DYNASTY III.
The Aiûbite Sultans.
Salah-ed-din, son of Aiûb, a Kurd, usurped the title of Sultan of Egypt in 1174. Not contented with that sovereignty, he extended his views to Syria. In 1177 he is defeated at Ramlé by Rainaud de Chatillon.
1182. More success attended his arms in Syria; and next year he seized Amida in Mesopotamia, and forced Aleppo to a capitulation.
1187. Saladin gains over the Franks his famous victory at Hittîn: the Christian power falls, and Saladin becomes master of Jerusalem on the 2d of October.
1189. The Franks besiege Akka, or Ptolemais, which did not surrender till after it had been invested for two years.
1192. Saladin concludes a truce with Richard king of England. Akka and Yaffa were almost the only places left to the Franks.
Saladin died on the 4th March 1193, aged only fifty-seven, leaving sixteen sons and a daughter.
1193. Malek-el-Azîz, second son of Saladin. He seized Damascus, and left to his brother only Samosata.
1198. Malek-el-Mansûr. His uncle Afdhal, prince of Samosata, was called by the Emîrs to rule the kingdom during the minority, by the title of Atabek.