Anne-Marie Eddé

My interest in Saladin began when i saw the movie Kingdom of Heaven which recounts the fictionalized adventures of Balian of Ibelin in the Holy Land between 1184 and 1187. Although it was not the first time i heard about him. I remember reading his story when i was a child, which was written specifically for children. Then this book poped up while i was surfing book catalogues on the internet. So I immediately bought the book. Well, this book is not a chronological history of Saladin, which was a bit of disappointment in the begining but as i moved along the book it became interesing and interesting. It is a kind of analysis or discourse about his era, his personality and his legend. The author discusses almost all aspects (to count a few: the need of legitimacy of his throne; why he needed the caliph's backing; how he managed to build an empire; illustrating his strategy, his wins and losses in war; what were his strategic interests; how he was able to build his image as a hero; his relation to Richard the Lionheart; the trade and markets of his time; his love for orthodoxy and hatered for philosophisizing; his rules of war and treatment of his prisons of war; his realtion to his own subjects; his image vs reality; being guardian of faith; his strengths and weaknesses; how he was able to manage his sufferings; his relation to Christians and Jews of that time; and how his myth and legend was created overtime by both Christian and Muslim authors/historians over the coming years). Well I am not going to discuss all these matters here. It is for you to read and discover for yourself. If you prefer to read his chronologic history then may be this book should not be the first choice. But as far as complete analysis of his life is concerned i would count this book as one of the best. Some readers, i am sure, going to say that the author is biased. But i don't think so. The author gives, most of the times, "two ends of spectrum" like picture and then states that the truth must lie somewhere in between. Plus it is very difficult for any historian to be not biased about Saladin, because all of his personality and his histiography was biased from the begining. Muslims and Christians both exaggerated his picture according to their own interests, and with the passage of time as his legend and myth was created even more disambiguation about his character developed. In the end i would say it is a really good book, i thorougly enjoyed it. Learned some new facts and was able to see and analyze Saladin from different perspectives.… (altro)