Salah Ad-Deen Al-Ayubi by Dr. Ali Muhammad As-Sallabi is a two-volume biography of a man whose name is known across the world for the recapture of Jerusalem, yet whose actual life and character remain largely unknown outside the Arab world. As-Sallabi, a prolific contemporary historian of Islam, sets out to close that gap with the same meticulous, source-based method he brings to his other biographical works.
Volume One: The Stage Is Set
The first volume lays out the geopolitical scene the Crusades were fought on — the state of the Muslim world in the twelfth century CE, the fractures the Crusaders exploited, and the many figures whose decisions shaped what followed. As-Sallabi writes this history with his characteristic candor, naming both the strengths and the failures on the Muslim side rather than a simplified account.
Volume Two: Salah Ad-Deen Himself
The second volume turns to Salah ad-Deen directly — his family origins, birth and childhood, and the character and ethics that defined his rule. It covers how he ended Fatimid opposition in Egypt and reorganized its administration, his work to revive the Sunnah there, his jihad against the Crusaders, his use of his own literary skill in service of Islam, and his sustained effort to unite a fractured Muslim world around a common cause.
What This English Edition Adds
Beyond the translated text, this edition adds a map, a timeline, a list of the period’s ruling dynasties, and a comprehensive glossary — reference material the Arabic original assumes its reader already has.
Who This Book Is For
Readers of Islamic history who want Salah ad-Deen as a documented historical figure rather than a legend, and anyone studying the Crusades from the perspective largely absent in Western accounts of them.
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