Salah al-Din was born in 1137/38 in Tikrit, a fortress on the River Tigris between Mosul and Samarra in what is now Iraq. He was the son of Najm al-Din Ayyub, the Kurdish general in charge of the citadel there. He came from a military background for his uncle, Asad al-Din Shirkuh, was also a soldier.
Nearing the age of 50, Salah al-Din could claim for himself a reputation known throughout the Middle East. He had unified Muslim states that had warred against each other for generations.
Apart from being a military genius, Salah al-Din was also incredibly generous, dividing booty among his aides while leaving nothing for himself to the extent that it was said that when he died he left insufficient money for his own funeral. Instead of the many palaces, his empire possessed, he preferred to reside in a military tent.
When he conquered Jerusalem in 1187, he guaranteed the safety of every Christian living in the city, a sharp contrast to when the Christian Crusaders mass*acred the Muslim and Jew population in 1099.
By doing this, Salah al-Din wanted not only to claim military superiority but also moral superiority; that the values of Islam include mercy.