On the death of the last Fatimid khalif in 1171, Salah al-Din became ruler of Egypt. To this day he remains a hero in the Arab world, a ruler renowned for his personal modesty, generosity, culture and political acumen. Having no pretensions to religious leadership, Salah al-Din chose for himself the secular title of Al-Sultan (the power) rather than that of khalif, giving his family's name - Ayyub - to the dynasty that succeeded him. Of his 24-year reign, he spent only eight years in Cairo, the rest being spent in liberating Crusader-held territory . By 1183, Syria had been won back and in 1187 Jerusalem was recaptured.

 

In Cairo, Salah al-Din built a fortress - today's Citadel - and expanded the Fatimid walls to enclose the city. In order to propagate Sunni orthodoxy, he also introduced the Seljuk institution of the madrassa or teaching mosque, thus turning Cairo into a great centre of learning. Hospitals were endowed, too, and the pharaonic canal at Fayoum was reopened.

Following his peaceful death in Damascus in 1193, Salah al-Din's eastern territories fragmented into principalities, though Egypt remained united under the Ayyubids. His nephew, Al-Kamil (1218-38), repulsed the Fifth Crusade. The last of the dynasty, Ayyub (1240-49), built up a formidable army of Turkish-speaking Qipchak slaves from the Black Sea region, and he himself married a slave girl, Shagar al-Durr (Tree of Pearls).

It was Shagar al-Durr who took power following Ayyub's death, ruling openly as sultana until the Abbasid khalifs insisted that she take a husband, quoting the Prophet's words: "Woe to the nations ruled by women." Jealous of her power and warned by astrologers that he would die at a woman's hands, her husband, Aybak, planned to take a second wife, whereupon she had him murdered. She herself was assassinated soon afterwards, but her henchman, Beybars the Crossbowman , clawed his way to power, inaugurating the Mamluke era.