Saladin

Medieval Sources and Modern Myths

الملخص

Saladin’s victory over the Crusaders in 1187 made him a mythological hero, admired in the East and West. Remembered not only as a Muslim devoted to jihad and/or a warrior against colonialism, he was also known as a generous, compassionate and tolerant ruler, and he inspired various ideologies. This article reviews Saladin’s image in medieval Latin, Arabic and Hebrew sources. It deals at greater length with his representations in Palestinian folklore and historiography, and in Jewish/Israeli academic and popular historiography. Palestinians accredit Saladin with the establishment of a system for protecting the land from foreign incursions: a chain of sites for annual pilgrimage and celebration around the vulnerable season of Easter. On the Jewish side, the era of Saladin is known as a medieval Jewish golden age, and the Sultan is accredited with enabling the return of Jews to Jerusalem and the continuity of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel. He is depicted as prefiguring a threat of annihilation on the one hand, and the possibility of Muslim-Jewish cooperation, on the other. Methodologically, this article calls for the study of early primary sources as a prerequisite for an in-depth study of current myths, whether they commemorate historical figures and events that have been preserved in collective memory for centuries, or were invented to “substitute” for figures and events purposefully forgotten. Both phenomena demand an explanation.