During a truce between the Christian armies taking part in the third Crusade, and the infidel forces under Sultan Saladin, Sir Kenneth, on his way to Syria, encountered a Saracen Emir, whom he unhorsed, and they then rode together, discoursing on love and necromancy, towards the cave of the hermit Theodoric of Engaddi.

After a few Ayyubid raids — including attacks on Zir ' in, Forbelet, and Mount Tabor — the Crusaders still were not tempted to attack their main force, and Saladin led his men back across the river once provisions and supplies ran low.

However, since then, Masʻūd had allied himself with the powerful governor of Azerbaijan and Jibal, who in 1185 began moving his troops across the Zagros Mountains, causing Saladin to hesitate in his attacks.

Like his father before him, he served as chief engineer at the Artuklu Palace, the residence of the Mardin branch of the Turkish Artuqid dynasty which ruled across eastern Anatolia as vassals of the Zangid rulers of Mosul and later Ayyubid general Saladin.

On September 25, Saladin left Cairo to take part in a joint attack on Kerak and Montreal, the desert castles of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, with Nur ad-Din who would attack from Syria.

In council, war is agreed upon " because God wills it " and against sound advice they march into the desert to fight Saladin, leaving Jerusalem unguarded except for Balian, Tiberias, their knights, a few remaining Crusader soldiers and the townspeople.

Together with his father and brothers, Alexios had conspired against Emperor Andronikos I Komnenos ( c. 1183 ), and thus he spent several years in exile in Muslim courts, including that of Saladin.

The siege was long and famine broke out in the Christian camp ; the Byzantines and crusades blamed each other for the failure, and a truce was signed with Saladin.

In 1170 Saladin invaded Jerusalem and took the city of Eilat, severing Jerusalem's connection with the Red Sea.

As the first Sultan of Egypt, Saladin established the Ayyubid dynasty, based in Cairo, and aligned Egypt with the Abbasids, who were based in Baghdad.

The church was lost to Saladin, along with the rest of the city, in 1187, although the treaty established after the Third Crusade allowed for Christian pilgrims to visit the site.

* 1192 – Richard the Lion-Heart is captured and imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria on his way home to England after signing a treaty with Saladin ending the Third crusade.

A 12th-century treatise prepared by Mardi bin Ali al-Tarsusi for Saladin records an Arab version of Greek fire, called naft, which also had a petroleum base, with sulphur and various resins added.

Saladin soon began to assert his independence from Nur ad-Din, and with the death of both Amalric and Nur ad-Din in 1174, he was well-placed to begin exerting control over Nur ad-Din's Syrian possessions as well.

The subsequent events have often been interpreted as a struggle between two opposing factions, the " court party ", made up of Baldwin's mother, Amalric's first wife Agnes of Courtenay, her immediate family, and recent arrivals from Europe who were inexperienced in the affairs of the kingdom and who were in favour of war with Saladin ; and the " noble party ", led by Raymond of Tripoli and the lesser nobility of the kingdom, who favoured peaceful co-existence with the Muslims.

Most of the army of Jerusalem marched north with Philip, Raymond III, and Bohemond III to attack Hama, and Saladin took the opportunity to invade the kingdom.

The kingdom had a truce with Saladin at the time, and Raynald's actions have been seen as an independent act of brigandage ; it is possible that he was trying to prevent Saladin from moving his forces north to take control of Aleppo, which would have strengthened Saladin's position.

More troops were certainly needed, since Saladin was finally able to gain control of Aleppo, and with peace in his northern territories he could focus on Jerusalem in the south.

The few European knights who did travel to Jerusalem did not even see any combat, since the truce with Saladin had been re-established.

Raymond of Tripoli allied with Saladin against Guy and allowed a Muslim garrison to occupy his fief in Tiberias, probably hoping that Saladin would help him overthrow Guy.

Saladin attacked Kerak again in April, and in May, a Muslim raiding party ran into the much smaller embassy on its way to negotiate with Raymond, and defeated it at the Battle of Cresson near Nazareth.

The crusade came to an end peacefully, with the Treaty of Ramla negotiated in 1192 ; Saladin allowed pilgrimages to be made to Jerusalem, allowing the crusaders to fulfill their vows, after which they all returned home.

Among the stories Philip invented included Richard was involved in treacherous communication with Saladin, that he had conspired to cause the fall of Gaza, Jaffa and Ashkelon, and that he had participated in the murder of Conrad of Montferrat.

He spent most of his father's treasury ( filled with money raised by the Saladin tithe ), raised taxes, and even agreed to free King William I of Scotland from his oath of subservience to Richard in exchange for marks.

Eventually Conrad of Montferrat concluded the surrender negotiations with Saladin and raised the banners of the kings in the city.

He attempted to negotiate with Saladin, but, this was unsuccessful.

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, at age 26, went along with them.

Richard had kept 2, 700 Muslim prisoners as hostages against Saladin fulfilling all the terms of the surrender of the lands around Acre.

With this victory, Saladin decided to call in more troops from Egypt ; he requested 1, 500 horsemen to be sent by al-Adil.

The crusaders defeated Saladin at the Battle of Montgisard in 1177, and in the early 1180s there was an uneasy truce between the two sides, which was broken by the raids of Raynald on Muslim caravans passing through his fief of Oultrejordain.

Modern Arab states have sought to commemorate Saladin through various measures, often based on the image created of him in the 19th century west.

In 1189 the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa sought and obtained permission to lead his troops on the Third Crusade through the Byzantine Empire ; but he had no sooner crossed the border than Isaac, who had meanwhile sought an alliance with Saladin, threw every impediment in his way.

In an incident described by the Itinerarium Peregrinorum ( which is generally hostile to Conrad ), the Old French Continuation and Sicardus of Cremona's second chronicle ( now known through quotations by Salimbene di Adam and Alberto Millioli ), Saladin presented Conrad's aged father, William V of Montferrat, who had been captured at Hattin, before the walls of the city.

Raymond III hoped Saladin would ally with him against Guy, and allowed this force to pass through Tiberias on April 30, although he warned the Christians in Nazareth about the army's presence.

Leaving Tyre, Balian asked Saladin for permission to return through the lines to Jerusalem to escort his wife and their children to Tripoli.

Negotiations were carried out between Saladin and Balian, through the mediation of Yusuf Batit, one of the Eastern Orthodox clergy, who had been largely suppressed under Latin Christian rule and knew that they would have more freedoms if the city were returned to the Muslims.

When the battle was lost, Saladin captured the relic, which was then ransomed back to the Crusaders when the Muslims surrendered the city of Acre in 1191.

Gaining widespread recognition, he was appointed court physician to the Grand Vizier Al Qadi al Fadil, then to Sultan Saladin, after whose death he remained a physician to the royal family.

A ' zaz capitulated on June 21, and Saladin then hurried his forces to Aleppo to punish Gumushtigin.

As such, he ordered one of his generals, Farrukh-Shah, to guard the Damascus frontier with a thousand of his men to watch for an attack, then to retire avoiding battle and lighting warning beacons on the hills on which Saladin would march out.

Saladin then moved to besiege the fortress which fell on August 30, 1179.

Saladin agreed to a truce with Bohemond in return for Muslim prisoners being held by him and then he gave A ' zaz to Alam ad-Din Suleiman and Aleppo to Saif al-Din al-Yazkuj — the former was an emir of Aleppo who joined Saladin and the latter was a former mamluk of Shirkuh who helped rescue him from the assassination attempt at A ' zaz.

Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem organised, and contributed to a collection which paid the ransoms for about 18, 000 of the poorer citizens, leaving another 15, 000 to be enslaved, Saladins brother al-Adil, " asked Saladin for a thousand of them for his own use and then released them on the spot.

William remained in the kingdom and continued to write up until 1184, but by then Jerusalem was internally divided by political factions and externally surrounded by the forces of Saladin, and " the only subjects that present themselves are the disasters of a sorrowing country and its manifold misfortunes, themes which can serve only to draw forth lamentations and tears.

Saladin then executed Raynald himself, beheading him with his sword.

" Saladin then executed Raynald himself, beheading him with his sword.

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.

The day after, Saladin marched to Harim, near the Crusader-held Antioch and took hold of the city when its garrison forced out their leader, Surhak, who was then briefly detained and released by Taqi al-Din Umar.

Mas ' ud then sought the support of Pahlawan bin Muhammad, the governor of Azerbaijan, and although he did not usually intervene in the region, the possibility of it induced Saladin to be cautious about attacking Mosul.

In October 1183 and then on August 13, 1184, Saladin and al-Adil besieged Karak, but to no avail.

Saladin then launched an assault on the landward walls, thinking that the defenders were still distracted by the sea battle.

Islam was then established permanently in Urfa by the empires of the Ayyubids ( see: Saladin Ayubbi ), Seljuks and Ottoman Turks.

Guy and Raynald are captured ; Saladin executes Raynald and then marches on Jerusalem, sparing Guy as king only out of tradition.

In 1183 Antioch was harassed by Saladin, with whom Bohemond then negotiated a peace treaty.

After the capture of Bethlehem by Saladin in 1187, the bequest of the by then deceased Count was honoured and the Bishop of Bethlehem duly took up residence in the hospital of Panthenor, Clamecy in 1223.

Humphrey soon allied himself with Richard I of England, first in the capture of Cyprus and then against Saladin.

Baldwin pursued Saladin until nightfall, and then retired to Ascalon.