Was Saladin a noble ruler or is that just a modern misrepresentation?

From what I gather, he did indeed treat others well, but it was more out of pragmaticism rather than being a pure paragon of virtue

>But back then they depicted him as a demon not a noble ruler.
No, they did the very opposite. It wasn't that uncommon during this period - there were tales of Zengi being the son of a noble Christian lady before Saladin. Even in the various gestas you'll find remarks about generic Saracen soldiers and officers that talk up their nobility and virtues. A lot of it probably comes from the desire of nobles for a noble enemy. Even the Song of Roland has that line for the King of Babylon: "God, what a knight, if only he were Christian!"

Not long at all after the Third Crusade, Saladin starts turning up in European poems and songs as a sort of wise man of the East that sneaks into Europe in disguise and offers sage advice or judges unvirtuous Christians for their shortcomings, as it makes the criticism all the more damning coming from the mouth of an infidel.

It's the reason why Saladin eventually turns up as one of Dante's virtuous pagans in hell.

What you're mistaking about that image is that Saladin is depicted as a demon, when in fact that image is showing him as Richard's equal - a finely armored knight jousting with the king. He's blue/dark because he's imagined as an alien race, but not because he's a demon.

He wasn't the paragon of honour and virtue shown in Kingdom of Heaven (which inaccurately depicts him giving free passage to all Christians in Jerusalem, whereas in real life he made them all pay a ransom, and those that couldn't pay were enslaved), but neither was he a merciless warlord like an Attila or a Genghis either. He was above average in terms of honour for the time, but even still that's a fairly low standard to set.

Also, it isn't even that modern of a misinterpretation. As early back as 19th century Victorian England he was hailed as a noble and honourable warrior, basically the "noble savage" of Muslims. To Christians and Europeans he was basically like what they saw as the ideal Muslim warrior.

Nubian and Sudanese revolt, Saladin killed or slaved everybody he could find.

>Nubian and Sudanese
>his people

This a subtle KARA BOGA meme?

>nubian
>sudanese
>killed and enslaved

So?

>He wasn't the paragon of honour and virtue shown in Kingdom of Heaven
To us, the historical Saladin wasn't. But to his European contemporaries he most certainly was seen as a paragon of honor and virtue. The movie captured the tone of his reputation in Europe back then.

So the unflattering artwork is a product or racism not of thinking he was a bad guy?

What about that is unflattering? The finely dressed blackamoor model is used a lot in Adoration of the Magi themed paintings.

So you're saying that the artist was using a contemporary artistic motif and that he wasn't trying to contrast the dark-skinned Saladin, with alien physical features, with the light skinned European in that painting?

ummm, sweetie, the sudanese were an elite fatimid unit housed in the royal districts of cairo... i'm sorry you can't see past your eurocentrism

That painting was by Rubens. At the time, Moor had several different connotations. He probably chose to depict Saladin as a Blackmoor, because it was more exotic, as is typical of Tronies.

>alien physical features
It's just a black dude, dude. They were all the rage at European courts at that time, and represented exotic foreignness. The contrast was on purpose, but had nothing to do with one being good and the other bad - otherwise you wouldn't see the same figure next to baby Jesus as a wise man.

>fatimid
There's your problem, ma'am. To Saladin they were an armed mercenary troupe of a conquered enemy regime. They had to go.

>the artist was using a contemporary artistic motif
Shocking, isn't it? Works like this took weeks if not months of hard labor and focus. It's not exactly the canvas for /int/ style memes.

>Tronies
This. It's literally a costumed stock character.

That all makes perfect sense. I misinterpreted the painting.

Saladin was a Mede.

this!

those poems ring true.