Saladin, sultan of Egypt and Syria, the hero of the third crusade on the Saracen side; a man of noble and chivalrous character; served first as a soldier under Nureddin; rose to be vizier of Egypt, and ultimately sovereign in 1174; distinguished himself by the capture of Damascus, Aleppo, &c., and entering the Holy Land defeated the Christians at Tiberias, thereafter taking Jerusalem and laying siege to Tyre; found in Richard Coeur de Lion a foeman worthy of his steel, concluded a truce in 1192, and died the year after (1137-1193).