 The facilities and patronage provided by the Ayyubids led to a resurgence in intellectual activity in different branches of knowledge and learning throughout the territories they controlled . They took special interest in the fields of medicine , pharmacology , and botany . Saladin built and maintained two hospitals in Cairo emulating the well @-@ known Nuri Hospital in Damascus which not only treated patients , but also provided medical schooling . Many scientists and physicians flourished in this period in Egypt , Syria , and Iraq . Among them were Maimonides , Ibn Jami , Abdul Latif al @-@ Baghdadi , al @-@ Dakhwar , Rashidun al @-@ Suri , and Ibn al @-@ Baitar . Some of these scholars served the Ayyubid household directly , becoming the personal physicians of sultans . 
