Saladin was the first sultan of Egypt and Syria and the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. A Sunni Muslim from Kurdistan, Saladin led the Muslim military campaign against the Crusader states in the Middle East. At the height of his power, his sultanate included Egypt, Syria, Upper Mesopotamia, the Hejaz, Yemen and other parts of North Africa.
Under Saladin’s command, the Ayyubid army defeated the Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin in 1187 CE and gained control of Palestine from the Crusaders, including the city of Jerusalem, which was conquered by the Crusaders 88 years earlier. Although the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem continued to exist until the late 13th century, its defeat at Hattin marked a turning point in its conflict with the Muslim powers of the region.
In time, Saladin issued a proclamation inviting all Jews to return and settle in Jerusalem. There were 6 more Crusades and they all ended in defeat.
In 1211 CE, the Jewish community in the country was strengthened by the arrival of a group of European Jews, including over 300 rabbis from France and England, who immigrated to the Holy Land, motivated by persecution, economic hardship, messianic expectations or the desire to fulfill the commandments specific to the land of Israel. The Spanish Jewish pilgrim Judah al-Harizi found the sight of the non-Jewish structures on the Temple Mount very disturbing: “What torment to see our holy courts converted into an alien temple!” Nachmanides, the 13th-century Spanish rabbi, wrote: “If the gentiles wish to make peace, we shall make peace…but as for the land, we shall not leave it in their hands, nor in the hands of any nation, not in any generation.”
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