History
Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, Saladin, was the Kurdish founder of the Ayyubid dynasty and sultan of Egypt and Syria. He died on 4 March 1193. By 1178 he held Egypt. The Battle of Hattin and the recovery of Jerusalem came in 1187, and the Third Crusade after that.
The 1178 bookmark seats him at 40 with a huge realm. A 16th-century Giovio portrait is the familiar face. His own coins show a seated sultan, and his tomb is in Damascus.
He served the Fatimid court in Egypt from 1169. The Fatimid caliphate ended in 1171, and by 1174 he was sultan of Egypt. Damascus came after Nur al-Din died in 1174. The 1178 bookmark sits after that consolidation and before Hattin. On 4 July 1187 he broke the army of the kingdom of Jerusalem at Hattin. Jerusalem surrendered on 2 October 1187. The Third Crusade followed. He died in Damascus on 4 March 1193, and his sons divided Egypt and Syria.
In the game
| Seat | Detail |
|---|---|
| Start | 1178 |
| Bookmark | Swords of Faith |
| Title | Egypt |
| Realm size | 69 counties |
| Status | Independent |
| Difficulty | Easy, the bookmark rating in patch 1.20.1.2 |
| Culture | Mashriqi |
| Faith | Sunni |
| Age | 40 |
How to play
Goal. Keep Egypt and the Syrian project together, and meet the crusader states on your own timing.
Egypt is already in hand: a large Sunni realm the bookmark rates Easy. The crusader states are the frontier the next decade fights over. Vassals inside a realm of this size can undo a battle you win. Read crown authority and the succession law before you add another kingdom title. A crusade can arrive while a faction is already raised, so allies and truces belong in the same plan as the army. The warfare guide is the army screen. The faith guide is holy war and the head of faith.
Where this run fails. A crusade and a vassal faction in the same season, or a partition that hands Egypt and Syria to different sons before you have chosen a law.