Saladin and the Fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem

Author: Stanley Lane-Poole

Sultan al-Nasir Salah al-Din remains an icon for the West even before the East; his ethics preceded his weapons, making his weapons themselves ethical! He reigned with forgiveness as his inherent trait, and he would pardon and release his captives. Perhaps the greatest work written about him is what the scholar Stanley Lane-Poole penned and embellished within the pages of this book. He traces Saladin's biography from his cradle in Tikrit, his childhood and early youth in Baalbek and Damascus, his joining the service of the just King Nur al-Din Mahmud in Damascus, his arrival in Egypt with his uncle Asad al-Din Shirkuh, his viziership to al-Adid al-Ubaydi in Cairo, his sultanate and his resounding victories over the Zangids in Qurun Hamah and Tell al-Sultan, his unification of the Levant – especially Aleppo – and al-Jazira al-Furatiyya, his great and clear victory at Hattin, his conquest of the city of Jerusalem and the demise of the Frankish Kingdom of Jerusalem, then his confrontation of the Third Crusade and his peace with King Richard I, concluding with his death in Damascus. The author then turned his pen to refuting Western myths about Saladin's life and dispelling any delusions and misunderstandings associated with them. It is a book like a moving garden, taking you through Saladin's lush pastures and along his fragrant paths.