Editing Safed (section)

====Ayyubid interregnum====
Safed was captured by the [[Ayyubid dynasty|Ayyubids]] led by Sultan [[Saladin]] in 1188 after [[Siege of Safed (1188)|a month-long siege]], following the [[Battle of Hattin]] in 1187.<ref name="Sharon152">Sharon 2007, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=1d8xHcor0psC&pg=PA152 152]</ref> Saladin ultimately allowed its residents to relocate to [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]].<ref name="Sharon152"/> He granted Safed and Tiberias as an ''[[iqta]]'' (akin to a fief) to Sa'd al-Din Mas'ud ibn Mubarak (d. 1211), the son of his niece, after which it was bequeathed to Sa'd al-Din's son Ahmad.<ref name="Drory164">Drory 2004, p. 164.</ref> [[Samuel ben Samson]], who visited the town in 1210, mentions the existence of a Jewish community of at least fifty there.<ref>Schechter, Solomon. ''Studies in Judaism: Second Series (Jewish Studies Classics 3)'', p. 206. Gorgias Press LLC, 2003. {{ISBN|1-59333-039-1}}</ref> He also noted that two Muslims guarded and maintained the cave tomb of a rabbi, Hanina ben Horqano, in Safed.<ref>Barbé 2016, p. 68.</ref> The ''iqta'' of Safed was taken from the family of Sa'd al-Din by the Ayyubid emir of [[Damascus]], [[al-Mu'azzam Isa]], in 1217.<ref name="Luz34">Luz 2014, p. 34.</ref> Two years later, during the Crusader [[siege of Damietta (1218–1219)|siege of Damietta]], al-Mu'azzam Isa had the Safed castle demolished to prevent its capture and reuse by potential future Crusaders.<ref name="Luz34"/>