Lenin, Napoleon, and Ho Chi Minh shared more than their towering and controversial legacies. All three men rose from relatively humble origin to positions of extraordinary power. Yet all three were understated in death, explicitly requesting modest burials free from the lavish grandeur of state spectacle. Lenin wished to be laid to rest beside his mother in St Petersburg’s Volkovskoye Cemetery. [1] Napoleon requested that his body ‘repose on the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the French people, whom I have loved so well.’[2] Ho Chi Minh stated explicitly that his body should be cremated, and a ‘grand funeral [to be] avoided in order to not waste the people’s time and money’ and that his ashes should be scattered across the country.[3] None of these wishes were honoured. These figures were victims of their success – the symbolic value of a monumental tomb proved too powerful for the states that inherited their legacies. Their bodies were transformed into rallying points of national identity through imposing mausolea which were constructed for them (Lenin’s in Red Square, Ho Chi Minh’s in Hanoi, and that of Napoleon in the monumental Les Invalides complex in Paris). Their personal wishes were overridden by the needs of public commemoration and collective memory. In death, they became political assets.
This process of transforming a ruler into a political symbol through monumental burial is not unique to the modern age. Centuries earlier, the same dynamics shaped the memory of Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb, commonly known in the West as Saladin (r. 564–589/ 1174–1193). Arguably the most well-known Muslim political figure in both East and West (besides the Prophet Muhammad himself), Saladin enjoys an expansive afterlife. Having abolished the weakened Shia Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt, Saladin established the Ayyubid ruling house and united Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, the Hejaz and Yemen under one sultanate. Under his personal leadership, Muslim forces crushed European crusaders at the iconic battle of Hattin (4 July 1187) which paved the way for his reconquest of Jerusalem.[4]
The lionisation of Saladin began in his own lifetime. Chroniclers, historians and litterateurs of from both Christian and Muslim backgrounds immortalized the Sultan through a series of vignettes that professed his humility, forbearance and piety.[5] These themes became especially prominent after his death. In his Kitāb Akhbār al-Dawlatayn, Abū Shāma, a late Ayyubid chronicler (d.1268 CE), draws upon earlier eye witness accounts to paint a picture of the situation at the time of Saladin’s passing:
‘The Qāḍī Ibn Shaddād reported that when he [Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn] died, he left in his treasury only forty-seven Nāṣirī dirhams of gold and silver, and one coin of Ṣūrī gold. He left no property; neither a house nor real estate nor an orchard nor a farm. [that is to say] neither a roofed property in the city, nor any other kind of property he could exploit [for gain]…he would give away money before receiving it, and he would prevent it from reaching his treasury by diverting [money to others] before it arrived…’[6]
The Sultan’s supposed generosity during his lifetime caused logistical problems after his death. During preparation for burial, Saladin’s sons lamented that they ‘could not include anything in his preparation worth a single grain, except [that which was given] by loan, even the price of the straw used to mix with mud.’[7] The memory of the liberator of Jerusalem and restorer of Sunni orthodoxy, so prominent in the minds of his followers, required a physical focus into which that memory could be channelled. True to his humility, Saladin was initially buried in the garden of his private residence in Damascus, where he had succumbed to the illness that had plagued his final weeks.[8] Yet this arrangement was not to last. His designated successor, al-Malik al-Afdal, built a dome north of the mosque next to the tomb, with a viewing window for visitors. The Sultan’s body was transferred there in the year 592/ 1195-1196, eventually becoming one of the most significant sites of political memory in the medieval Islamic world.[9]
Unlike the examples of Lenin, Napoleon and Ho Chi Minh, the edification of Saladin’s tomb did not help preserve the Ayyubid political order. Dynastic infighting and political rivalries soon tore the family apart and undermined the unity Saladin had forged. In life, Saladin was celebrated for his humility and generosity. In death, however, these qualities were overshadowed by the reconfiguration of his legacy as a potent legitimising force, with his tomb serving as an important factor in the cultivation of collective memory. Ironically, Saladin’s perceived humility became one of the qualities that later memory appropriated to enhance his authority as a political emblem. Such political authority could only be manifested with a significant burial site. Examples from history such as these remind us of the function of tombs and state funerals as mechanisms for constructing dynastic narratives. Moreover, they show how political expectations concerning the commemoration of a national figure often outweighed the very human wishes that such figures had stipulated in their lifetimes.
Finn Lindo-Dunn
[1] https://www.voanews.com/a/russia-lenin-bury/3819634.html
[2] https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/articles/napoleons-last-will-and-testament/
[3] Ho Chi Minh, President Ho Chi Minh’s Testament (Hanoi: The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, 1995) 38.
[4] Sayfo, Omar. “From Kurdish sultan to Pan-Arab champion and Muslim hero: the evolution of the Saladin myth in popular Arab culture.” Journal of Popular Culture 50, no. 1 (2017): 65-85.
[5] Ibid
[6] Abū Shāma, Kitāb al-rawḍatayn fī akhbār al-dawlatayn al-Nūriyya wa-l-Ṣalāḥiyya, ed. Ibrāhīm Shams al-Dīn (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2002), 2:220
[7] Ibid, 214.
[8] This style of burial was analogous of that of the Prophet Muhammad. For an overview of traditions regarding the Prophet’s burial, see Nuwayrī 18:393-395.
[9] Ibid 215
Works Cited
-“Why Is Lenin Still on Display in Red Square?” Voice of America, 22 Apr. 2017, www.voanews.com/a/russia-lenin-bury/3819634.html. Accessed 11 July 2026
-Abū Shāma. Kitāb al-Rawḍatayn fī Akhbār al-Dawlatayn al-Nūriyya wa-l-Ṣalāḥiyya. Edited by Ibrāhīm Shams al-Dīn, vol. 2, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2002.
-al-Nuwayrī, Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb. Nihāyat al-Arab fī Funūn al-Adab. Vol. 18, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2004.
-Ho Chi Minh. President Ho Chi Minh’s Testament. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, 1995.
-Napoleon Bonaparte. “Napoleon’s Last Will and Testament.” Fondation Napoléon, www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/articles/napoleons-last-will-and-testament/. Accessed 11 July 2026.
-Sayfo, Omar. “From Kurdish Sultan to Pan-Arab Champion and Muslim Hero: The Evolution of the Saladin Myth in Popular Arab Culture.” The Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 50, no. 1, 2017, pp. 65–85.