Salah al-Din Yusuf bin Ayub or Saladin as he more commonly known was born in 1138 A.D. The meaning of his Arabic name is "righteousness of the faith." As a child Saladin was a studious boy who studied the Koran as well as poetry. He was known to love studying the Koran and other literature more than joining and fighting in the military. At the age of fourteen, he entered into the military service of his uncle Nur ed-Din, another great and respected Arab warrior. Another teacher of the young Saladin was the Saracen chief Zenghi who in 1144 overthrew the city of Edessa, which had been an outpost of the Western world for many years because of its proximity to Antioch. Saladin learned his military lessons well and began to stand out among Nur ed-Din's forces.
In 1169 A.D. Saladin served with another uncle named Shirkuh as second to the commander in chief of the Syrian army. Shirkuh died just two months after Saladin received his new position. As the leader of a foreign army from Syria, he also had no control over the Shi'ite Egyptian army, which was led in the name of the weak and powerless caliph (Muslim religious leader or Muslim Pope) Al-Adid. When the caliph died in September 1171, Saladin had the imams pronounce the name of Al-Mustadi, the caliph in Abbasid in Baghdad, at sermon before Friday prayers instead of Al-Adid. The people liked this decision and the name of Al-Adid was forgotten. Saladin took control of Egypt, being the natural choice since the caliph in the region was dead, and since the people needed a new leader.
Now Saladin ruled Egypt, but officially representing Nur ad-Din, his old lord who himself also recognized the Abbasid caliph. Saladin revitalized the economy of Egypt, reorganized the military forces and, following his father's advice, stayed away from any conflicts with Nur ad-Din, his formal lord, after he had become the sultan of Egypt. He waited until Nur ad-Din's death before evoking forced military militia risings for power at the smaller Muslim states such as Damascus, Syria, Alleppo, Mawsil and Iraq, and taking them under his control.
While Saladin was building up his power, he gerenally avoided any conflict with the Crusader kingdom, even though whenever he fought them, he defeated them. One exception was the Battle of Montgisard on November 25, 1177.
Warriors of God by James Reston Jr. is a non-fictional view of the third crusade. This particular crusade spanned from 1187-1192, containing many gruesome battles and a lot of intense moments between Islam and Christianity. Reston supplies the reader with a little background to the third Crusade when he talks about the first Crusades happening since 1095. Reston gives a fairly impartial view of this holy war. He discusses the battles, politics, and emotions of the Crusade as an outside party and if he takes any side at all it is with the Muslims. He often speaks badly of King Richard and he speaks well of Saladin, the sultan. He portrays Richard as a greedy, anti-Semite, who is intolerable of other religions, while he shows Saladin as tolerant to the Jews, reasonable, and an overall good leader. Reston wrote this book mostly to inform readers about the third Crusade but also to add some of his own insights. His thesis was a little unclear but he stated that the Crusades were the most violent event in history all the way up to Hitler’s rein. Reston did a good job in proving this when he told of battles and then analyzed them. He told of a time when King Richard had twenty thousand Muslims executed and when Saladin had Reginald of Chatillon beheaded along with many other Christian prisoners.
Egypt has one of the longest histories of any nation in the world. Written history of Egypt dates back to about 5,000 years, the commencement of civilization. While there is divergence in relation to Early Egyptian times, it is said that Egypt came to be around 3200 B.C., during the reign of a king by the name of Menes and unified the northern and southern cities of Egypt into one government. In 1675 B.C., Egypt was invaded by the Hyksos, people from the east, bringing along the very first of chariots and horses ever to come across Egyptian soil. Approximately 175 years later in 1500 B.C., the Egyptians had gotten rid of the Hyksos and driven them out. In 1375 B.C., Amenhotep IV had become the king of Egypt. During his reign he eliminated the worship of Egyptian gods and initiated the idea of only worshipping one god. But after his death, his ideas were retired and old ways were reestablished. Egyptian supremacy then started to decline around 1000 B.C. Between 1000 B.C. and 332 B.C., Egypt was ruled by many such as the Libyans, Assyrians, Ethiopians, and Persians. In 640, Muslims conquered Egypt and founded the city of Cairo in 969 and deemed it as the capital of Egypt. For many centuries Egypt was ruled by Muslim caliphs. A prominent ruler of this period was Saladin, who battled the Christian Crusaders at the conclusion of the twelfth century. In 1798 Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt but was then forced to withdraw in 1801 Turkish and British armed forces. In 1805 Mohamed Ali began ruling Egypt till 1848 and great changed the country in terms of modernization and its military. During Mohamed’s conquest, he borrowed a lot of money from the French and British, which later resulted in Egypt’s coloniza...
...rule of Amenemhet. He was responsible for rebuilding democracy, staff of scribes and administrations. He used propaganda literature to reinforce his position as king. The Egyptians pictured him as a good shepherd opposed to inaccessible god. Ammon was given prominise over other gods. His kingdom became extremely powerful. He established trades with foreign land and formed a standing Army and built forts on the southern frontier.
On June 26, 1187, the Muslim Sultan Saladin crossed the river Jordan with 20,000 of his followers - an army consisting of roughly 12,000 light horsemen and a number of footmen to a location south of the Sea of Galilee where he and his men encamped. They had been ravaging the nearby countryside in hopes of provoking a Christian attack, but had been unsuccessful.
After that was the siege of Acre which was one of the first confrontations of the Third Crusade the battle took August 28, 1189 until July 12, 1191. The battle was a key victory for the crusaders and a serious defeat for Saladin. Who hoped he could crush the crusaders army there, but they won. After that the next siege was Jaffa after the siege of Acre this battle was the final battle of the Third Crusade. So this battle was the last one and ended this crusade, it ended by a truce between King Richard I of England and Sultan Saladin and even though the crusaders didn’t control Jerusalem the Christian people were permitted to enter the
At this point Egypt was now a province of Persia, and paying taxes or tribute to the king. A king who was not even truly there’s. The new administration system was pushing for old traditional languages to be stopped and for everyone to use Aramaic as the new official language. The Egyptians could not fight off the Persians, and in 341BC after 63 years of fighting to gain full power the Persians finally succeeded. Gaining full power over Egypt. They were not able to hold that position of power for very long. For just after gaining full power, Alexander the great showed
Egyptian polytheistic religion recognized gods representing every aspect of life. The Achaemenid Empire served one and only one true god, Ahura Mazda. The military system of the Egyptians was dominated by the chariot warrior and its ability to afford such technology. The Achaemenid Empire relied upon a heavy armored, well organized, and highly trained infantry for its defense and conquests. The government structure of Egypt was rigid. The pharaoh was both king and a god. On the contrary, while the Achaemenid king was the ultimate ruler, he did pass down some authority to provincial governors known as satraps. Whether because of the need to adapt or a need to expand an empire, these differences demonstrate how two cultures can evolve over a 2000 year period with completely contrasting views on religion, military tactics, and governmental
achieved unprecedented popularity in both Egypt and the Arab world. He was said to be
Saladin became a close companion of Nur ad- Din . He also accompanied his uncle on three separate expeditions to Egypt between 1164 and 1168. In 1169 Saladin's uncle, Shirkuh, took over the Fatimid caliphate in Egypt and became Vizier of Egypt with Saladin as chief administrator. Shirkuh died nine weeks into his rule and Saladin seized power. By 1171 Saladin had abolished the Fatimid caliphate and placed it under Nur ad-Dins rule. Nur ad-Din died in 1174 and Saladin promptly married his widow and began to establish his sway over the sultans empire. In 1175 Saladin seized Central Syria with his victory at the Battle of Hama. By 1181, with the death of Nur ad-Dins son, Saladin had become the leader of a unified Muslim state.
In about 1630 BC, a group of mixed Semitic-Asiatics called ?Hyksos? (probably Egyptian for ?rulers of foreign lands?) seized power and ruled Egypt as Pharaohs or as vassals. The Hyksos introduced the horse and chariot, the compound bow, improved battle-axes and advanced fortification techniques into Egypt. Their chief deity was the Egyptian storm and desert god, Seth. Under the Hyksos rulers Seqeneenre and Kamose the Thebans began a revolt spread northward under Kamose until, in about 1521, Avaris feel to his successor, Ahmose, founder of the 18th Dynasty (Tyldesley, 1996:24-25).
Egypt relied on their pharaohs to rule and run their county. Amenhotep III was the ninth pharaoh of the 18th dynasty; he ruled as pharaoh for a long period and achieved a significant amount of development in national and foreign affairs. He has been known as one of the best pharaohs that the world has seen. While Amenhotep was ruler of his era, it was known as the period of peace and prosperity. This allowed him to build many of the impressive structures that are found throughout Egypt today. He went on military campaigns and not only strengthened but expanded the boarders of Egypt throughout his campaigns. Amenhotep III was a successful pharaoh because he completed the roles of a pharaoh exceptionally well; these roles are High Priest, Administrator and Military commander. His name ‘Amenhotep’ means that the gods are satisfied.
Furthermore, this background gave Marwan a front-row seat as he watched the quasi-religious office of caliph evolve. Contemporary Umayyad caliphs were inaugurated with special oaths that carried religious as well as politico-legal considerations: caliphs were bound to uphold not only "the sunna of God and his Prophet, but also of his predecessors as caliph" (Blankenship 1994, pp. 76-78). In any event, after ascending to the role of caliph himself, Marwan proved to be an imposing military commander and adept political leader, and he oversaw significant consolidation of the authority of the Umayyads as he ruled from the multi-ethnic and multi-religious
...Balian made knights of every able-bodied to help defend Jerusalem, he designed a defensive attack, by pouring boiling oil on the enemy, and setting them on fire. The fighting continued for several days, with both sides suffering tremendous losses. Baron Balian submitted the city of Jerusalem over to Saladin in exchange for protecting the citizens. After the takeover Islam was authenticated as the main religion, yet had respect for the previous Christianity religions.
In 1250 the Mamluk rebellion overthrew the Ayyubid house for control of Egypt and named Aybeg, one of the Mamluk regimental leaders, as Sultan. The Mamluks, being a military slave society, were able to defend Syria against the Mongols in 1260 and also subsume the remaining Syria principalities and expel the Crusaders by 1291.1 The unity between Egypy and Syria that the Mamluks were able to achieve was reason that the Mamluk state was the largest Islamic states between the time of the Abbasids and the Ottoman empire.2 Moreover, t...
Asih Juwariyah. (2012, September 12). Muhammad alfFatih, the conqueror of constantinople. Retrieved February 8, 2014, from http://kanshaforlife.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/muhammad-al-fatih-the-conqueror-of-constantinople/