 Kurdish was the mother tongue of the early Ayyubids , at the time of their departure from Dvin . Sultan Saladin spoke both Arabic and Kurdish , and likely Turkish as well . According to Yasser <unk> , an anthropologist specializing in medieval Islamic culture , the Ayyubid rulers who reigned in the late 12th @-@ century were far removed from their Kurdish origins , and unlike their Seljuq predecessors and their Mamluk successors , they were firmly " Arabized . " Arabic culture and language formed the main component of their identity instead of their Kurdish heritage . Arabic surnames were much more prevalent among the Ayyubids , a tribe that had already been partially assimilated into the Arabic @-@ speaking world before its members came to power , than non @-@ Arabic names . Some exceptions included the non @-@ Arabic surname Turan @-@ Shah . Most of the Ayyubid rulers spoke fluent Arabic and a number of them , such as az @-@ Zahir Ghazi , al @-@ Mu 'azzam Isa and the minor emirs of Hama , composed Arabic poetry . 
