Baybars exterminated Saladin’s male descendants to end Arab royal claims to rule

Evidence

The author of De statu describes the violence and intrigues of the Mamluk sultans, in particular Baybars, whose cruelty he compares to that of Nero and Herod. “This Herod,” he says “lest anyone of the race [genere] of Arabs should rise up who could be called king or sultan, extirpated the whole royal seed, that is to say the fourteen sons that Saladin had left to be kings when he died; he murdering and suffocating them in any way he could.” Baybars delights in the murder of his subjects, boasts that he is greater than Muhammad, and claims he can take on the kings of the French, English, Romans, Greeks, and Tartars, all at once. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1063 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Gaston Paris published and discussed a highly unfavourable legend of Saladin that began to develop, and was reversed after the fall of Jerusalem and its conqueror’s generous treatment of the Christian population; they had no right to expect any fate other than that of the Muslim citizens of 1099, or that which the Christians would later have at Acre (in 1291) and elsewhere. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2297 (#complicates, via linked claim)

11. Salahuddin is more commonly known as Saladin in the West. An individual cited in Christian texts for his bravery and chivalry, he was often compared to his contemporary Richard the Lionheart for his chivalry and bravery. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 769 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Baybars exterminated Saladin’s fourteen sons to end the Arab line of sultans. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1063; The European legend of Saladin reversed after his generous treatment of Jerusalem’s Christians. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2297; Christian texts praised Saladin as a paragon of chivalry. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 769 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Baybars exterminated Saladin’s fourteen sons to end the Arab line of sultans. #corroborates (0.95) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1063
• The European legend of Saladin reversed after his generous treatment of Jerusalem’s Christians. #complicates (0.75) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2297
• Christian texts praised Saladin as a paragon of chivalry. #complicates (0.75) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 769
• Medieval Christian Crusaders were more brutal than Saladin, who spared defeated enemies. #complicates (0.75)
• Medieval manuscript art rendered Saladin as a purple-skinned grotesque #complicates (0.75)