Saladin (Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi, 1137-1193) - deeply admired by his contemporaries, Muslims and Franks, and continuously depicted as a perfect knight and mythological hero in later historiography and literature - became a cultural hero for a variety of modern ideologies. These include Pan-Arabism and Islamism; Syrian, Egyptian, Iraqi and Palestinian nationalism; anti-Imperialism; criticism of the West and opposition to Zionism; religious tolerance and humanity. His various Eastern and Western images were researched by a number of scholars, in several disciplines. I intend to investigate Palestinian and Israeli "memories" of Saladin: re-trace their genealogies in medieval and Ottoman sources and in twentieth-century academic and popular narratives, and attempt to explain their development. I will highlight Saladin's contrasting representations in Hebrew essays: as a redeemer of exiled Jews on the one hand, and as a threatening precursor of Arab unity and jihad on the other hand. Regarding the Palestinian perspective, I will show Saladin's perceived role in the construction of pilgrimage sites and the establishment of annual festivals (mawasim) on these sites. According to this narrative – which is altogether absent from medieval sources - such gatherings were meant to defend Palestine from future invasion. The myth of Saladin's mawasim was perpetuated by the Mufti Hajj Amin al-Husayni and the Muslim Council in Mandate-era Palestine at the popular shrines of Nabi Musa, Nabi Salih and other sites, and is upheld by the Palestinian Authority nowadays as both Islamic and national. In contrast, the celebration of the anniversary of the Battle of Hattin (Saladin's most conspicuous victory), initiated as a national holiday and Arab anti-Imperialist rally by the Palestinian "Istiqlal" Party in 1932, was short lived. Since 2011, however, the battle is annually reconstructed in a colorful meeting of the Regnum Hierosolymitanum group for history reenactment, by Israeli and international enthusiasts of "living medieval history" (see https://www.horns-hattin.com/press-release). In the conclusion of my paper, I will speculate why Saladin's myth "appropriated" the deeds of some earlier and later rulers of Palestine, and why the latter were pretty much forgotten, while his commemoration - as a conqueror and protector, and as an outstandingly generous knight - thrives.