The End of the Fatimid Caliphate
When Salah al-Din arrived in Cairo as vizier to the ailing Fatimid Caliph al-Adid (the fourteenth and last Fatimid caliph), the Ismaili caliphate was already weakening under Crusader pressure and internal fragmentation. In 1171 CE, when al-Adid lay dying, Salah al-Din ordered the Friday khutba read in the name of the Abbasid Sunni caliph in Baghdad — ending the 262-year Fatimid caliphate without a battle.
Al-Adid died on the same day, reportedly not having been told what had happened.
For the Tayyibi Ismaili tradition, the Fatimid caliphate’s end preceded by decades the satr (concealment) of the Imam and the establishment of the Dai al-Mutlaq as the community’s representative — events connected to the Fatimid collapse.
The Reconquest of Jerusalem (1187)
Salah al-Din’s finest hour in Islamic memory is the reconquest of Jerusalem in 1187 CE, 88 years after the Crusaders had taken it and massacred its Muslim and Jewish inhabitants. His terms at Jerusalem’s surrender:
- Ransom for those who could pay; the rest taken captive
- No massacre
- Christian holy sites protected
- The elderly poor released free on his personal order
The contrast with 1099 was deliberate. Salah al-Din was making a theological argument through conduct: Islamic governance is not what was done in 1099.
Richard I of England, his principal adversary in the Third Crusade, called him the greatest king in the world. Salah al-Din sent him fruit and ice when he was ill.
Character and Legacy
He died in 1193 in Damascus, having given away almost everything he had accumulated. His treasury was empty; his clothing was patched. He had reunified the Muslim world under one banner, pushed the Crusaders to a coastal strip, and reconquered Jerusalem — and died with less than what was needed for his own funeral.
See also: Seerah Ali Al Ridha, Dai Al Mutlaq, Tawhid Sifat, Seerah Umar Ibn Khattab, Seerah Uthman, Tawakkul