Interesting to record is the last will and testament of the celebrated Saladin, born in 1136; he died in 1193, after filling the two continents of Europe and Asia with his fame. Sultan of Egypt, he conquered Syria, Arabia, Persia, Mesopotamia, and took possession of Jerusalem in 1187. His conquests suffice to enable us to judge of the extent of his power and wealth; at his death, however, he showed that no one was more intimately convinced of the utter hollowness of the riches and greatness of the world and the vanity of its disputes. He ordered, by his will, first, that considerable sums should be distributed to Mussulmans, Jews, and Christians, in order that the priests of the three religions might implore the mercy of God for him; next he commanded that the shirt or tunic he should be wearing at the time of his death should be carried on the end of a spear throughout the whole camp, and at the head of his army, and that the soldier who bore it should pause at intervals and say aloud, “Behold all that remains of the Emperor Saladin! Of all the states he had conquered; of all the provinces he had subdued; of the boundless treasures he had amassed; of the countless wealth he possessed, he retained in dying, nothing but this shroud!” To this we may add: “ ... Behold his origin and end! Milk and a swathe at first, his whole demand; His whole domain, at last, a turf or stone, To whom, between, a world had seemed too small.” WILL OF WILLIAM DE BEAUCHAMP (1268)