In 1132, the defeated army of Zengi, Atabeg of Mosul, found their retreat blocked by the Tigris River opposite the fortress of Tikrit, where Saladin's father, Najm ad-Din Ayyub served as the warden. In Saladin's era, no scholar had more influence than sheikh Abdul Qadir Gilani, and Saladin was strongly influenced and aided by him and his pupils. The Rawadiya tribe he hailed from had been partially assimilated into the Arabic-speaking world by this time. His family was most likely of Kurdish ancestry, and had originated from the village of Ajdanakan near the city of Dvin in central Armenia.
His personal name was "Yusuf" "Salah ad-Din" is a laqab, an honorific epithet, meaning "Righteousness of the Faith". Saladin was born in Tikrit in present-day Iraq.