Salah ah-Din.

This is coolbert:

"Salah al Din Abu 'l-Muzaffer Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi"

From a prior blog entry of mine - - the Military Thoughts blog. Some time ago now!

"WHEN THE FIRST MANUAL OF CHIVALRY WAS WRITTEN, WITH EUROPEAN KNIGHTS IN MIND, SALADIN WAS THE ARCHETYPE OF THE CHIVALROUS WARRIOR!!! SUCH WAS THE IMPRESSION THIS MAN MADE UPON THE CRUSADER AND EUROPEAN KNIGHT!!"

AND - - from the much more recent blog entry "Nine", we have an intuitive appreciation that the nine persons listed as Worthies are all from the "western" or Judeo-Christian cultural/religious domain.

That is not to say that other cultures have NOT had persons "worthy" of consideration to the list of Worthies! Rather INDEED!! A number of cultural domains and religions OUTSIDE of the western world have produced persons, warriors and soldiers, adept on the battlefield but even beyond that - - having a nobility of being, personality, stature, gravitas far beyond the norm. Persons displaying chivalrous behavior on and off the battlefield, esteemed leaders of renown.

One such person of course was the Islamic warrior and ruler, Saladin. Famous MOST for his defeating the Christian Crusaders - - while extending to his foes a generosity in a pronounced manner on numerous occasions!!

Saladin to the Crusader represented the "text-book" example of a chivalrous knight, a man from outside the Christian world the archetype of the warrior/soldier/ruler of high moral integrity and repute!!

So great was the impression that Saladin made upon the Crusaders that when Dante Alighieri composed his epic poem, the "Divine Comedy", a special place of honor was set aside for the man [Saladin]!

"When Dante Alighieri compiled his great medieval
Who's Who of heroes and villains, the Divine Comedy,
the highest a non-Christian could climb was Limbo."

"Ancient pagans had to be virtuous indeed to warrant
inclusion: the residents included Homer, Caesar,
Plato and Dante's guide, Vergil. But perhaps the
most surprising entry in Dante's catalog of 'great-
hearted souls' was a figure "solitary, set apart.'"

"That figure was Saladin. It is testament to his
extraordinary stature in the Middle Ages that not
only was Saladin the sole 'modern' mentioned--he had
been dead barely 100 years when Dante wrote--but
also that a man who had made his name successfully
battling Christianity would be lionized by the
author of perhaps the most Christ-centered verse
ever penned."

Salah al Din Abu 'l-Muzaffer Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi!

I couldn't have said it better myself.

coolbert.