Salah al-Din's recovery of Jerusalem

Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi entered Jerusalem by peaceful surrender after a short siege, restoring al-Aqsa as a mosque after ninety-one years of Crusader occupation, and set the example in clemency by granting safety to its people without vengeance.

After Hattin the coastal cities fell to Salah al-Din, then he besieged Jerusalem, in which tens of thousands of Crusaders had massed. When it was on the verge of falling, its people sought safety, so he made peace with them for a light ransom and freed thousands who could not pay it.

He entered it on Friday 27 Rajab 583 AH — on the anniversary of the night of the Israʾ by the well-known view — so the cross was removed from the Dome of the Rock, al-Aqsa Mosque was purified and washed with rosewater, and the Jumuʿa prayer was held in it after an interruption of ninety-four years.

Historians East and West compared his merciful entry with the Crusader massacre of 492 AH, when horses waded in blood. Salah al-Din's clemency was among the brightest pages of history, and the pulpit of Nur al-Din Zangi was carried to al-Aqsa, fulfilling a dream begun decades earlier.