools in Egypt and through these schools sent many scholars and propagators of the Shafi'i into society to promote the Shafi'i school.

Crusades and Saladin

The Crusades refer to the wars that Christians waged against Muslims which began in 1096 CE and continued for two centuries and occurred in several stages. This historical period has been discussed and examined in detail by historians, one of the most comprehensive sources in this discussion being the book Al-Kamil by Ibn Athir, where approximately from the middle of volume 22 to the middle of volume 24, nearly seventy percent of the content relates to the Crusades and Saladin.

During these wars, Saladin appointed capable men in various cities and strengthened the city fortifications so that the Franks could not reach those areas. On the other hand, he attacked cities in Sham that had fallen into the hands of the Franks, opening them and capturing the Franks or driving them out of those points. Within a period of less than five years, he captured many cities, but above all of these was the conquest of Jerusalem.

The city of Jerusalem was important as a strategic and religiously significant point for both sides. This city had fallen into the hands of Christians in the First Crusade, and Saladin managed to retake it from the Christians. By conquering Jerusalem and liberating it from the hands of Christians, he managed to gain fame for himself.

Saladin's performance, especially in the Crusades, caused him special fame and respect among Muslims, especially Sunnis, and most Sunni scholars and historians also speak of him kindly.

However, this fame and performance does not justify all of his actions; rather, he also had deeds that were not morally and religiously correct, and could even be considered reprehensible. One of these actions was his treatment of Shiites, which we mentioned earlier. In addition, so as not to leave the performance of the Crusaders unanswered, he performed similar actions to them and engaged in much killing and looting, putting many ordinary people to the sword, and performing actions that the Crusaders performed after conquering cities, he also performed after conquering cities. Although these actions were considered somewhat normal at that time, they can by no means be considered Islamic. Here we will limit ourselves to mentioning a few cases of them:

"... Saladin camped at Nahrawan River and engaged in looting and killing in the surrounding cities".

"Saladin himself went to Ra's al-Ayn and dispersed the population there, then brought the army to Mardin and engaged in looting and killing in those areas and returned".

"Saladin looted and burned the city of Tiberias".

Death

In the month of Safar of the year 589 AH (1193 CE), Saladin Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadhi, ruler of Egypt and Sham and Jazira and other cities, passed away in Damascus. The cause of his illness was that he went out of the city to meet pilgrims and fell ill on the same day and became severely ill. He was ill for eight days and then died.

See also

• Egypt
• Fatimid State
• Christians
• Jerusalem