Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad

[4] Ibn Shaddad was born in Mosul on 10 Ramadan 539 AH (6 March 1145 CE), where he studied the Qur'an, hadith, and Muslim law before moving to the Nizamiyya madrasa in Baghdad where he rapidly became mu'id ("assistant professor").

[4] Ibn Shaddād remained an intimate and trusted friend of Saladin, "seldom absent for any length of time", as well as one of his main advisers, for the rest of the sultan's life.

[4] Ibn Shaddād's best-known work is his biography of Saladin, which is "based for the most part on personal observation" and provides a complete portrait as "Muslims saw him".

[8] Published in English as The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin, the Arab title (al-Nawādir al-Sultaniyya wa'l-Maḥāsin al-Yūsufiyya) translates as "Sultanic Anecdotes and Josephly Virtues".

[9] Ibn Shaddād also wrote several works on the practical application of Islamic law, The Refuge of Judges from the Ambiguity of Judgements, The Proofs of Judgments and The Epitome as well as a monograph entitled The Virtues of the Jihad.

First volume of the Vita et res gestae Sultani, almalichi alnasiri, Saladini by "Bohadinus" (i.e. Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad). Parallel Arabic and Latin text printed in two columns. Edited and translated by Albert Schultens , published in Leiden by Samuel Luchtmans, dated 1732.