excellent reading for a not very critical public; he had an extraordinary faculty for never saying the same thing twice in the same way. He earned a large income from the Telegraph and other sources, but he never could keep his money. In 1863 he started on his first tour as special foreign correspondent to his paper. He spent the year 1864 in America and published a Diary of the war. Expeditions to Algiers, to Italy during Ga1dbaldi's 1866 campaign, to Metz during the Franco-German war, to Spain in 1875 at the end of the Carlist war, were among his early journalistic enterprises, the long list of which closed with his journey through America and Australia in 1885. In 1892, when his reputation was at its height, he started a weekly paper called Salah' Journal, but it was a disastrous failure; and in 1895 he had to sell his library of 13,000 volumes. Lord Rosebery gave him a civil list pension of £100 a year, but he was a broken-down man, and he died at Brighton on the 8th of December 1895. Sala published many volumes of fiction, travels and essays, and edited various other works, but his métier was that of ephemeral journalism. A
See The Life and Adventures of George Augustus Sala, 'written by hirnseU (2 vols., 1895).
'SALAAM (Arab. salam, “ peace ”), the Oriental term for a salutation. The word is used for any act of salutation, as of an
ambassador to a monarch, and so in a secondary sense of a
compliment. Properly it is the oral salutation of Mahommedans
to each other; but it has acquired the special meaning of an
act of obeisance.
SALAD (Med. Lat. salata, salted, pickled, salare, to sprinkle
with salt), a dish, originally dressed with salt, of green uncooked
herbs, such as lettuce, endive, mustard, cress, &c., usually served
with a flavouring of onion, garlic or leeks, and with a dressing of
vinegar, oil, mustard, pepper and salt, or with a cream, for
which there are many receipts; hard-boiled eggs, radishes and
cuciunber are also added.
SALADE, SALLE1? or SALET, a head-piece introduced in the
early 15th century replacing the heavy helmet. Its essential
features are its smooth rounded surface, like an inverted bowl,
and its long projecting neck guard. Usually there was no movable
vizor, but the front fixed part covered most of the face, a slit
being left for the eyes. The word is said to come through
the Old Fr. from the Span. celada, Ital. celata, Lat. caelata,
sc. cassis, engraved helmet, caelare, to engrave, chase (see
HELMET).
SALADIN (Arab. Sala-ud-din, “ Honouring the Faith ”) (1138-1193),
first Ayyubite sultan of Egypt, was born at Tekrit in
1138. The brilliance of his career was only made possible
by the condition of the East in the 1 2th century. Such authority
as remained to the orthodox caliph of Bagdad (see CALIPHATE)
or the heretical Fatimites (q.'v.) of Cairo was exercised by their
viziers. The Seljukian empire had, -after IO76, been divided
and subdivided among Turkish atabegs. The Latin kingdom
of Jerusalem had existed since IO8Q only because it was a
united force in the midst of disintegration. Gradually, however,
Christian enthusiasm had aroused a counter enthusiasm among
the Moslems. Zengi, atabeg of Mosul, had inaugurated the
sacred war by his campaigns in Syria (1137-1146). Nur-ed-din,
his son, had continued his work by further conquests in Syria
and Damascus, by the organization of his conquered lands,
and, in 1157, by “ publishing everywhere the Holy War.” The
opportunity of Saladin lay therefore in the fact that his lifetime
covers the period when there was a conscious demand for political
union in the defence of the Mahommedan faith. By race
Saladin was a Kurd of Armenia. His father, Ayyub (job), and
his uncle Shirkuh, sons of a certain Shadhy of Ajdanakan near
Dawin, were both generals in Zengi's army. In II3Q Ayyub
received Baalbek from Zengi, in 1146 he moved, on Zengi's
death, to the court of Damascus. In II 54 his influence secured
Damascus to Nur-ed-din and he was made governor. Saladin
was therefore educated in the most famous centre of Moslem
learning, and represented the best traditions of Moslem culture.
His career falls into three parts, his conquests in Egypt 1164-1174,
the annexation of Syria 1174-1187, and lastly the destruction
of the Latin kingdom and subsequent campaigns against
the Christians, 1187-1192. The conquest of Egypt was essential
to Nur-ed-din. It was a menace to his empire on the south, the
occasional ally of the Franks and the home of the unorthodox
caliphs. His pretext was the plea of an exiled vizier, and
Shirkuh was ordered to Egypt in 1164, taking Saladin as his
lieutenant. The Christians under Count Amalric immediately
intervened and the four expeditions which ensued in 1164, 1167,
1168 and 1169 were duels between Christians and Saracens.
They resulted in heavy Christian losses, the death of Shirkuh and
the appointment of Saladin as vizir. His relations towards the
unorthodox caliph Nur-ed-din were marked by 'extraordinary
tact. In 1171 on the death of the Fatirnite caliph he was
powerful enough to substitute the name of the orthodox caliph
in all Egyptian mosques. The Mahommedan religion was
thus united against Christianity. To N ur-ed-din he was invariably
submissive, but from the vigour which he employed in
adding to the fortihcations of Cairo and the haste with which he
retreated from an attack on Montréal (1171) and Kerak (1173)
it is clear that he feared his lord's jealousy.
In 1174 Nur-ed-din died, and the period of Saladin's conquests
in Syria begins. Nur-ed-din's vassals rebelled against his
youthful heir, es-Salih, and Saladin came north, nominally to his
assistance. In 1174 he entered Damascus, Emesa and Hamah;
in 1175 Baalbek and the towns round Aleppo. The next step
was political independence. He suppressed the name of es-Salih
in prayers and on the coinage, and was formally declared sultan
by the caliph 1175. In 1176 he conquered Saif-ud-din of Mosul
beyond the Euphrates and was recognized as sovereign by the
princes of northern Syria'. In 1177 he returned by Damascus
to Cairo, which he enriched with colleges, a citadel and an
aqueduct. From 1177 to 1180 he made war on the Christians
from Egypt, and in 1180 reduced the sultan of Konia to submission.
From 1181-1 183 he was chiefly occupied in Syria. In
1183 he induced the atabeg Imad-ud-din to exchange Aleppo for
the insignificant Sinjar and in 1186 received the homage of the
atabeg of Mosul. The last independent vassal was thus subdued
and the Latin kingdom enclosed on every side by a hostile
empire.
In 1187 a four' years' truce was broken by the brilliant brigand Renaud de Chatillon and thus began Saladin's third period of conquest. In May he cut to pieces a small body of Templars and Hospitallers at Tiberias, and, on July 4th, inflicted a. crushing defeat upon the united Christian army at Hittin. He then overran Palestine, on September 2oth besieged Jerusalem and on October 2nd, after chivalrous clemency to the Christian inhabitants, crowned his victories by entering and purifying the Holy City. In the kingdom only Tyre was left to the Christians. Probably Saladin made his worst strategical error in neglecting to conquer it before winter. The Christians had thus a stronghold whence their remnant marched to attack Acre in June 1 189. Saladin immediately surrounded the Christian army and thus began the famous two years' siege.
Saladin's lack of a fleet enabled the Christians' to receive reinforcements and thus recover from their defeats by land. On the 8th of June 1191 Richard of England arrived, and on the 12th of July Acre capitulated without Saladin's permission. Richard followed up his victory by an admirably ordered march down the coast to Jaffa and a great victory at Arsuf. During 1191 and 1192 there were four small campaigns in southern Palestine when Richard circled round Beitnuba and Ascalon with Jerusalem as objective. In January 1192 he acknowledged his impotence by renouncing Jerusalem to fortify Ascalon. Negotiations for peace accompanied these demonstrations, which showed that Saladin was master of the situation. Though in ]'uly Richard secured two brilliant victories at ]affa, the treaty made on the 2nd of September was a triumph for Saladin. Only the coast line was left to the Latin kingdom, with a free passage to Jerusalem; and Ascalon' was demolished. The union of the Mahommedan East had 'beyond question dealt the death-blow to the Latin kingdom. Richard returned to Europe, and Saladin returned to Damascus, where on the 4th of March 1193,
