Saladin the Victorious
1963 film by Youssef Chahine
Saladin the Victorious (1963) (Egyptian Arabic: الناصر صلاح الدين, El-Nasser Salah Ed-Din), also known as Saladin and the Great Crusades, is a 1963 Egyptian epic film directed by Youssef Chahine. It is co-written by Chahine, Yusuf Sibai and others, based on a novel by Naguib Mahfouz. The film features an ensemble cast. It stars Ahmed Mazhar, Salah Zulfikar, Nadia Lutfi, Omar El-Hariri, Mahmoud El-Meliguy, Leila Fawzi, Hamdi Gheiss, Ahmed Luxor, Hussein Riad, Laila Taher and Zaki Toleimat.
It was entered into the 3rd Moscow International Film Festival. The film was restored to its original running time of 186 minutes from the original negative by the Cineteca di Bologna and was shown at Il Cinema Ritrovato in June 2019. Saladin the Victorious is one of the Top 100 Egyptian films.
Plot
The film begins with Jerusalem under the authority of the Christians of Europe and the evil Crusader commander Raynald of Châtillon ordering the slaughter of Muslim pilgrims in order to loot their caravans despite the protests of the Christian King of Jerusalem Guy of Lusignan. Saladin (Ahmed Mazhar) upon hearing this news seeks the reclamation of the holy lands in a short, almost impossible campaign. In the Battle of Hattin, Saladin succeeds in defeating and capturing both Raynald and Guy, and later kills Raynald in single combat.
“Saladin the Victorious” enters the record as 1963 film by Youssef Chahine. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Saladin, Victorious and film can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q251692. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1963 and 2019.
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This entry incorporates text from “Saladin the Victorious” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.