History of Palestine (Salah Al-Deen Al-Ayobi)

Salah Al-Deen Al-Ayobi

Salah Al-Din Al-Ayobi came  after Noor Al-Den Mahmoud-, and he followed the footsteps of those before him like Noor Al-Deen. Therefore, the Islamic solution to defeat the crusaders forces, and retrieve the holy land was drawn.

When Salah Al-Deen Al-Ayobi came Noor Al-Deen Mahmoud had already prepared the necessary circumstances to retrieve the holy land, and Salah Al-Deen Al-Ayobi used these circumstances in the best way, and with great organization.

Salah Al-Deen Al-Ayobi was born in Takreet, which his father Youssef Bin Ayoob was its magistrate, in the year 532 Higri, 1137 A.C. He entered in the service of Noor Al-Deen along with his father and uncle, his uncle Asad Al-Deen Sherkoh participated in Noor Al-Deen 3 campaigns against Egypt, and he became its magistrate when he was 32 years old.

Salah Al-Deen Al-Ayobi was described that he was with a fine religion, always participated in prayers, he loved listening to the quran, always persistent to listen to the prophets stories, and he was always relied on.

Salah Al-Deen Al-Ayobi died without enough money to pay the Zakat duty, he was determined to go to Al-Haaj in the year he died in, but he couldn’t go because of the lack of time

The Conflict on The succession of Noureddine:

When Noureddine died his son  Al-Saleh Ismael was the next caliph, he was young just eleven years old, so the conflict between princes grew, and deviated opinions were common. The crusaders became greed, and attacked the muslims but “Ibn Al-moqadam” stood up against them in Banyas, but he couldn’t defeat them, so he offered them money to achieve truce with the crusaders.

Because of the disorder, Hereditary systems of governance were opened once again, with the disappearance of Constitutional institutions, and the conflict on power and influence, A new period of conflicts and disagreements between Muslims was opened, which delayed the battle against the crusaders that Noureddine was preparing. As a result of these circumstances Salah Al-Deen Al-Ayobi had to fight to unite the Arab forces again, and he succeeded after 12 years.

In Rabee the first 570 Hijri – November 1174 Salah Al-Deen added Damascus to his mandate, in December he added Homs without it’s castle, then Hama, and Baalbak, then he came back and controlled Homs’s castle. All this time Salah Al-Deen was loyal to Al-Saleh Bin Noureddine, he minted the coins with Al-Saleh’s name. But After a battle that Salah Al-Deen won against the Zangit soldiers of Halab and Al-Mousil, he stopped minting coins in Al-Saleh’s name, he was called (The king of Egypt and Al-Sham), and the caliph agreed.

The period between 569-582 Higri was full of furious battles with the crusaders, that had a big role on maintaining the dignity of Muslims, recognizing the enemy’s weaknesses, and not giving the enemy the opportunity to get stronger and spread to other lands, nevertheless Salah Al-Deen didn’t have a decisive battle against the crusaders.

We will now talk about the most important events with the crusaders in this period. In 570 Higri the Muslims defeated the crusaders fleet that was coming from Seqliah and attacked Alexandria with 50,000 soldiers. In 573 higri Salah Al-Deen attacked the crusaders from Egypt, and he opened it after a lot of killing. Then Salah Al-Deens army backed up when they saw that the crusaders didn’t show any defence Salah Al-Deen marched to Al-Ramla when the crusaders surprised him with an ambush, that was a lesson for Salah Al-Deen.

When the year 583 higri came the circumstances for a decisive battle between the Muslims and Crusaders were ready, and who was better to defeat the crusaders and offend their dignity than Salah Al-Deen Al-Ayobi.

Before we mention the events of the battle of Hattin, we should mention the strategy of battle that Salah Al-Deen used against the crusaders:

1. Starting from a strong and safe base.
2. Building a community for war.

To make sure that any hates between Muslim Emirates, and to focus all the hate to the crusaders. Salah Al-Deen also built Ship factories.

1. The clarity of the goal.

Which was represented in leading the Islamic nation to drive out the crusaders out of the land, this clarity helped by increasing the efficiency of management, it also helped by identifying the goals of the militarily operations.

1. Care for Muslims

Salah Al-Deen always cared for Muslims to achieve the goal of the war, and he cared for the war to protect Muslims.

Salah Al-Deen Al-Ayobi achieved in his wars the primary principles of fighting.

For the Muslim army Salah Al-Deen raised their spirit to fight, increased their physical efficiency, and confirmed the importance of discipline.