Editing Saladin (section)

== Personality and religious leanings ==
[[File:Coin of Saladin, Nisibin mint, 578 H (Obverse and reverse).jpg|thumb|300px|Coin of Saladin, wearing [[Sasanian crowns|Sasanian-style]] merlon crown,<ref>{{Cite web |title=acsearch.info – Auction research |url=https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=saladin&category=1-2&en=1&de=1&fr=1&it=1&es=1&ot=1&images=1&thesaurus=1&order=0&currency=usd&company= |access-date=3 August 2024 |website=acsearch.info}}</ref> dated AH 578 (AD 1182/3).<ref>{{cite web |title=Copper alloy dirham of Saladin, Nisibin, 578 H. |url=https://numismatics.org/collection/0000.999.7979 |website=numismatics.org |publisher=[[American Numismatic Society]] |language=en}}</ref>]]
According to [[Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad]] (one of Saladin's contemporary biographers), Saladin was a pious Muslim—he loved hearing [[Quran]] recitals, prayed punctually, and "hated the [[philosophers]], those that denied God's attributes, the [[materialists]] and those who stubbornly rejected the [[Sharia|Holy Law]]."<ref name=":0" /> He was also a supporter of [[Sufism]] and a patron of [[khanqah]]s (Sufi hostels) in Egypt and Syria, in addition to [[madrasas]] that provided orthodox [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] teachings.<ref>{{cite book|author=Michael Haag|title=The Tragedy of the Templars: The Rise and Fall of the Crusader States|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hTPC09XoKs0C|date=2012|publisher=[[Profile Books]]|isbn=978-1847658548|page=158|quote=As an orthodox but esoteric alternative to Ismailism, Saladin encouraged Sufism and built khanqahs—that is, Sufi hostels—and he also introduced madrasas, theological colleges that promoted the acceptable version of the faith. Numerous khanqahs and madrasas were built throughout Cairo and Egypt in Saladin's effort to combat and suppress what he regarded as the Ismaili heresy.}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> Above all else he was a devotee of [[jihad]]:<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JU0eSxDCOmIC|title=Arab Historians of the Crusades|year=1984 |pages=99–100|publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520052246 }}</ref>
{{blockquote|The sacred works [Koran, hadith, etc.] are full of passages referring to the jihad. Saladin was more assiduous and zealous in this than in anything else.... Jihad and the suffering involved in it weighed heavily on his heart and his whole being in every limb; he spoke of nothing else, thought only about equipment for the fight, was interested only in those who had taken up arms, had little sympathy with anyone who spoke of anything else or encouraged any other activity.}}

In 1174, Saladin ordered the arrest of a Sufi mystic, Qadid al-Qaffas ({{langx|ar|قديد القفاص}}), in Alexandria.<ref name=":0" /> In 1191, he ordered his son to execute the Sufi philosopher [[Shihab al-Din Yahya ibn Habash Suhrawardi|Yahya al-Suhrawardi]], the founder of the [[Illuminationism|Illuminationist]] current in [[Islamic philosophy]], in Aleppo. Ibn Shaddad, who describes this event as part of his chapter on the sultan's piety, states that Al-Suhrawardi was said to have "rejected the Holy Law and declared it invalid." After consulting with some of the ''[[ulama]]'' (religious scholars), Saladin ordered al-Suhrawardi's execution.<ref name=":0" /> Saladin also opposed the [[Order of Assassins]], an extremist [[Isma'ili]] [[Shi'i]] sect in Iran and Syria, seeing them as heretics and as being too close with the [[Crusades|Crusaders]].<ref name=":0">{{cite book |author=Caldwell Ames |first=Christine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aPgGBwAAQBAJ |title=Medieval Heresies |date=2015 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1107023369 |page=171}}</ref>

Saladin welcomed Asiatic Sufis to Egypt and he and his followers founded and endowed many khanqahs and [[Zawiya (institution)|zawiyas]] of which [[al-Maqrizi]] gives a long list.<ref>{{cite book|author=[[J. Spencer Trimingham]]|title=The Sufi Orders in Islam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NhXqWLd_AMQC|date=1998|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-0198028239|page=17}}</ref> But it is not yet clear what Saladin's interests in the khanqah actually were and why he specifically wanted Sufis from outside Egypt. The answers to these questions lie in the kinds of Sufis he wished to attract. In addition to requiring that the Sufis come from outside Egypt, the [[waqf]]iyya seems to have specified that they be of a very particular type:<ref>{{cite book|author=Nathan Hofer|title=The Popularisation of Sufism in Ayyubid and Mamluk Egypt, 1173–1325|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pz0kDQAAQBAJ|date=2015|publisher=[[Edinburgh University Press]]|isbn=978-0748694228|page=44}}</ref> {{blockquote|The inhabitants of the khanqah were known for religious knowledge and piety and their [[Barakah|baraka]] (blessings) was sought after... The founder stipulated that the khanqah be endowed for the Sufis as a group, those coming from abroad and settling in Cairo and [[Fustat]]. If those could not be found, then it would be for the poor jurists, either [[Shafi'i]] or [[Maliki]], and [[Ash'ari]] in their [[Aqidah|creed]].}}