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50 free Saladin trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Saladin trivia quiz covers the Kurdish commander who founded the Ayyubid dynasty and took Jerusalem back from the Crusaders. The easy questions ask where he was born, which dynasty he founded, which battle broke the Crusader army in 1187, which English king he fought and what his name means. From there it moves through his rise in Egypt, the caliphate he abolished, the uncle who trained him, the Assassins who tried to kill him and the negotiations that ended the Third Crusade. The hard end is for people who have read Ibn Shaddad: the goblet he struck from Raynald's hand, the vow he kept, the ransom set for Jerusalem's poor, the Georgian queen who tried to buy the True Cross, the marriage Richard proposed for his sister, the two sarcophagi in his Damascus tomb, the German Kaiser who visited it, the nickname Egyptian Shias gave him and the eagle that flies on the flags of four Arab states. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entries on Saladin, the Battle of Hattin, the 1187 siege of Jerusalem, the Third Crusade, Richard I, the Battle of Arsuf, the Ayyubid dynasty, the Eagle of Saladin, the Cairo Citadel and Kingdom of Heaven before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. Our Crusades, Richard the Lionheart and medieval history quizzes are natural next stops.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Saladin was born in Tikrit, in which modern country?
Iraq
His family were Kurds who had come from near Dvin in Armenia; a governorate around Tikrit is now named after him.
Q 02Saladin founded which ruling house, becoming the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria?
Ayyubid
It was named after his father, Najm ad-Din Ayyub, and outlived him by only 57 years.
Q 03Saladin's personal name was Yusuf. What does the honorific 'Salah ad-Din' mean?
Righteousness of the Faith
It is a laqab, an epithet; Egyptian Shias later punned it into 'Kharab ad-Din', destroyer of religion.
Q 04Saladin is frequently described as the most famous figure in history from which people?
The Kurds
He spoke Kurdish and Arabic and knew Turkish and Persian.
Q 05Under which uncle, a mercenary commander, did Saladin's military career begin?
Shirkuh
They were sent to Egypt in 1164 to restore the vizier Shawar; Shirkuh died in 1169 and Saladin took his place.
Q 06Which Zengid ruler sent Saladin and his uncle to Egypt in 1164?
Nur ad-Din
After Nur ad-Din died in 1174 Saladin married his widow and took over his Syrian lands.
Q 07In 1171 Saladin abolished which Cairo-based Shia regime and realigned Egypt with the Sunni Abbasids?
The Fatimids
He had served as vizier to its last caliph, al-Adid, while quietly undermining the state.
Q 08After defeating the Zengids at the Horns of Hama in 1175, Saladin was proclaimed sultan by which Abbasid caliph?
Al-Mustadi
He then spent years conquering northern Syria, taking Aleppo by 1182 but never Mosul.
Q 09Saladin survived two attempts on his life by which sect?
The Order of Assassins
He regarded the Isma'ili sect as heretics who were too close to the Crusaders.
Q 10Saladin's decisive 1187 victory over the Crusader army was at which battle?
Hattin
The Crusader force, marched away from its water at La Saphorie, was largely annihilated near Lake Tiberias.
Q 11After his great 1187 victory, Saladin personally executed which Crusader lord, fulfilling a vow made after attacks on Muslim caravans?
Raynald of Châtillon
Raynald had raided Red Sea pilgrim routes and threatened Mecca and Medina from his fortress at Kerak.
Q 12Why did Saladin strike a goblet from Raynald's hand after Guy of Lusignan passed it to him?
Offering water meant the prisoner would be spared
'I did not ask this evil man to drink,' Saladin said, 'and he would not save his life by doing so.'
Q 13Saladin spared King Guy of Lusignan with which remark?
Q 21After capturing Acre in 1191, Richard I executed roughly how many Muslim prisoners of war?
3,000
Ibn Shaddad recorded two explanations: reprisal for Christian deaths, or Richard's unwillingness to guard them while marching on Ascalon.
Q 22Saladin's army suffered heavy losses to Richard at which battle on 7 September 1191?
Arsuf
A Hospitaller charge broke the Ayyubid line, but Richard restrained his knights from a rash pursuit.
Q 23During truce talks Richard proposed that his sister Joan marry Saladin's brother. What was to be their wedding gift?
The Holy City
Saladin rejected it when Richard insisted his brother al-Adil convert to Christianity.
'It is not the wont of kings to kill kings'
He released Guy in 1188 and returned him to his wife Sibylla.
Q 14Jerusalem surrendered to Saladin on which date in 1187?
2 October
Balian of Ibelin negotiated terms after threatening to kill 5,000 Muslim hostages and destroy the Dome of the Rock.
Q 15Who commanded the defence of Jerusalem and negotiated its surrender to Saladin?
Balian of Ibelin
Orlando Bloom played him in Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven, with Ghassan Massoud as Saladin.
Q 16After taking Jerusalem, Saladin invited which community to resettle in the city?
The Jews
Residents of Ascalon, a large Jewish settlement, answered the call.
Q 17Roughly how many of Jerusalem's poorer citizens had their ransoms paid by a collection organised by Patriarch Heraclius?
18,000
Another 15,000 were enslaved, though Saladin's brother al-Adil asked for a thousand and freed them on the spot.
Q 18Which coastal city, held by Conrad of Montferrat, withstood two sieges and remained the last major Crusader stronghold after 1187?
Tyre
Strategically Saladin should have taken it before Jerusalem, but chose the holy city first.
Q 19Which queen sent envoys to Saladin after 1187 and reportedly offered 200,000 gold pieces for the relic of the True Cross?
Tamar of Georgia
Georgian pilgrims were later allowed into Jerusalem with banners unfurled, unlike other Christians.
Q 20The Third Crusade, launched in response to the disaster of 1187, was partly financed in 1188 by a special English tax known as what?
The Saladin tithe
Richard I spent his father's treasury, filled by the tithe, and sold offices to fund his expedition.
Q 24Under the 1192 peace, Saladin recognised Crusader control of the coast from Tyre to which city?
Jaffa
Richard agreed to demolish Ascalon's walls, Christians could visit Jerusalem as unarmed pilgrims, and peace held for three years.
Q 25How many times did Saladin and Richard the Lionheart meet face to face?
Never
They exchanged gifts and praised each other; Richard called him the greatest leader in the Muslim world.
Q 26Saladin died of a fever in 1193 in which city?
Damascus
He had lived there as a boy and is buried in a mausoleum beside the Umayyad Mosque.
Q 27What did Saladin's personal treasury contain at his death?
One gold piece and forty silver pieces
He had given away his wealth to the poor, leaving nothing to pay for his own funeral.
Q 28Saladin's tomb stands in a garden beside which great house of worship?
The Umayyad Mosque
It now holds two sarcophagi: the original wooden one and a marble one donated by Kaiser Wilhelm II.
Q 29Which German emperor visited Saladin's tomb in 1898 and donated a marble sarcophagus?
Wilhelm II
The visit helped revive Saladin's image in the Arab world as a hero against the West.
Q 30Before the 19th-century revival, Saladin's reputation in the Muslim world had been eclipsed by which more successful Egyptian ruler?
Baybars
Walter Scott's The Talisman did more than any text to create the romantic Western Saladin.