Saladin rose through military service under his uncle Shirkuh in the forces of Nur ad-Din, the ruler whose power extended over much of Syria. Expeditions to Egypt in the 1160s drew them into struggles involving the Fatimid government and the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. After Shirkuh became vizier and died in 1169, Saladin succeeded him. He consolidated control in Egypt and in 1171 ended the Fatimid caliphate, restoring formal allegiance to the Sunni Abbasid caliph while building the foundations of Ayyubid rule.

After Nur ad-Din's death in 1174, Saladin moved into Syria. His authority grew through campaigns, negotiation, marriage ties, and arrangements with other Muslim rulers. Damascus became a major center of his power, and the acquisition of Aleppo in 1183 strengthened his position. His struggle for supremacy was therefore directed against Muslim rivals as well as the crusader states. Religious commitment and the language of jihad helped legitimate a political consolidation that depended on family appointments, military loyalty, revenue, and diplomacy.

In July 1187 Saladin defeated the principal army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem at Hattin. The victory enabled the capture of numerous towns and the recovery of Jerusalem in October. The surrender avoided a general massacre like that of the First Crusade, but freedom depended substantially on ransom, and many who could not pay were enslaved. Saladin also ordered executions of selected prisoners after Hattin, including members of the military orders. These actions qualify the later ideal of a uniformly merciful or chivalrous conqueror without diminishing the scale of his achievement.

The loss of Jerusalem helped bring the Third Crusade. Saladin resisted the armies that besieged Acre, but the city fell in 1191. Richard I subsequently defeated him at Arsuf and pressed the struggle along the coast without recovering Jerusalem. Negotiation accompanied campaigning, and the settlement of 1192 left Jerusalem under Muslim control while permitting Christian pilgrimage and preserving a reduced coastal crusader presence. Saladin died in Damascus in March 1193. His territories were divided among members of his family, whose competing interests limited the unity he had achieved. His patronage of religious and educational institutions reinforced Sunni authority, while his military and diplomatic successes transformed the balance of power in the eastern Mediterranean.