Saladin, despite being Islamic Sultan, trusted his Jewish friend Moshe ben Maimon (Maimonides) more than anybody else, especially more than any imam.

 

I have been travelling to every corner of Egypt for more than a month. Wherever I come people, besides my hosts, can realize that I speak a different Arabic, they can feel I am not an Arab and definitely not an Egyptian. They ask me where I am from and I answer I am from Kurdistan. And then eyes of many people sparkle, they cannot keep their emotions and they exclaim “Aaaah! That’s Saladin’s country!” “Well, I come from Sultan Saladin’s land.” And then they hug me passionately with a hug I have not experienced anywhere else, well, anywhere outside Kurdistan. For Egyptians Sultan Saladin means much more than any other ruler in that country so rich with rulers in its long history.

Saladin, a Kurdish boy born in today’s Iraqi Kurdistan wrote his name with bold and unfading letters not only into Middle Eastern history but also into European, he became a symbol of tolerance, courage, human dignity and nobleness.

He also ruled in Egypt, an originally Shia Islam country, which he converted to Sunni in a very short time and moreover without violence. Egyptians then became Shafia Sunnites being, together with Kurds, the only Moslims, who are Shafi’a Sunnites. There are several legal codes in Islam, for instance many Turks follow Hanafi legal code, Saudis are known as Wahhabites etc.

Saladin conquered Jerusalem after being ruled by Christians for 88 years not harming Christian civilians living in the city. Europe reacted sending The Third Crusade army led by Richard Lionheart, the King of England. But even King Richard could not march Saladin, he could not understand his the whole dimension of his nobleness and dignity. When King Richard lost his horse in a battle, Saladin sent him his best horse, when his opponent fell sick, Saladin sent him medicines, fruit and even his doctors. He defeated King Richard with his human qualities .

Before the decisive battle against Christians Saladin stayed awake until dawn. Then he called his best friend, the Jewish philosopher and physician Moshe ben Maimon (Maimonides) and asked him who after all were right in faith? He asked the question being the supreme ruler, the Sultan who would lead his army to the battle that would bring them victory or death on the next day. He was unsure whether he was right, him the Sultan of all Moslems. Some centuries later the same question was asked by the German philosopher Gotthold Ephraim Lessing in 1779 in his book “Nathan der Weise” and ended the Absolutism period ruling in Europe for more than thousand years. Lessing probably did not dare to ask the question himself so he let Nathan (Moshe ben Maimon) speak instead of him with Saladin about who were right about faith doubting the fact of absolute truth, the truth imposed and required by Vatican.

Sultan, trusted his Jewish friend Moshe ben Maimon (Maimonides) more than anybody else, especially more thany any imam

Saladin valued a human being and human values, too, over any faith, any supreme power.

After his death, in order to finance a grand funeral Saladin’s safe was opened. They found it being empty. He gave all his property to those in need.

That was Saladin, a noble Kurd.