Saladin: Hero of Islam
The book's inside flap reads that what we have before us is a “sympathetic” study of Saladin. In truth though what we do have is a steroid-driven “sympathetic” biography. That aside, Geoffrey Hindley’s standing is untouchable with his scholarship beyond reproach. Inclusive are four maps and fourteen illustrations–notwithstanding a welcome glossary–cementing its place as mandatory reading for those wishing to comprehend the life and times of a “Hero of Islam.”
Flicking through the preceding one-hundred-and-eighty-eight pages to the epilogue, Hindley eruditely pens what is arguably uppermost on the minds of contemporaries–in essence, parallels between then and now. But why the interest? Well, for two reasons. First, “because of his association with this ancient and historic zone of conflict… Saladin has special interest for a modern writer” (pp. xiii, 181). Second, as a British-based scholar recently held, we are pre-programmed to seek out parallels and correlations (this pedagogic practice is not restricted to a north-western European archipelago neither–for PBS previously aired Empires: Holy Warriors which opens with a sequence comparing Osama Bin Laden to Saladin and George W. Bush to Richard the Lionheart).
When Saladin: Hero of Islam was initially published (as Saladin: A Biography) just over thirty years ago “the obvious parallel to draw between the world of Saladin and the contemporary world was that between the Kingdom of Jerusalem… and the State of Israel. To Arabs, both were intruders, both seen as agents of ‘Western’ interests” (p.189). Hindley further posits that, “religious reformers urging actions were… critical of those rulers they considered… corrupt… or collaborative with the Frankish enemy” (Ibid). Sound familiar? Now fast-forward some nine-centuries to the twenty-first and “the comparison with such modern organisations as the Muslim Brotherhood and their attitude to Westernising Islamic governments [becomes thought-provoking]” (Ibid). As for the “obvious parallel” concerning Salah al-Din (shortened to Saladin–the name under which he was later romanticized in the West: pp. xi, 14), Hindley’s investigation reveals that “no candidate springs to mind in our own day on either side of the religious divide” for he is deemed to be “remarkable” (Ibid). Is this to be the end of the affair? Parallels abound we will now catalogue each for the 12th and 21st centuries mirror more than just their numerals. Indeed, Saladin acted as midwife to the axis of anti-Westernism (midwifing the modern Middle East).
First and foremost, Saladin “was implacably hostile to … [Christians] as agents of irreligion–a man for whom Jihad was very much an armed struggle against the ‘infidels’” (pp. xv, 35 & 38). Hilaire Belloc likewise in The Crusades: The World’s Debate characterizes Saladin as an anti-Christian fanatic. Let us now reference Efraim Karsh, author of Islamic Imperialism: A History, writing in OpinionJournal:
In the historical imagination of many Muslims and Arabs, bin Laden represents nothing short of the new incarnation of Saladin, defeater of the Crusaders and conquerors of Jerusalem. In this sense, the House of Islam’s war for mastery is a traditional quest that is far from over. [1]
Second, and of historical-cum-geographical interest, the town of Tikrit on the banks of the River Tigris claims two sons. The first was Saladin, born there in 1137, and the second (800 years later) was Saddam Hussein, born in 1937. True to form the late despot had identified himself with his twelfth-century avatar. In the process, he constructed a very different Saladian image to that which academia was hitherto versed.
Third, and for those learned in modern Middle Eastern history, an attention-grabbing one. “Saladin achieved a united Islamic state fleetingly paralleled in our own time by the United Arab Republic” (p.xiii). You ought to now be thinking Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Contrary to the deference shown toward Saladin’s counterparts there was no apparent need to fawn in his presence. Discounting protocol–so the records read–he commanded loyalty purely by his magnanimity (pp. xii–xv, 2, 4, 8-10, 14, 82, 86, 99, 102, 104, 110, 115, 135, 169, 171, 182, 185-6 & 188). Hindley seems humbled by Saladin’s “great benignity” (p.185) (though the examples become rather indigent nearing the end). To paraphrase Hindley, Saladin’s clemency “is a centrepiece… [of] the chivalric tapestry later woven round the crusading wars” (p.109). This is all well and good. However, there are limits to such proselytizing, for it could be argued that Hindley’s text reads like an effervescent eulogy (such a philosophy not only colonizes pedagogical study but Hollywood too–in the form of Kingdom of Heaven giving entrée to a Muslim hero were Ridley Scott suffers from some variant of past-traumatic stress disorder). What is more, books and journal articles alike are at great pains to stress that the only stain on Saladin’s ostensible exemplary record was the execution of c.300 knights (the Templars and the Hospitalers), at Tiberias (let us not forget the massacre outside Hama too) prior to the fall of Jerusalem–though Hindley puts the figure at a “hundred or so” (p.132). Our own modern-day Tikriti-born anti-Western antagonist was recently sent to the gallows for slaying half that number. Should we be concerned that later generations will view Saddam Hussein’s crime(s) in an increasingly lesser light too?
Beginning with an incredibly absorbing discussion pertaining to the fate of 1188 Jerusalem (and all within her walls) we are transported back in time to fully comprehend the significance of the city to Islam. Thereafter, Hindley investigates the world Saladin was born into, for that started with a conquest of Egypt too (Belloc reminds us that once the Nile falls within a Syrian sphere of influence Western rule is in trouble). As vizir of Egypt, Hindley’s narrative records that, “Saladin had proved himself a master in politics and war” (p.63) (this too is reiterated by Belloc). Like Khedive Ismail, he began to restore Egypt to great-power status–to the prestigious position of protector of the pilgrim routes to Mecca (pp.68-71).
In a nutshell, the dust-jacket of this two-hundred-pages-plus hardback envelopes a readable account of the life and times of an Islamic warrior who united the Middle Eastern expanse and rode into the Holy Land to lead the Arabs in their crusade. Such is the scholarly astuteness on display that a reprint–a generation on–does not require any major revision (p.xiv). A quite remarkable feat. Saying that, those with a hunger for blood ‘n’ guts wishing to add to their collection of sword-and-shield epics ought to look elsewhere. Hindley reasons why:
Biographies of Saladin anxious to hurry on to the grand and chivalrous doings of the Holy War have traditionally glossed over the early years of his Egyptian rule. Yet the fact is that these were formative in his career and reveal qualities of discussion and tenacity that were vital in the years ahead (p.71).
This reason alone should deflect one from omitting a copy.
[1] Islam’s Imperial Dreams: Muslim political ambitions aren’t a reaction to Western encroachments. Tuesday, April 4, 2006: http://www.opinionjournal.com/federation/feature/?id=110008181