SALADIN TITHE

*Tithe imposed after the fall of Jerusalem in 1187. It was a tax on movables - the first such personal tax in English history. The purpose was to raise funds for a crusade with the purpose of recapturing Jerusalem and other places in the Holy Land. It was named after Saladin, the one name known throughout Christendom as belonging to a Muslim leader and thus universally demonised. Dante placed him with virtuous non-Christians, 'solitary, set apart'.