- Yusuf ibn Ayyub
- his personal name, before he was given the title Salah al-Din
- the Kurd
- his Kurdish origin — the family's homeland before they entered service
- the Fatimids
- the caliphate he brought to an end in Cairo in 1171
- the Abbasids
- the caliphate he returned Egypt to after two centuries away
- Hattin
- the battle where he broke the Crusader army near Tiberias in 1187
- Richard the Lionheart
- the English king who led the Third Crusade against him after Hattin
- the peace of Ramla
- the peace that closed Richard's campaign in 1192 and split the coast
- jihad
- the cause on which he spent his wealth and his effort all his life
- the citadel
- the Cairo citadel he raised on the Muqattam hill against the Crusaders
- the schools
- the schools he spread through Egypt and Damascus for teaching jurisprudence
- 1187
- the year of Hattin and of Jerusalem's recovery, together — the summit of his life
- Damascus
- the city of his later rule, and of his death in 1193
