The Egyptian, although he was really a Kurd, Sultan Amalik al-Nasr Salih al-Din Yusuf, better known to the West as Saladin. Saladin, having consolidated his power in Egypt, sought to expand by taking Damascus and eventually Jerusalem, which he did successfully because he was an amazing general. And then the loss of Jerusalem caused Pope Gregory VIII to call for a Third Crusade. Three of the most important kings in Europe answered the call. Philip, cowardly schemer II of France, Richard, Lionheart I of England, and Frederick, I am going to drown anticlimactically on the journey while trying to bathe in a river, Barbarossa, of the not-holy, not-Roman, and not-imperial Holy Roman Empire. Both Richard and Saladin were great generals who earned the respect of their troops. And while from the European perspective the crusade was a failure because they didn't take Jerusalem, it did radically change crusading forever by making Egypt a target.