WI Saladin died in a training accident?

If Saladin dies before the crusades, he will never rose to power. If he doesn't rise to power, the Muslims are going to have a harder time against the Crusaders.
The Third Crusade might still happen but it will be for different reasons than OTL and will have a completely different course.
 
This is a tremendous break for the Crusaders. I cannot fully describe how lucky they are but I am going to try.

Saladin was not a great general. In fact, he was average. Richard was a better commander. What he was however, was a great politician. Saladin was able to unite the disparate factions and keep them together through the campaigns against Jerusalem and long grueling Palestine War against Richard. Months and months and months in the field keeping his troops motivated and supplied.

Assume Shirkuh is still sent to Egypt--but Saladin is not his second, being dead. Shirkuh (1169) and Nuraddin (1174) probably still die on schedule. IOTL Saladdin did not help Nuraddin in the early 1170s campaigns after his uncle died.

So who is the second in command in Egypt? If it is someone less capable than Saladin (not hard, Saladin was quite capable obviously) Nuraddin might not invade Jerusalem in 1173 and 1175, instead Nuraddin will still be occupied in asserting control over Egypt. In fact, say whoever is in charge in Eygpt spends 1169-1170 consolidating much more slowly than Saladin. That means that there is no 1170 invasion from Egypt and Eilat remains in Christian hands which means Jerusalem still has a port on the Red Sea.

It's also possible that when Nuraddin dies, whoever is down in Egypt is unable to unify by force, marriage and assassination, with the Syrians. That means Syria is going to be ruled by regents for As-Salih until at least 1180 and Egypt and Syria might very well focus on fighting each other before going after Jerusalem. All in all, I'd say it means that the war against the Crusaders is postponed for maybe as much as a decade or more and is going to be harder for the Muslims when it happens.
 
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