The Book of Saladin: A Novel

Tariq Ali's second novel in The Islam Quintet is a rich and teeming chronicle set in twelfth-century Cairo, Damascus and Jerusalem.
The Book of Saladin is the fictional memoir of Saladin, the Kurdish liberator of Jerusalem, as dictated to a Jewish scribe, Ibn Yakub. Saladin grants Ibn Yakub permission to talk to his wife and retainers so that he might present a full portrait in the Sultan's memoirs. A series of interconnected stories follows, tales brimming over with warmth, earthy humor and passions in which ideals clash with realities and dreams are confounded by desires.

 At the heart of the novel is an affecting love affair between the Sultan's favored wife, Jamila, and the beautiful Halina, a later addition to the harem. The novel charts the rise of Saladin as Sultan of Egypt and Syria and follows him as he prepares, in alliance with his Jewish and Christian subjects, to take Jerusalem back from the Crusaders. This is a medieval story, but much of it will be uncannily familiar to those who follow events in contemporary Cairo, Damascus, and Baghdad. Betrayed hopes, disillusioned soldiers and unrealistic alliances form the backdrop to The Book of Saladin.Price: $16.95


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SALADIN: Hero of Islam (Pen & Sword Military Books)

The extraordinary character and career of Saladin are the keys to understanding the Battle of Hattin, the fall of Jerusalem and the failure of the Third Crusade. He united warring Muslim lands, reconquered the bulk of Crusader states and faced the Richard the Lion Heart, king of England, in one of the most famous confrontations in medieval warfare. Geoffrey Hindley's sympathetic and highly readable study of the life and times of this remarkable, many-sided man, who dominated the Middle East in his day, gives a fascinating insight into his achievements and into the Muslim world of his contemporaries.
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Saladin Achievement

Saladin was a prominent figure in the Medieval history. He was the most famous of the Muslim military heroes. His achievements were not limited to the military sphere alone, but transgressed across the political, diplomatic and administrative arenas. He succeeded to unite the Muslims and defeated the Crusaders and recapture Jerusalem.

His Youth
Saladin was born in Tikrit (present Iraq) in the year of 1138. His father, Najmuddin, was a Kurdish from Azarbaijan. On the night of his birth, his father, Najmudin, decided to move to Aleppo and worked for Imaddin Zangi, the powerful Turkish governor in northern Syria.

He received a taste of military life under the guided eyes of his uncle, Asaddin, and the academic and religious elements from his father. Following the tradition in those days, Saladin was trained to be expert horse rider and handled various weapons of combat, such as the sword in and archery. While growing up, Saladin was an ordinary undistinguished youth, with a greater interest in religious studies, rather than military achievement.

Uniting the Muslims.
Egypt became the stepping stone for Saladin's ambition to recapture Jerusalem. This opportunity came when he was part of the triumphant army sent to Egypt by the Emir of Damascus to face the onslaught of the Crusaders. Upon the death of the vizier and his uncle, (army commander Asaddin), he was appointed as the Vizier of Egypt, keeping alliance to the emir in Damascus. When the Emir in Damascus died, Saladin proceeded in his plan to unite the fractional Muslims states with single minded intention to stage a holy war.

Battle of Hattin.
This is the beginning of the downfall of the crusaders. The exhausted army was trapped. So great were the losses in the ranks of the crusaders in this single battle that the Muslims were able to overrun over nearly the entire Kingdom of Jerusalem. One by one their stronghold fell under the power of Saladin, Acre, Toron, Beirut, Sidon, Nazareth, Caesarea, Nabulus, Jaffa (Yafo), and Ascalon (Ashqelon) within three months.

Saladin's main achievement was the capture of Jerusalem (1187). In stark contrast to the Christians who captured the city 87 years earlier, the Muslim reconquest was marked by the civilized and courteous behavior of Saladin and his troops. By 1189 the crusaders occupied only three cities in the entire Middle East. Saladin's conquest sparked the Third Crusade, which was led by the famed military leader Richard I (the Lion-Hearted). The clash between these two great powers ended in a draw, but a treaty was drawn up that allowed Christians to visit holy sites in the area. Saladin died a peaceful death in Damascus in 1193.

Achievement
Saladin's every act was inspired by an intense and undivided mindset to the idea of jihad, or holy war, taking the example from the struggle of the prophet and the companions. He opened colleges and mosque and created a system to support the quest of knowledge. He invited scholars and commissioned them to write edifying works both in religious topics as well as academics' interest. Through religious principle, which was a genuine part of his own way of life, he tried to re-create in his own realm some of the same zeal and enthusiasm that had proved so valuable to the first generations of Muslims when, five centuries before, they had conquered half the known world.

In wars against the Christian crusaders, he achieved final success with the disciplined capture of Jerusalem (Oct. 2, 1187), ending its 88-year occupation by the Franks. He demonstrated his high standard of moral value by offering chance for the Christian Troops to leave within 40 days.

His chivalrous behavior was noted by Christian writers, especially in the accounts of the siege of Kerak in Moab, and despite being the enemies of the Crusaders he won the respect of many of them, including Richard the Lionheart; rather than becoming a hated figure in Europe, he became a celebrated example of the principled leader.

The author had spent more than 10 years working with an International Airlines in the field of Training and Development. Responsible for Training Needs Analysis and providing the training soutions. Currently maintain a blog on Saladin: http://saladin-ayyub.blogspot.com/

Laden's Surprise-the U.S. Demise

A controversial article in the ezine magazine.
By Dennis Siluk Ed.D. /Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/149952

It would seem to me lately the US Government and the people in general, talk shows included are more concerned with the US Census, than with bin Laden's most recent message to America. I try to stay out of politics, and war time crap, but I find myself falling back on it when I get irritated, and this avoiding and making little out of Bin Laden's message, as if it was a baloney sandwich, is too much to deal with, so I got to say my peace. In other years I've written over 200-articles on such issues, I shall write one more making it 201, and then try to get back to my poetry.

I, and I mean Dennis believes bin Laden is trying to show the world he is the old Saladin of the Muslim world, the old warrior. I wrote five stories on the crusades, and Saladin was in most of them, he was a great warrior, and at times made peace with England's king, in the holy land, Richard the Lionhearted; Richard respected him for his shrewdness, and capabilities, something we do not give bin Laden. We have built a great shield around America so other countries cannot come over here and destroy us, but al Qaeda is not other countries, they are subversive warriors, with no certain country to call home. They do not have such barriers to cramp them into, or worry about.

But here is what I see: bin is trying to be a prophet, and a message from a prophet, as in the Bible, when God sent prophets to the people, they are warnings, and this is what bin has done, given us warnings. He is not only playing the Islamic game, but the Biblical one. He is also taking lessons from the crusader, Saladin. I doubt he cares about America as much as America would like him to, or says he does, what I see is, America is simply in the way. I never heard him talk about our liberties, so I doubt he cares, but what he does talk about, and being a licensed counselor at one time in my life, I have learned to listen to what is being said, and not said: is policies that affect the Islamic world. Should he get the United States to become more involved with the United States, and less around the world, such as planting a nuclear bomb in our backyard, he would cause our military to come to our rescue, and our economy to hit the ground, and thus, he has what he wants, a free hand in the Middle East; us out of the way is the program: or on the menu.

It is an Islamic dream to have the world bend their knees for Islam; in a similar manner I suppose, Christians are out there trying to convert humanity to Christendom; so we can't point fingers.

The question remains: does he have a nuclear weapon to use (and if he does, there is no question in my mine if he would use it or not; of course he would? I say yes, he does. Why? Because if you've been watching his foot steps since l992 he's been trying to get one, 14-years since, and odds are, he got them, or at least one. Second: where did he get them, again I say, it should be no secret, the Soviet Union had much unguarded devices for a long time, and for sale. All you need are the basic elements; money is not the object here.

He is like John the Baptist, but he is the Ant-Baptist, you could say. He is opening the doors for the main man, whom is coming, but first things first.

Now you may be asking: why hasn't he hit us? Good question, perhaps because he has not gotten the world of Islam's blessings. It seems to me, by watching the entire cleric world of Islam around the world now pointing fingers at America, a ripple effect has taken place, and he no longer needs their blessing, he's most likely got it. So what happens: we get hit, and five to ten million Americans die?

Years ago, I wrote on this subject, which went unread for the most part in many articles and in particular in one of my poems, "The Last Trumpet...." So I've already wrote what I saw in visions, and I saw what I've just described. It will be a first strike weapon; it is what he is waiting for. He knows by leaving America alone we will go back to our movies, and McDonald's and way of life, so why have all little groups in the world bother us, we are under his wing for the moment, he wants to monitor us himself. He has hit England, and a few other countries, but I believe that has been his followers, not him, himself, no, he is too cleaver to get into that, he wants the big one, which takes a lot of his time, not all of it, but a lot of it. All this warning crap is again just a formality. If we did what he wanted, we'd of course might get the truce, and might not; but I would think we would, but the cost would be too high, and he knows it.

So what can we do? Can we talk to him and try to make a deal, a truce again, I say a truce, it might work, but he'd want us to leave the oil fields, and stop helping Israel, and we couldn't do that. Plan B, kill him and get it over with.

See Dennis' web site: http://dennissiluk.tripod.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dennis_Siluk_Ed.D.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/149952

Excellent History of Saladin

The rare and Excellent History of Saladin (Crusade Texts in Translation)
by D. S. Richards
Edition: Paperback
Price: $25.76


Saladin is one of the few Muslim Leaders that was accorded high recognition both by the Muslim as well as the Christian. When the Christian captured Jerusalem, thousands including women and children were slaughtered. However, that was not the case, when Saladin recaptured the city.

The story of Saladin was originally written by Baha Addin, on his own account of his life when when served as qadi al-askar (the judge for the army) under the command of Saladin, from 1188 until Saladin's death in 1193. His position and his access to information make this an authoritative and essential source for Saladin's career, while his personal relationship with the sultan adds a sympathetic and moving element to the account of his final years. Aside from its inherent value as a source for the history of Egypt and the Middle East, it therefore provides a much-needed complement and corrective to the widely-known Latin accounts of the Crusades and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century. This translation is based on a fuller edition of the text than that used in the previous 19th-century translation, and takes into account the translator's readings of the earliest manuscript of the work, dated July 1228.


2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent primary source., July 18, 2008
'The forces of Islam surrounded the forces of unbelief and impiety on all sides, loosed volleys of arrows at them and engaged them hand to hand.'

'I fear to make peace, not knowing what may become of me. Our enemy will grow strong, now that they have retained these lands.'

After the 14th revision I shall just say I enjoyed reading this book. It is a good read as well as being a must have for anyone with even a remote interest in the crusades, the military orders (mentioned in passing a few times), the history of the area, the history of religion and so on. I must also mention pleasure of seeing the view from the other side which this enabled me to do. It was interesting to see (among others) Richard the Lionheart's name always followed by a phrase similar to 'may God forsake him'.