Saladin, the Kurdish founder of the Ayyubid Dynasty, conquered Jerusalem in 1187 and repelled the Crusaders. Though England’s Richard I later defeated him, Saladin’s legend has become enshrined in European as well as Middle Eastern lore.

Bahāʾ al-Dīn Abū al-Maḥāsin Yūsuf ibn Rāfiʿ ibn Tamīm (1145 – 1234) was a 12th-century Kurdish jurist, scholar and historian notable for writing a biography of Saladin whom he knew well.