# 3,000 Riders to Egypt: An Impossible Mission | Ep. 5 | The Salahuddin Generation

**Author:** Dr. Hassan Elwan
**Series:** The Salahuddin Generation
**Published:** 2026-01-03
**YouTube:** https://youtu.be/VUYieM40FlE
**URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-5
**Topics:** History

## Description
Three thousand riders. One race to Egypt. As the Ismaili dynasty collapsed, Nur ad-Din Zengi had the opportunity to take control of the regional powerhouse: Egypt. Risks, betrayals, and the Crusaders got in the way. Who was standing tall when the dust settled?

## Chapters
- 0:00 Nur ad-Din Zengi’s bloodless conquest of Damascus
- 3:11 Asad ad-Din Shirkuh and and the race for Egypt
- 8:56 The Battle of Harim (Zengids vs. Crusaders)
- 13:45 Resilience of Shirkuh and 3,000 Muslim knights
- 17:17 The Zengids’ second attempt to take Egypt
- 20:21 Shirkuh’s brilliant strategy
- 26:08 Shirkuh’s surprise in Alexandria
- 31:37 Saving Cairo from the Crusaders

## Transcript
**[0:00]** Nur al-Din Zinki, the way he entered the scene was majestic. He wanted to unify Muslims, not by the sword. By what? By the scholars and by the hearts of people. People really sincerely

**[0:17]** loved him and people made du'a for him. People wanted him as the ruler. He took the city of Damascus without shedding one blood of the Muslims.

**[0:44]** You saw last time, Nur al-Din succeeds in unifying the Muslims of Sham. And the three big cities, Mosul, Aleppo and Damascus are now united and present a unified front against the Franks. But something else is happening. While Nur al-Din Zinki is fighting

**[1:02]** for those years, what about Egypt? Where is Egypt throughout the last 10 years? Egypt at that point was so weak under the rule of the Ismailis. It is said that in one year, the country had so much turmoil, they had 14 different wazirs. So a wazir would come

**[1:19]** to power, another would revolt, kill him and take control. Every month, every two, there are always revolts. The country is falling into a state of weakness. And the Franks noticed this. And it was very clear to Nur al-Din and the Franks that maybe the next thing to

**[1:35]** do is instead of fighting in the north, is to go south. In one of those revolts, a wazir takes power. His name is Shawar in Egypt. And another wazir revolts and succeeds in retaking the power back. But Shawar succeeds in escaping.

**[1:51]** Runs all the way from Egypt to Damascus and asks to meet Nur al-Din Zinki personally. And Nur al-Din Zinki grants him audience. And he starts telling him, I'm the wazir of Egypt. I know the country. I have people that are loyal to me. I want to make a deal with you. You have power, you have armies, and indeed your soldiers are powerful. They're

**[2:11]** well trained. So if you help me and send some of your soldiers with me and you help me to regain power in Egypt, I promise to be your ally. And I promise I'm going to give you a lot of the wealth of Egypt. I will support your campaigns against the Franks. You can attack from the north. I can attack from the south. You will have some support. And Nur

**[2:30]** al-Din Zinki, what do you think? Should he accept or not? In one sense, yes, Egypt is a big country. Yes, that will help his campaign. But on the other hand, this is a very dangerous endeavor. Why? First, the country is under the rule

**[2:46]** of the Ismailis. And between Egypt and his base is the Franks. What happens if something happens to the army there? Can he trust the Ismailis? Will they really fulfill their promise? And Nur al-Din Zinki was very reluctant. It is extremely dangerous from strategic reasons,

**[3:03]** although appealing. But how can I make my army safe and how can I supply them? What happens if they betray? So for him, he was very, very reluctant. It was one of the commanders of Nur al-Din Zinki. One of the top commanders of Nur al-Din Zinki, actually, by the name of

**[3:18]** Asad al-Din Shirkuh. And that's a very important name. And again, notice the name Asad al-Din, the lion of religion. And his name is Shirkuh. That's from the Akrad, the Rawadiya Kurds and the efforts of Adi ibn Musafir. He is one of them now serving with Nur al-Din Zinki. And that man

**[3:35]** led many victories against the Franks in the north. And actually, the Franks knew him very well and they were kind of afraid of him because he's very powerful in the battlefield. He came to Nur al-Din Zinki. He was of the opinion, Egypt is weak. If you do not do anything, eventually, I can see that the Franks will take this country. And he told Nur al-Din,

**[3:55]** allow me to take a special elite force, if you will. Just give me 3,000 knights and I promise you with the help of Shawar, I will succeed in putting him back in power and we will have the resources of Egypt. That will be a great help to us. And he kept at it till eventually, Nur al-Din Zinki

**[4:14]** agreed to his request. And now Asad al-Din starts to select an elite force, a group that is going into this impossible mission to attempt to bring Egypt back, if you will. And he starts handpicking

**[4:29]** those knights. And we have names like al-Faqih Isa al-Hakkari. Who's Isa al-Hakkari? Notice the name from Hakkari. Al-Faqih Isa al-Hakkari is actually a scholar who came from al-Madaris al-Nizamiyya. Remember Nizam al-Mulk and his schools? Here is one of them. So he studied in the Nizami school

**[4:47]** and then he studied with other scholars and he was a full-fledged faqih, but also very well trained in martial arts. And he was really a good knight. And he used to wear his helmet and he would wrap the turban around the helmet. So you have like a fighting imam kind of a helmet with a turban on

**[5:03]** top of it. And he was very well known in his bravery in the battlefield and his fiqh and his discipline and his beautiful soul and his ability to articulate and preach religion. And he was a great statesman. Very good in politics and negotiations. He was a very interesting man.

**[5:21]** And now Asad al-Din picked him to be the imam of the force. Because while we're doing this, we need a scholar with us. We need someone to continuously remind us of Allah. That's how they were. But then we see another thing. He insisted on picking a person that is young. His name is

**[5:37]** Yusuf. Who is he? He's his nephew. What's going on? Well, he noticed his nephew is being raised in Damascus and he's having an easy life. It's not bad to have our kids have an easy life. It's not bad at all. But sometimes they live in a bubble and they don't see the world. And he insisted the

**[5:55]** only way to properly make this nephew of his attain manhood, accompany me in that mission. He's not well trained, but you know what? This is where you get your experiential training. And he insisted to Nur al-Din Zinki that he should take this young, inexperienced man

**[6:12]** as a part of this campaign. And the 3,000 knights start to gather and Nur al-Din Zinki has a plan. Asad al-Din Shirkuh with his 3,000 knights will go south, full gallop across the Sinai Desert in a lightning campaign heading directly towards Cairo. But Nur al-Din Zinki would use his forces

**[6:31]** and he would start to attack different forts in the northern area. So he keeps the eyes of the Franks away from Asad al-Din. So now they're following Nur al-Din. Where is he going next? And while this is happening, Asad al-Din succeeds in actually galloping all the way across the Sinai

**[6:47]** Desert and reaching the city of Bilbais. That's a small city on the eastern side of Egypt. And it was no time that he took the city. And then before the Ismailis took heed, what's going on? There is a force coming from Nur al-Din Zinki. Let's prepare. He was already at the gates of Cairo.

**[7:04]** And with the help of Shawar, he succeeds in entering the city of Cairo. And he puts Shawar back into power. And it seems that it worked. That SubhanAllah, 3,000 knights in this lightning campaign could put Shawar back in power and take the capital of Egypt. And now Shawar

**[7:23]** becomes the wazir of Egypt. And it seems that it is successful. And Asad al-Din leaves and goes back to the city of Bilbais and sends a message to Shawar, we fulfilled our part. It's time for you to fulfill your part. You promised that you're giving us one third of the wealth of Egypt

**[7:41]** and you promised this and that. And to his response, Shawar responds, what treaty? What agreement? We have no agreement at all. You need to leave Egypt right now. And Asad al-Din, of course, got really upset and offended. And he said, no, we had an agreement. I am not leaving till you fulfill

**[7:59]** the agreement. What do you think happened next? Shawar didn't even spare the time. He immediately contacted the kingdom of Jerusalem, the Franks, the crusaders. And he said, what? This is a golden opportunity. You have Asad al-Din Shirkuh with 3,000 knights in a small city in Bilbais.

**[8:16]** And you know what? I need your help. And I promise to pay for your campaign every knight that's going to come. I'm covering his expenses, giving him gifts. I'm going to give you money. But come help me. And it's a golden opportunity for us to get rid of Asad al-Din Shirkuh and his knights. The

**[8:34]** Franks did not need any convincing. They have been looking for a reason to enter Egypt anyway. So they gather their army and start heading towards Asad al-Din Shirkuh. And Asad al-Din Shirkuh finds himself in a very difficult position. That which Nur al-Din tried to avoid. Now he's isolated.

**[8:53]** What do you think he should do? Well, what he did was something amazing. He sent a text message to Nur al-Din Zinki. A text message? Yes, something that I call pigeon express. They found out that pigeons raised in a specific place, if you take them anywhere and leave them, they fly back to the

**[9:12]** place they were raised. So whenever an army moves, they take pigeons from Aleppo, pigeons from Damascus. So if you need to send a message, what do you do? You write the message, tie it to the leg of the pigeon and let it go. And in no time it will fly back. And that's exactly what he did. He had pigeons from Damascus. So he wrote a letter to Nur al-Din Zinki and he told him about what happened.

**[9:32]** There is a betrayal. We're surrounded. I need your help. And the message reached Nur al-Din Zinki. Now, if you are in the position of Nur al-Din Zinki, what do you do? You know, khalas, rah, what? I mean, how can I help him? And he immediately announced all the troops to gather, sent to all the emirs,

**[9:49]** come and help me. We are going to attack the Franks. I have to apply pressure on them so that they send the troops back to help their cities. And he gathered his forces and starts attacking different cities. The Franks realized the threat. And from their perspective, that was

**[10:05]** a golden opportunity. The top 3,000 knights of Nur al-Din Zinki are now in Egypt. And Nur al-Din Zinki has just been defeated before in Waqat al-Buqayah, as you remember. If they can defeat Nur al-Din Zinki now and get rid of those 3,000 knights, that will be a big downfall for the

**[10:23]** Zinkis. So they gathered their forces all the way from Antioch, Tripoli, Jerusalem, and they gathered a large army and they started to face Nur al-Din Zinki. And Nur al-Din Zinki announces to all, you know, the umara and everybody, gather all the forces. It's a big showdown. A big battle is going to

**[10:43]** happen. And in one of those letters that he sent to one of the umara, and the emir receives the letter and, you know, one of his followers came and asked him, are you going to go help Nur al-Din Zinki? And that emir said the following. He said, no, I decide not to. Nur al-Din Zinki became a dry

**[11:02]** bone. He's throwing himself into his own demise. He keeps fighting in impossible encounters. I'm sick of this. No, no, no. I'll just sit back on my chair, you know, watch the show. Next day, this man enters back to the emir and he finds him putting his armor and his helmet and the

**[11:20]** sword and says, what happened? You changed your mind? And he said, no, Nur al-Din Zinki did something with me I've never expected. What happened? He said, Nur al-Din sent a letter to all the scholars in my city telling them about what is happening and about what Islam is facing and asking them to make du'a for him

**[11:39]** and asking anybody who wants to volunteer to come. And people are reading his letters, crying, making du'a for him and making du'a and cursing me. And I think if I don't respond to Nur al-Din Zinki, people will revolt and I lose my chair. I have to comply. And indeed,

**[11:57]** Nur al-Din Zinki gathers his forces and they go in a place called Harim and the two armies stand in front of each other. Ibn al-Athir and other scholars describe what happened that night, that Nur al-Din Zinki spent the entire night in du'a and in salah, crying for Allah

**[12:14]** subhanahu wa ta'ala. Ya Rabbi, those are your servants and those are your servants, pointing to the Muslims and to the crusaders. And he says, however, those are your friends and those are your enemies. Help your friends overpower your enemies. And then he would say something, Ya Rabbi, do not let the Muslims have any downfall because of Mahmud, because

**[12:35]** of Nur al-Din Zinki. And he kept making du'a intensely throughout the night. And the morning came and it was the time of the battle. And the Franks arranged their order and you had the Templars and the Hospitallers and they started a fierce attack against the army of

**[12:50]** Nur al-Din Zinki. And Nur al-Din Zinki uses the very famous technique, the feint retreat. He retreats, they come in and both sides, the left and the right attack and a major battle happened. It's the whole day. And by Allah's grace, Allah granted a major victory

**[13:07]** for Nur al-Din Zinki. Not only it was a victory, many of the rulers were captured. Many of the people in that battle fell now as prisoners to Nur al-Din Zinki. And Nur al-Din Zinki immediately applies pressure. He goes and he starts taking some of the cities. He took the city of Banias

**[13:25]** back, starts laying siege to other cities and he orders one of his knights, take some of the flags and immediately full gallop, go back to Egypt, show them to Asad al-Din Shirkuh, show them to the people in Egypt. The Franks have been defeated. Why? So that the army surrounding Bilbais will have to come back, save their cities. And that happened.

**[13:46]** And Ibn al-Athir narrates something. He said Asad al-Din Shirkuh, with 3,000 knights in Bilbais, a very small city, it's not that well fortified. For two weeks, the joint army of Egypt and the Franks could not take this city from 3,000 knights under Asad al-Din Shirkuh.

**[14:06]** And he says, and this is one of the strangest things that I write about. Those soldiers with Asad al-Din Shirkuh, they're not like the soldiers. Remember the first crusade? Remember what happened? Something changed. The change is not only in Nur al-Din Zinki. He's not a superhero by himself. Look at Asad al-Din. Look at those 3,000 knights, sitting,

**[14:25]** defending a city for two weeks. It's hopeless. Maybe you should make a treaty with the Franks. They let you out. Nope, we're sitting. They're not giving up. And they're successfully holding the city. And now the tide is going to change. What do you think happened next? Shawar did a very interesting political maneuver. He sends two letters, one to Asad al-Din Shirkuh

**[14:46]** and one to the Franks, telling both of them, look, the situation isn't good. And the Franks, you've been defeated. And Nur al-Din Zinki now is threatening your cities. You need to leave as soon as possible. And he sends a letter to Asad al-Din Shirkuh. Your position is not that great either. You've been surrounded. And what hope do you have? So here is what

**[15:04]** I propose. We will make a deal. Asad al-Din Shirkuh will allow you to leave with your 3,000 troops and you can return back to Nur al-Din Zinki. The Franks, I will pay you extra money and you can take that money and return back to your forts and your cities, defend

**[15:23]** them against Nur al-Din. And they finally agreed to that. And SubhanAllah Ibn al-Athir narrates that the Franks started watching as the doors of the city of Bilbais opens. And Asad al-Din Shirkuh himself standing with his sword as his 3,000 knights are going out

**[15:40]** and the Franks with a huge army are surrounding them. And it is said one of the Franks came to Asad al-Din Shirkuh. And he said, I heard a lot about you, but I have a question. Aren't you afraid? You've trusted us. You opened the door and you're coming out to the open. Aren't you afraid that we betray and then we attack you in the open? And then what will

**[15:59]** happen to you? And Asad al-Din responded back, I wish you would do so. It was not of my opinion to actually agree to this treaty. My opinion was to fight, but it's my friends and the concept of shura taking the opinion of that I followed, that everybody told me

**[16:15]** this is the wisest thing to do. But I was of the opinion to fight. I wish you attack us right here because we will attack you back. And not one of us will die except that we will kill 10 of you first. And then none of you will go back to your cities and Nur al-Din Zinki will take all your cities. That man responded to Asad al-Din and he said, I used

**[16:36]** to see people that are afraid of you and I never understood why. Now I understand why my knights and people like on my side are afraid of you. So now who wins? Shawar. It's

**[16:51]** obvious what he did. He used Asad al-Din Shirkuh to put him back in power, neutralized him with the Franks. And then what happened? Both of them left and Shawar retains the power of Egypt. Asad al-Din returns back to Nur al-Din Zinki, of course, very frustrated,

**[17:07]** very upset at this betrayal. Nur al-Din Zinki was elated. Alhamdulillah, you're safe. We won. You know, Allah saved you. See, alhamdulillah, by the grace of Allah. But then Shirkuh was not happy. And he told Nur al-Din, I saw Egypt and I saw it's not strong at all. The

**[17:26]** country is weak and the Franks now realize what's going on. And it's a matter of time. They would definitely return and Egypt will fall for them. We must not let that happen. Please allow me to go back and I will take Egypt from Shawar and I will bring Egypt back.

**[17:42]** And Nur al-Din Zinki now is very reluctant. It was very dangerous the first time and now you want to attack and that's a big country. How would you control it? And Asad al-Din kept at it. He kept insisting, insisting, insisting till reluctantly Nur al-Din Zinki

**[18:00]** agrees. And again, the same scenario. He goes, gathers the 3,000 men, al-Faqih Isa al-Hakkari, you know, his nephew to train him. And, you know, and he gathers his forces and Nur al-Din Zinki starts attacking, creating a diversion and they start galloping all

**[18:17]** the way in the Sinai, you know, trying to reach Cairo before anybody takes heed. But something unexpected happened. On the way, they meet a sandstorm. Have you ever seen a sandstorm before? Very dangerous. You cannot see anything. It is sand all over. And back

**[18:32]** in the day, you can lose your mounts, you know, your supply. If you lose your mounts in the desert and the sandstorm can last for days, that might be the end of the campaign. They had to stay put and it's terrible, you know, sand everywhere, cover your face, hold

**[18:47]** your mounts and stay like that for God knows like maybe a day. And by the end of the sandstorm, they discovered that they lost a lot of their mounts. What should they do? Asad al-Din insisted, we are going to go forward. The worst news was, Shawar took heed of what's happening.

**[19:04]** The element of surprise is lost. And Shawar did not hesitate, immediately sent to the Franks. Asad al-Din is coming, please come and help me. And they did not need invited anymore. They cannot allow Asad al-Din Shirkuh to take Egypt. And it's a good chance for

**[19:19]** them to go and maybe interfere with the affairs of Egypt. And they went from the northern path. They followed the path, you know, on the Mediterranean through the city of Arish. So the Franks reached Cairo before Asad al-Din. They insist on meeting the Ismaili Khalifa himself and they sign a treaty and they even did something. They insisted to shake hands

**[19:37]** with the Khalifa on it, which was viewed as an insult at the time. But the Khalifa reluctantly agreed under Shawar's advice and they have a treaty of joint defense. They are now the allies. So they now form forces and they stand on the eastern part of Cairo,

**[19:54]** the joint army of the Franks and Egypt, waiting for Asad al-Din to show. And they wait and wait and wait. And Asad al-Din is not to be found. Where did he go? See, Asad al-Din was an excellent strategist. Sometimes we think it's all about sincerity. Sincerity is extremely

**[20:10]** important. Without sincerity, we have nothing. We lose. But sincerity without planning, sincerity without having certain abilities of strategy, we end up failing also. Asad al-Din Shirkuh was a great strategist. So he understood the element of surprise is lost. What will I do

**[20:27]** with 3,000 knights if I go and face a well-prepared army of the joint Egyptian army and the Franks ready for me? I must regain the element of surprise. So he does not show up in Cairo. Rather, he goes all the way south, crosses the river Nile, all the way to the western side,

**[20:44]** then goes up all the way to the city of modern-day Giza, you know where the pyramids are on the other side of Cairo. And now he stands and the army of Egypt and the Franks are on the other side of the Nile. And then he sends a letter to Shawar telling him, look, this

**[21:00]** is a golden opportunity. The Franks are trapped between both of us. I am here and you're here. And they're in the middle. Consider joining forces together. We can together attack them. We can get rid of them. Please accept my offer. Of what? We can still work together. It's

**[21:18]** a golden opportunity. The response of Shawar was the following. Unfortunately, he beheaded the Muslim messenger and sent the letter and the head of the Muslim messenger to the Franks telling them, look at what they offered, but I am loyal to you. Look at the level of

**[21:36]** treachery. This is what Nur al-Din Zinki had to face. You see the problems here. Where are the major source of the problems? Those people existed in the past. And they do exist today, unfortunately. So Shawar did this to the shock of Asad al-Din Shirkuh. And you

**[21:52]** think by the way, this will impress the Franks? You think they can trust a person that can do this with his own kind? So what happened next? The proposal of Asad al-Din got rejected. So what should he do? He started gathering his army and moving south. What is he doing on the way? He's using al-Faqih, Isa al-Hakkari and other people to do what? Tell people about

**[22:11]** what's going on. Tell people about Nur al-Din Zinki. Explain to people about the difference between the Ismaili madhhab and the Sunnis and that they need to revolt and there is a new movement and Nur al-Din Zinki is there. And aren't they tired of the Ismaili Khilafah and Shawar? And indeed, the revolt started to happen. And some people started,

**[22:30]** yes, we'll join you. Yes, we'll supply you. He's creating trouble on the way. And he reaches a place called al-Babayn in southern Egypt and he stops his army and seeks mashura. He takes the opinion of all the men and all the knights around him. What should we do? And some told him, well, we're in the western side of Egypt and the Nile separates between

**[22:48]** us and Nur al-Din Zinki. That's not wise to fight here because most likely we'll get defeated. Then where will we go? Where do we go from here? Maybe you should go to the eastern side and fight there. So at least if a defeat happens and most likely it will be that way, at least we maybe we have a chance of going back, you know, through the desert to some of us

**[23:06]** at least. And some suggest that maybe we should abandon the quest altogether. Khalas, I mean the element of surprise is lost. What can we do? Just let's try to return back safely to Nur al-Din Zinki. Then one of those knights, one of those men of Nur al-Din Zinki, Sharaf al-Din his name, he stood up and he said,

**[23:23]** those who are afraid of death should not serve the likes of Nur al-Din Zinki. What do you want? You want to return back to Nur al-Din Zinki and tell him what? That you let Egypt fall to the hands of disbelievers, you let Egypt fall to the hands of the Franks without attempting even to fight?

**[23:41]** By Allah, that is too disgraceful. And I know what Nur al-Din Zinki will say. He will tell you after the state is sponsoring you, your salaries and you have things, you know, from the state to sponsor your family and you did not even attempt to fight? He said we cannot say that to Nur al-Din Zinki.

**[23:58]** Whomever is afraid of death should not be with Nur al-Din Zinki in the first place. By Allah, we should stand firm. And Asad al-Din once he heard this and said, this is exactly what I wanted to hear. Have glad tidings. The moment of victory is near. I have a plan. I know what they're going to do. They are after me.

**[24:17]** So once they see my flag, they know my flag. They are going to focus their attack directly at my flag thinking that's where I stand. And I have a plan. I'll give my flag to my nephew Yusuf, this young man.

**[24:33]** They are going to look at, they're going to think I'm here. They are going to attack you. Once they attack you, don't resist. Start to fall back. Start to run back. Let them follow you. And I will stand with some of the strongest knights on the right side and the left side.

**[24:49]** And once we create a gap and they start to follow you, we do a pincer movement, if you will. And then we attack them from both sides. And that's exactly what happened. You know, he predicts his enemy. A good strategist is not just one who has a plan.

**[25:04]** His plan is based on how my enemy is going to attack. That's a part of planning. Indeed, what he predicted happened. Once the battle started, the Franks concentrated their forces and they started charging towards the center where they saw the flag of Asad al-Din

**[25:21]** retreating and they thought they're winning and they started to follow and the gap was created. And all of a sudden, Asad al-Din goes from both sides and surrounds them and starts attacking. And Ibn al-Athir writes down, he says, This is one of the most amazing and strangest things I write about in this book of history of mine.

**[25:41]** That 3,000 knights under Asad al-Din Shirkuh could defeat the whole army of Egypt and the whole army of the crusaders. And it was a victory for, you know, Asad al-Din. And the Franks started retreating and the Ismailis, you know, the Egyptian army started to retreat.

**[25:57]** And then they decided to go back defend Cairo because now Asad al-Din is going to go try to take the city of Cairo. They gathered their troops, wait for Asad al-Din at, you know, the gates of Cairo. They wait and wait and wait. What happens? Asad al-Din doesn't show there.

**[26:13]** Where did he go? Can you guess? He went all the way to the city of Alexandria. Now, why Alexandria? Something interesting was happening. Alexandria had a number of Sunni scholars, namely one of the greatest Hadith scholars, al-Hafidh al-Salafi, and one of the greatest

**[26:31]** Maliki scholars of the time, Tahir Abu Uf al-Iskandarani. It was a Sunni hub in Egypt. And Nur al-Din Zinki was in communication with the scholars of Egypt. Asad al-Din could not overpower Alexandria. It's a big city. But they communicated with the people there. And they

**[26:46]** communicated with the scholars, can you open the gates for us? And the scholars agreed. And they started telling people. And indeed, they show up and they open the doors of the city of Alexandria. And Asad al-Din Shirkuh enters with his army to Alexandria, closes the door. He took Alexandria.

**[27:03]** And you can see now, frustrated, you know, Shawar is, and you know, the Franks, they immediately head to the city of Alexandria, lay siege. And Asad al-Din Shirkuh is trapped in the city of Alexandria. It seems like the situation is repeating again. And he sends a text message

**[27:20]** to Nur al-Din Zinki. And again, the same thing. Nur al-Din Zinki starts fasting and starts gathering his troops, making du'a to Allah, starting attacking the Franks. And you know, and the situation was almost desperate. What do you do? The city of Alexandria is well fortified,

**[27:35]** but you're surrounded. And Asad al-Din does one of his maneuvers. He takes a batch of his knights, maybe a thousand of them. He orders the city doors to be open and he charges out of the city. He successfully penetrates the siege and starts heading back to the south of Egypt. Doing what?

**[27:52]** Same thing. Riots, gathering people, and Shawar realized what's going on. And what does he do? He proposes a treaty again, sends a message to Asad al-Din and a message to the Franks, telling them the situation is not good. This is no win for everybody. What do you suggest?

**[28:08]** He says, okay, yeah, Asad al-Din, your situation is not good either. You're trapped in the city of Alexandria. Here is the deal. We will allow you to leave the city of Alexandria in peace and return back to Nur al-Din Zinki. As for the Franks, he promised, I will compensate you

**[28:23]** more than one million dinar, which was a huge hefty amount. And I will let some of your knights be inside the city of Cairo so that if anything happens, they are there with me. And that was such a good deal for the Franks. One million dinar, they can equip another army,

**[28:43]** they can always come later. And wait a minute, they have a part of their army inside the city of Cairo. They can open the gates if something happens. So they agree. And reluctantly, Nur al-Din orders Asad al-Din Shirkuh, please, this is, you're trapped, you have to take the deal.

**[29:00]** They add one condition. The people that helped us of the city of Alexandria, you please do not touch them. And Shawar agrees. And you can guess what happened. Once Asad al-Din left, the people that helped were prosecuted by Shawar. And it seemed that the campaign failed again. Again, Shawar

**[29:19]** appeared to have won. Asad al-Din returns back to Nur al-Din Zinki and the Franks return back and Shawar is still in power. And Asad al-Din was still very upset. And he's saying Egypt is very weak. You know, the Franks are going to attack. And actually what he predicted happened. A year later,

**[29:39]** the knights report back from Egypt to the king of Jerusalem that Egypt is actually very weak. We are ready. If you were to bring the army, we will open the gates of Cairo for you. Egypt is ready. It's a low-hanging fruit at this point. And the king of Jerusalem has just received

**[29:56]** a batch of knights from Europe. Zealous, eager to fight like, you know, the first campaign. Where are the infidels? This mentality. And he says, I have what I need. And he decides to attack Egypt. An army starts leaving from Jerusalem, heading towards Egypt. And they succeed in

**[30:15]** attacking the city of Bilbais. Remember Asad al-Din protected the city for two weeks, but he's not there. And the city of Bilbais falls to the Franks. What happened in the city of Bilbais was negative, but led to something positive. The Franks, those zealous knights entering the city, decided to kill

**[30:33]** everybody. Every man, woman, and child in the city of Bilbais. A massacre. They killed everybody. That was terrible. But it led to something that was good. The Egyptians realized they cannot trust the Franks. Surrender is not an option. The only recourse is resistance. Shawar realizing this,

**[30:51]** they started fortifying Cairo. He ordered, you know, the houses outside of the walls to be burned. You know, everybody goes inside the walls. And it was the Ismaili caliph himself that sent a letter to Nur al-Din. And that letter, he included some locks of hair from his own wives. And he told

**[31:08]** Nur al-Din Zinki, this is a letter of distress. I'm seeking your help. In this letter, you'll find some locks of hair from my own wives. They are seeking your help against the fate that they will fall under if the Franks take the city. What will happen to our Muslim women? And Nur al-Din Zinki

**[31:29]** received the letter. And Asad al-Din Shirkuh comes to Nur al-Din and says, see, you cannot leave the country to fall. And Nur al-Din Zinki makes a decision. Yes, it's dangerous, but we cannot let Egypt fall to the Franks. That will be a disaster. And he ordered this time Asad al-Din Shirkuh, take

**[31:48]** not 3,000 knights, take the army, whomever you will. And Asad al-Din gathers the army of Nur al-Din Zinki. And they start heading towards Egypt. Now, the Franks could not take the city of Cairo. The city has walls. People are resisting because of what they did. And the news come to them,

**[32:07]** you cannot stay here for longer. Nur al-Din sent Asad al-Din, not with 3,000 knights. The army of Nur al-Din is coming. And now you're going to be trapped. Cairo did not surrender. And you're in a strange country. And Nur al-Din Zinki is going to eliminate you. And they had to retreat. So this expedition of the Franks to Cairo failed. And they left

**[32:28]** their position and returned back to the city of Jerusalem. And here Asad al-Din comes and successfully enters the city of Cairo with the soldiers of Nur al-Din Zinki. And the Khalifa himself tells him, put Shawar to death. And that's what happened. Shawar was put to death

**[32:47]** for all the crimes that he did against the Muslims and all the betrayals he did. But once that happened, who's the new wazir? The new wazir is Asad al-Din Shirkuh. And Asad al-Din Shirkuh takes the wizara, the ministry of Egypt. Now, Nur al-Din Zinki has Asad al-Din Shirkuh in Cairo,

**[33:06]** taking care of Egypt. And Asad al-Din Shirkuh starts a reform movement with his forces and army, starts to reform Egypt. Alhamdulillah, after all this, it's paying off. Something strange happened. Two months later, SubhanAllah, Asad al-Din Shirkuh dies a natural death, not the

**[33:23]** assassins. After all this, he successfully takes Egypt. Two months later, he dies. Once he died, the question came, who's the new wazir? Well, the Khalifa thought, the Ismaili Khalifa said, maybe it's a good opportunity. Let me choose one man that is the weakest among his men.

**[33:43]** Why? So I can probably control him. I don't want someone like Shihab al-Din or someone like al-Faqih Isa al-Hakkari. Those are powerful people. Who is the most inexperienced, youngest man? And oh, his nephew Yusuf. Let's bring him. And he calls him to the palace. And he starts telling him,

**[34:02]** you are going to be my new wazir. And he starts giving him, you know, abaya to wear. And he gives him a title. He says, now you are al-Nasir. And you are my wazir of Egypt. And here comes the power. Al-Nasir, Yusuf, Najm al-Din, Ibn Shadi, Ibn Ayyub, known as

**[34:23]** Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi.

## Other Episodes in "The Salahuddin Generation"
- [SERIES FINALE: Salahuddin’s Legacy | Ep. 11 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-11.md)
- [The Man Who Outsmarted Salahuddin | Ep. 10 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-10.md)
- [One Sultan vs. All of Europe — Counterattack | Ep. 9 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-9.md)
- [The Victory That Reopened Jerusalem | Ep. 8 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-8.md)
- [The Plot to Dig the Prophet ﷺ’s Grave | Ep. 7 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-7.md)
- [Salahuddin’s Revolution Begins | Ep. 6 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-6-salahuddin-revolution-begins.md)
- [The Rise of Zengi | Ep. 4 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-4-the-rise-of-zengi.md)
- [How Imam Al-Ghazali Built A Generation | Ep. 3 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-3.md)
- [Why Jerusalem Fell in the First Crusade | Ep. 2 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-2.md)
- [The Rise of the Assassins | Ep. 1 | The Salahuddin Generation](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-episode-1.md)
- [The Salahuddin Generation: Knights and Scholars | OFFICIAL TRAILER](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-official-trailer.md)
- [The Salahuddin Generation – Official Teaser](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/the-salahuddin-generation/the-salahuddin-generation-series-official-teaser.md)