saladin ayyubid Quotes

Forty-Seven Dirhams

Saladin died on March 4, 1193, in Damascus at the age of 55, worn out by years of campaigning. When his secretary al-Fadil opened his personal treasury, he found 47 dirhams and a single gold piece. The sultan who had ruled from Egypt to Mesopotamia had given everything away to the poor. His biographer Baha al-Din ibn Shaddad recorded that even Richard the Lionheart, his greatest adversary, praised Saladin as the most honorable ruler of his age. His tomb stands in Damascus beside the Umayyad Mosque.