Ascalon’s conquest in 1153 by the Crusaders…

Ascalon’s conquest in 1153 by the Crusaders is offset in the next year by the occupation of Damascus under Nur ad-Din: one more stage in the encirclement of the crusader states by a single Muslim power.

Najm ad-Din Ayyub ibn Shadhi, for whom the Ayyubid dynasty will later be named, is a member of a family of Kurdish soldiers of fortune who had early in the twelfth century taken service under the Seljuq Turkish rulers in Iraq and Syria.

In 1137/38, on the night of the birth of his son Saladin—in full Salah Ad-din Yusuf Ibn Ayyub (“Righteousness of the Faith, Joseph, Son of Job”)—Ayyub had gathered his family and moved from Tikrit in Mesopotamia to Aleppo, there entering the service of Zengi.

Upon Ayyub’s appointment as governor of Damascus, he and his brother Asad ad-Din Shirkuh unite Syria in preparation for war against the crusaders.

Saladin had apparently spent an undistinguished youth growing up in Baalbek and Damascus, with a greater taste for religious studies than military training; his formal career begins when he joins Shirkuh’s staff.