Saladin lived at a time when the Islamic world was going through profound changes. Since the later 11th century, the Turkish ruling elites had dominated most of the Islamic Middle East. In military terms Arabs and Persians were being pushed aside, though they continued to dominate the religious, cultural and commercial elites. Meanwhile Kurds had only limited and localized importance, which makes the rise of a man of Kurdish origins like Saladin unusual.
Alaa Masry Alnahr Ph.D., Islamic History, Faculty of Arts, University of Alexandria, translated Stanely Lane-Poole's Saladin book and Gerhard Endress' Islam an Historical Introduction, and edited the 6th vol. of Ibn WÄá¹£ilâs Mufarrij al-KurÅ«b.