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CHAPTER SIX FROM THE LOINS OF FIGHTERS L ET us pass to our subject," writes Beha ed-din, one of the foremost of the learned men of Islam, intimate companion of Saladin at the height of his career, and chief among his biographers, " and write of that Prince strong to aid, who re-established the doctrine of the true faith, struck to earth the worshippers of the Cross, and raised the standard of justice and benevolence; he who was the prosperity (Salah) of the world and of the faith (ed-din), the Sultan of Islam and of the Moslems, the warrior who delivered the Holy City from the hands of the polytheists, the servant of the two Sanctuaries, Abu el-Mezaffer Yusuf." / Abu el-Mozaffer Yusuf or Salah ed-din Yusuf ibn Ayub was his real name, but to the European world Saladin.1 Saladin was a Kurd, one of that aloof, proud, independent, warring race of mountaineers, who occupied the highlands beyond Armenia, and who resembled not a little the Highland Scots in their clannishness and readiness to possess themselves It was the custom of the Occidentals to simplify the high sounding appellatives of the Saracens. Nur ed-din, for example, became Noradin, and Beha ed-din was changed to Bohadin. 5<5

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