At a glance
Era 5- Dates
- c. 1145-1218 CE
- Who
- Salahuddin's brother, negotiator in the Third Crusade and later Ayyubid sultan
- Era
- The Crusades & Salahuddin
ProfileAl-Adil Sayf ad-Din
Al-Adil was Salahuddin's younger brother and one of his most trusted helpers. He governed Egypt for him and led much of the negotiation with Richard of England during the Third Crusade, when there was even talk of a marriage between al-Adil and Richard's sister.
After Salahuddin's death in 1193 his sons divided his lands and soon quarrelled. Al-Adil stepped in again and again as peacemaker, and in the end, by 1200, he took Egypt and Syria and became sultan himself. He was a patient ruler who preferred truces to war and kept Jerusalem in Muslim hands. Under him and his son al-Kamil the Ayyubid lands had years of relative calm and prosperity.
Europeans called him Saphadin, from his title Sayf ad-Din, "sword of the faith". He died in 1218 as the Fifth Crusade attacked Egypt.
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