Selahaddin-i Eyyubi

Translated from Arabic: Mehmet Selim Bilge

The author of the book, Ibn Seddad, was born on March 7, 1145 in Mosul . He lost his father when he was young. He grew up with his uncles called sons of Seddad. For this reason, he is known as Ibn Seddad . After finishing his education in that city, he continued to Baghdad Nizamiye Madrasa . Soon he started teaching at the madrasah with the title of "muid" (mullah). He returned to Mosul in approximately 1173 and started working as a "muderris" in the madrasah there. Then he returned to Baghdad and continued teaching at Baghdad Nizamiye Madrasa. He went on a pilgrimage to the Hejaz in 1118.

Immediately after returning from the pilgrimage to Baghdad, the Egyptian Ayyubid Sultan Saladin, who captured Jerusalem in October 1887, heard about the fame of Ibn Seddad at that time and informed him that he had read his works, and invited him to serve as a permanent official. After Ibn Seddad accepted this, he was constantly with Sultan Saladin Eyyubi with the rank of Kadiasker . He became his close confidant, close advisor, author of his memoirs and personal friend. While in this position, he followed all the developments of the Third Crusade as a close advisor to the Sultan. He recorded these impressions in the memoirs he was preparing immediately after the events developed and ended. In this Crusade, he was with the Sultan in the Siege of Acre and the Battle of Arsuf . He remained in office as the sultan's close confidant and chief of advisors until the death of Sultan Saladin in Damascus on 4 March 1193.

After the death of the Sultan, Ibn Seddad was given the post of Judge of Aleppo . While on this duty, he died in Aleppo on 8 November 1234, at the age of 89.