Afterward, in the spring of 1170, Nur ad-Din sent Saladin's father to Egypt in compliance with Saladin's request, as well as encouragement from the Baghdad-based Abbasid caliph, al-Mustanjid, who aimed to pressure Saladin in deposing his rival caliph, al-Adid.

" Saladin aimed to counter this propaganda by ending the siege, claiming he was defending Islam from the Crusaders ; his army returned to Hama to engage a Crusader force there.

Saladin, who was set up as Vizier of Egypt, was declared Sultan in 1171 upon the death of the last Fatimid caliph.

In 1169 Saladin was appointed as the new vizier of Egypt by the Fatimids and two years later he would seize power from the family of the last Fatimid caliph, al -' Āḍid.

The reasoning behind the Shia caliph al-Adid's selection of Saladin, a Sunni, varies.

Ibn al-Athir claims that the caliph chose him after being told by his advisers that " there is no one weaker or younger " than Saladin, and " not one of the emirs obeyed him or served him.

" Imad ad-Din wrote that after the brief mourning period of Shirkuh, during which " opinions differed ", the Zengid emirs decided upon Saladin and forced the caliph to " invest him as vizier.

After several minor skirmishes and a stalemate in the siege that was initiated by the caliph, Saladin intended to find a way to withdraw from the siege without damage to his reputation while still keeping up some military pressure.

" Saladin stressed that all this would happen by the will of God and instead of asking for financial or military support from the caliph, he would capture and give the caliph the territories of Tikrit, Daquq, Khuzestan, Kish Island, and Oman.

After Shirkuh's death, Saladin was appointed vizier by the Fatimid caliph al-Adid because there was " no one weaker or younger " than he was, and " not one of the emirs obeyed him or served him " according to chronicler Ibn al-Athir.

Mosul had been subjected to a short siege in the autumn of 1182, but after mediation by the Abbasid caliph an-Nasir, Saladin withdrew his forces.

These incidents occurred while Shirkuh and Saladin were viziers to the Fatimid caliph.

" Saladin defended his own conduct claiming that he had come to Syria to fight the Crusaders, end the heresy of the Assassins, and to end the wrong-doing of the Muslims.

As early as the days of Saladin, and while the Ma ' ans were still in complete control over southern Lebanon, the Shihab tribe, originally Hijaz Arabs but later settled in Ḥawran, advanced from Ḥawran, in 1172, and settled in Wadi al-Taym at the foot of mount Hermon.

There commenced a period of minor skirmishes with Saladin's forces while Richard and Saladin negotiated a settlement to the conflict, as both realised that their respective positions were growing untenable.

Saladin played a major role, commanding the right wing of the Zengid army, while a force of Kurds commanded the left, and Shirkuh stationed in the center.

He and the bulk of his force withdrew from Alexandria, while Saladin was left with the task of guarding the city.

One was killed by a general of Saladin and the others were slain while trying to escape.

Saladin had gathered massive reinforcements from Egypt while Saif al-Din was levying troops among the minor states of Diyarbakir and al-Jazira.

A few days later, while Saladin was resting in one of his captain's tents, an assassin rushed forward at him and struck at his head with a knife.

On November 25, while the greater part of the Ayyubid army was absent, Saladin and his men were surprised near Ramla in the battle of Montgisard.

In the spring of 1180, while Saladin was in the area of Safad, anxious to commence a vigorous campaign against the Kingdom of Jerusalem, King Baldwin sent messengers to him with proposals of peace.

Baldwin was nothing but heroic in the face of his debilitating leprosy, and he led military campaigns against Saladin even while still underaged ; William tends to gloss over campaigns where Baldwin was not actually in charge, preferring to direct his praise towards the afflicted king rather than subordinate commanders.

Guy was imprisoned in Damascus, while Sibylla together with Balian of Ibelin remained behind to defend Jerusalem, which was handed over to Saladin on 2 October.

On July 2, Saladin, who wanted to lure Guy into moving his army away from the springs at Saffuriya, personally led a siege of Raymond's fortress of Tiberias while the main Muslim army remained at Kafr Sabt.

Though reports of what happened at this meeting are biased due to personal feuds among the Franks, it seems Raymond argued that a march from Acre to Tiberias was exactly what Saladin wanted while Sephoria was a strong position for the Crusaders to defend.

For several years, the Shirkuh and Saladin would defeat the combined forces of the Crusaders and Shawar's troops, first at Bilbais, then a site near Giza, and Alexandria where Saladin would stay to protect while Shirkuh pursued Crusader forces in Lower Egypt.

An agreement was laid out, however, whereby Gumushtigin, the governor of Aleppo, and his Muslim allies at Hisn Kayfa and Mardin would recognize Saladin as the sovereign of his dominions in Syria while Saladin allowed for Gumushtigin and as-Salih al-Malik to continue their rule of Aleppo.

The two armies withdrew to a mile from each other and while the Crusaders discussed internal matters, Saladin captured the Golan Heights, cutting the Crusaders off from their main supplies source.

Saladin with a clear view of the Crusader army ordered Taqi al-Din Umar to block them from entering Hattin by taking a position near Lubya, while Gokbori and his troops were stationed at the hill near al-Shajara.

On July 8, Acre was captured by Saladin, while his brigades seized Nazareth and Saffuriya ; others took Haifa and Caesarea, and another Ayyubid detachment took Sebastia and Nablus, while al-Adil conquered Mirabel and Jaffa.

His primary aim was to be recognised as ruler in the north, while Saladin ( who was simultaneously negotiating with Richard for a possible marriage between his brother Al-Adil and Richard's widowed sister Joan, Dowager Queen of Sicily ) hoped to separate him from the Crusaders.

His assaults were again resisted, but he managed to secure not only a truce, but a mutual alliance with Aleppo, in which Gumushtigin and as-Salih were allowed to continue their hold on the city and in return, they recognized Saladin as the sovereign over all of the dominions he conquered.

Saladin wrote in a letter to al-Adil: " this Yemen is a treasure house ... We conquered it, but up to this day we have had no return and no advantage from it.

" Despite the Crusaders ' slaughter when they originally conquered Jerusalem in 1099, Saladin granted amnesty and free passage to all common Catholics and even to the defeated Christian army, as long as they were able to pay the aforementioned ransom ( the Greek Orthodox Christians were treated even better, because they often opposed the western Crusaders ).

In 1188, however, Saladin conquered the area, reconverting the enclosure to a mosque but allowing Christians to continue worshipping there.

Ayyubid Sultan Saladin had conquered most of the Frankish Kingdom of Jerusalem, including the ancient city itself, in 1187.

Saladin conquered Aleppo two years later, ending Zengid rule in Syria.

Shawar was executed and Shirkuh was named vizier of the newly conquered territory, later succeeded by his nephew Saladin.

It was briefly conquered by Saladin, but retaken by the Crusaders in 1191.

As the site of the Battle of Hattin in 1187, in which Saladin conquered most of Palestine from the Crusaders, it has become an Arab nationalist symbol.

Al-Damun was captured by the Crusaders, who referred to it as " Damar " during their invasion of Levant in 1099, and remained in their hands unlike most of Palestine which was conquered by the Ayyubids under Saladin in 1187.

Guy proved to be an ineffective king, and Saladin conquered most of the kingdom in 1187.

Saladin conquered much of the area in 1187 and personally executed Raynald at the Battle of Hattin.

The County managed to avoid being conquered by Saladin in his string of victories following Hattin, and Bohemund IV, second son of Bohemund III of Antioch, succeeded to it upon Raymond's death.

Saladin indeed arrived to besiege the city in September, after he had conquered almost all of the rest of the kingdom, including Ibelin, Nablus, Ramla, and Ascalon.

It was conquered by Saladin in 1187 and remained in Muslim hands until 1197.