Selahaddin Eyyûbi's Damascus Agreement with the Jerusalem Crusader Kingdom

Saladin Ayyub is an important figure in Islamic history. Sınce he began to take up important posts in the administration of the state, his greatest aim was to take Jerusalem back from the Cru-saders. As a matter of fact, at first glance in his life one can see that he spent his last twenty years in struggles that he engaged in for this purpose. When the unity created by Nuraddin was dis-solved after his death Saladin who was the most important rulers in the region was confronted with a big problem, the scattered state of the Muslims. In order to gain a result from the struggle against the Crusaders he therefore first of all had to create a unity between the Muslims. Saladin who knew that this would be a dif-ficult process to unite the Muslims while he had to fight at the same moment on two different fronts. One of these fronts was the oppositional Muslim rulers in the region whereas the other was his real goal, the Crusaders. In such difficult situations Saladin was forced to make treaties with one of the two fronts. The topic of this article is the treatise of Damascus, which Saladin made on 22 July 1175 with the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.