Editing Saladin (section)

==Recognition and legacy==
===Muslim world===
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| footer            = The Eagle of Saladin in the coats of arms of the [[Coat of arms of the Kurdistan Region|Kurdistan Regional Government]] and [[Coat of arms of Egypt|Egypt]], respectively
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Saladin has become a prominent figure in [[Islamic culture|Islamic]], [[Arab culture|Arab]], [[Turkish culture|Turkish]] and [[Kurdish culture]],<ref>''Moors' Islamic Cultural Home souvenir III, 1970–1976'' Islamic Cultural Home, 1978, p. 7.</ref> and he has been described as the most famous Kurd in history.<ref>{{cite book |author=Gunter, Michael M. |title=Historical Dictionary of the Kurds |date=2010 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0810875074 |edition=2 |page=xxiii |author-link=Michael M. Gunter}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author= Hillenbrand, Carole |title=The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives |date=1999 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-1579582104 |edition=illustrated |page=594 |author-link=Carole Hillenbrand}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Catherwood, Christopher |title=Making War in the Name of God |date=2008 |publisher=Kensington Publishing Corp. |isbn=978-0806531670 |page=36 |author-link=Christopher Catherwood}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Dunnigan, James F. |url=https://archive.org/details/quickdirtyguidet00dunn/page/174 |title=A Quick & Dirty Guide to War: Briefings on Present and Potential Wars |date=1991 |publisher=Quill/W. Morrow |isbn=978-0688100339 |edition=3rd illustrated, revised |page=[https://archive.org/details/quickdirtyguidet00dunn/page/174 174] |author-link=Jim Dunnigan}}</ref> Historian [[Usama ibn Munqidh|ibn Munqidh]] mentioned him as the person who revived the reign{{clarify |How does one "revive the reign" of long-dead rulers? Maybe the legacy? |date= May 2024}} of ''[[Rashidun Caliph]]s''. The Turkish writer [[Mehmet Akif Ersoy]] called him the most beloved [[sultan]] of the Orient.<ref name="İÂ" />

In 1898, [[German emperor]] [[Wilhelm II]] [[Wilhelm II's voyage to the Levant in 1898|visited Saladin's tomb]] to pay his respects.<ref>The Kaiser laid a wreath on the tomb bearing the inscription, "A Knight without fear or blame who often had to teach his opponents the right way to practice chivalry." {{harvnb|Grousset|1970}}</ref> The visit, coupled with [[anti-imperialist]] sentiments, encouraged the image in the [[Arab world]] of Saladin as a hero of the struggle against the West, building on was the romantic one created by Walter Scott and other Europeans in the West at the time. Saladin's reputation had previously been largely forgotten in the [[Muslim world]], eclipsed by more successful figures,{{clarify |How were they "more successful"? Think Hattin. |date= May 2024}} such as [[Baybars]] of Egypt.{{sfn|Riley-Smith|2008|pp=63–66}}

Modern Arab states have sought to commemorate Saladin through various measures, often based on the image created of him in the 19th-century west.<ref>Madden, Thomas F.: ''The Concise History of the Crusades''; 3rd edition, Rowman & Littlefield, 2013. pp. 201–204.</ref> A [[Governorates of Iraq|governorate]] centered around Tikrit and [[Samarra]] in modern-day Iraq [[Saladin Governorate|is named after him]], as is [[Salahaddin University]] in [[Erbil]], the largest city of [[Iraqi Kurdistan]]. A suburban community of [[Erbil]], Masif Salahaddin, is also named after him.

Few structures associated with Saladin survive within modern cities. Saladin first fortified the [[Citadel of Cairo]] (1175–1183), which had been a domed pleasure pavilion with a fine view in more peaceful times. In Syria, even the smallest city is centred on a defensible [[citadel]], and Saladin introduced this essential feature to Egypt.

Although the [[Ayyubid dynasty]] that he founded would outlive him by only 57 years, the legacy of Saladin within the Arab world continues to this day. With the rise of [[Arab nationalism]] in the 20th century, particularly with regard to the [[Arab–Israeli conflict]], Saladin's heroism and leadership gained a new significance. Saladin's recapture of Palestine from the European [[Crusaders]] is considered an inspiration for modern-day Arabs' opposition to [[Zionism]]. Moreover, the glory and comparative unity of the Arab world under Saladin was seen as the perfect symbol for the new unity sought by Arab nationalists, such as [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]]. For this reason, the [[Eagle of Saladin]] became the symbol of revolutionary Egypt, and was subsequently adopted by several other Arab states (the [[Coat of arms of the United Arab Republic|United Arab Republic]], [[Coat of arms of Iraq|Iraq]], [[Coat of arms of Libya#Libya under Gaddafi|Libya]], the [[Coat of arms of Palestine|State of Palestine]], and [[Emblem of Yemen|Yemen]]).

Among [[Shia Islam in Egypt|Egyptian Shias]], Saladin is dubbed as "Kharab ad-Din", the destroyer of religion—a derisive play on the name "Saladin."<ref name= veconomist>{{cite news |date=30 May 2019 |title=How Saladin became a hero in the West |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |url=https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2019/05/30/how-saladin-became-a-hero-in-the-west}}</ref>

===Western world===
{{see also|Ordene de chevalerie}}
[[File:Cristofano dell'altissimo, saladino, ante 1568 - Serie Gioviana.jpg|thumb|''Saladinus'', by [[Cristofano dell'Altissimo]], ante 1568]]
Saladin was widely renowned in medieval Europe as a model of kingship, and in particular of the courtly virtue of regal generosity. As early as 1202/03, [[Walther von der Vogelweide]] urged the German King [[Philip of Swabia]] to be more like Saladin, who believed that a king's hands should have holes to let the gold fall through.{{efn|''Denk an den milten Salatîn / der jach, daz küniges hende dürkel solten sîn / sô wurden sî erforht und ouch geminnet.'' (Think of the generous Saladin, who said that kings' hands should have holes, that they might be both feared and loved.){{sfn|Wapnewski|1962|p=138}}}}
By the 1270s, [[Jans der Enikel]] was spreading the fictitious but approving story of Saladin's table,{{efn|Saladin had a table that was made of a gigantic sapphire. As the end of his life approached, he wanted to dedicate the table to God in the hope of eternal life, but he couldn't decide which god to honour, the Muslim God, the Christian or the Jewish, as there was no way to tell which was most powerful. So he had the table cut in three parts and gifted each of them a third of it (Jans, ''Weltchronik'', 26551–26675).{{sfn|Dunphy|2003}} }} which presented him as both pious and wise to religious diversity.{{sfn|Dunphy|2003}}
In ''[[The Divine Comedy]]'' (1308–1320), [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]] mentions him as one of the virtuous non-Christians in [[limbo]],<ref>[[s:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867)/Volume 1/Canto 4|Inferno, Canto IV]], line 129</ref> and he is also depicted favorably in Boccaccio's ''[[The Decameron]]'' (1438–53).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb/history/characters/saladin.php|title='Saladin' (in full, 'Salah ad-din yusuf ibn ayyub,' meaning 'righteousness of the faith, Joseph, son of Job') (c. 1137–1193)|website=Decameron Web|publisher=Brown University}}</ref>

Although Saladin faded into history after the [[Middle Ages]], he appears in a sympathetic light in modern literature, first in [[Gotthold Ephraim Lessing|Lessing]]'s play ''[[Nathan the Wise]]'' (1779), which transfers the central idea of "Saladin's table" to the post-medieval world. He is a central character in Sir [[Walter Scott]]'s novel ''[[The Talisman (Scott novel)|The Talisman]]'' (1825), which more than any other single text influenced the romantic view of Saladin. Scott presented Saladin as a "modern [19th-century] liberal European gentlemen, beside whom medieval Westerners would always have made a poor showing".{{sfn|Riley-Smith|2008|p=67}} 20th-century French author [[Albert Champdor]] described him as ''"Le plus pur héros de l'Islam"'' ({{langx|en|The purest Hero of Islam}}).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cahen |first1=Claude |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b7sieLyg-EEC&dq=champdor+historian&pg=PA166 |title=Introduction to the History of the Muslim East: A Bibliographical Guide |last2=Sauvaget |first2=Jean |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |year=1965 |page=166 |language=en |chapter=The Seljuks and Their Descendants – Historical Bibliography}}</ref> 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 [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Greek Orthodox]] Christians were treated even better because they often opposed the western Crusaders).{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

Notwithstanding the differences in beliefs, the Muslim Saladin was respected by Christian lords, [[Richard I of England|Richard]] especially. Richard once praised Saladin as a great prince, saying that he was, without doubt, the greatest and most powerful leader in the Islamic world.{{sfn|Lyons|Jackson|1982|p=357}} Saladin, in turn, stated that there was not a more honorable Christian lord than Richard. After the treaty, Saladin and Richard sent each other many gifts as tokens of respect but never met face to face. In April 1191, a Frankish woman's three-month-old baby had been stolen from her camp and sold on the market. The Franks urged her to approach Saladin herself with her grievance. According to Ibn Shaddad, Saladin used his own money to buy the child back:

{{blockquote|He gave it to the mother and she took it; with tears streaming down her face, and hugged the baby to her chest. The people were watching her and weeping and I (Ibn Shaddad) was standing amongst them. She suckled it for some time and then Saladin ordered a horse to be fetched for her and she went back to camp.{{sfn|Baha ad-Din|2002|pp=147–148}}{{sfn|Lyons|Jackson|1982|pp=325–326}} }}

Mark Cartwright, the publishing director of ''[[World History Encyclopedia]]'', writes: "Indeed, it is somewhat ironic that the Muslim leader became one of the great exemplars of chivalry in 13th century European literature. Much has been written about the sultan during his own lifetime and since, but the fact that an appreciation for his diplomacy and leadership skills can be found in both contemporary Muslim and Christian sources would suggest that Saladin is indeed worthy of his position as one of the great medieval leaders."<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Cartwright |first1=Mark |title=Saladin |date= 2018 |encyclopedia=[[World History Encyclopedia]] |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Saladin/}}</ref>