This work first published in 1898 has become almost an authoritative account of the era of the Crusades and the life of one of Muslim world's best known leaders, Salahuddin al-Ayyubi, or Saladin. The author's objective and unbiassed research on Saladin, as well as extensive consultation of books by Muslim and European historians on the subjects, makes the book one of the best sources on the Crusades even more than a hundred years after its first edition. This edition is the first time it has been subject to typographical revision and updates so that contemporary readers may be able to identify the names of persons and places as it is currently known.