9/11 and reactions: chedet

By al-Din on January 28, 2010 4:43 PM

Salahuddin Al-Ayyubi (1138-1193), the Hero of Al-Quds was of Kurdish blood from Azarbaijan. His grandfather settled in Tikrit, Baghdad. For 27 fighting years Salahuddin was on horseback much of the time.

After the taking of Constantinople from the crusaders in 1453 by Mehmet, the Ottoman sultan, sporadic wars continued on. There are conflicting accounts as to when the crusades ended. Billings (1990) put it as far as 1798 meaning a span of 700 years.

In June 1798 Napoleon, on his way to Egypt, sailed to Malta and subdued the 332 crusader knights bastioned there. In Egypt Napoleon was known to enjoy the company of viziers and many an evening he presided over open-air court cases. He was a Muslim according to certain sources. He died in exile on St Elba.

Note: Salahuddin fortress in the mountains north east of Latakia, Syria is a reminder of his legacy. When I visited the fortress 6 years ago it is a favourite tourist site though not much of the fortress architecture remained.