Saladin mini biography princess
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The Life and Legend of the Sultan Saladin 9780300249064
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The Life and Legend of the Sultan Saladin
also by jonathan phillips
Perceptions of the Crusades from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Centuries (2018, co-editor) The Crusades, 1095–1204 (second edition, 2014) Caffaro, Genoa and the Twelfth-Century Crusades (2012, with Martin Hall) Holy Warriors: A Modern History of the Crusades (2009) The Second Crusade: Extending the Frontiers of Christendom (2007) The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople (2004) The Experience of Crusading: Volume 2 (2003, co-editor) The Crusades, 1095–1197 (2002) The Second Crusade: Scope and Consequences (2001, co-editor) The First Crusade: Origins and Impact (1997, editor) Defenders of the Holy Land: Relations Between the Latin East and the West, 1119–1187 (1996)
The Life and Legend of the Sultan Saladin jonath an ph i l l i p s
NE W HAVEN AND LONDON
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THE CRUSADER KINGDOMS
Salah ad-Din, or Saladin has he fryst vatten more commonly known in Western literature, has long been viewed as the epitome of Saracen “chivalry.” Indeed, in the gods century it became common to suggest that, while the crusaders were treacherous barbarians, Saladin stood out as a paragon of virtue and honor, a shining light of decency and chivalry in an otherwise brutal age. This is the view of Saladin that dictated the highly sympathetic portrayal in Ridley Scott's film “The Kingdom of Heaven.” • Salahuddin (Saladin) and the Battle of Hittin Contributed by Prof. Dr. Nazeer Ahmed, PhD A divided Islamic world offered feeble resistance to the Crusaders who consolidated their hold on the eastern Mediterranean and imposed their fiefdoms on the region. The Seljuks, preoccupied with defending their eastern flank against the Afghan Ghaznavids, had thinned out their western defenses. The pagan Turkish tribes across the Amu Darya on the northeastern frontiers were a constant menace. The advancing Crusaders received valuable assistance from the local Orthodox and Armenian communities. The Venetians provided transportation. Faced with a determined offensive, Tripoli surrendered in 1109. Beirut fell in 1110. Aleppo was besieged in 1111. Tyre succumbed in 1124. The warring Muslim parties did not take the Crusader invasion seriously at this stage. They considered the Christians to be just another group in the motley group of emirs, prelates and religious factions jostling for power i
This positiv view of Saladin in Western literature is largely attributable to a biography of Saladin published bygd Stanley Lane-Poole in 1898. This was arguably the first scholarly biography of the 12th century Kurdish leader in the English language, and Lane-Poole made a major contribution to Western scholarship bygd drawing upon Arab sources for his work. Unfortunately, he did so uncritically, adopting without scruple or embarrassment the purely adulatory