Meaning & History
Means "righteousness of religion" from Arabic صلاح (ṣalāḥ) meaning "righteousness" combined with دين (dīn) meaning "religion, faith". A famous bearer of this name was the sultan Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, known in the western world as Saladin, the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty in Egypt in the 12th century. He recaptured Jerusalem from the crusaders and repelled the invaders of the Third Crusade. Salah ad-Din was an honorific; his birth name was Yusuf.