Title: The Life and
Legend of the Sultan Saladin
Author: Jonathan Phillips
Publisher: The Bodley Head, 2019
(First)
ISBN: 9781847922144
Pages: 478
Acivilization in growth peers into the future to
create institutions and framework suitable for that era, based on their present
experience. Civilizations in decline, on the other hand, looks back to and
derive inspiration from past glory in an effort to evade from the uncomfortable
reality of the present. The Arab civilization has been in decline for about
three centuries now, roughly coinciding with revival in the West. New and
potent concepts in science, art, religion and liberalism made the West to surge
head over all their rivals including India, China and the Arabs. The former two
paused, took stock of the situation and emulated some of the Western techniques
to catch up with them. The Arabs could not do this. The sad fact was that they
could not even identify the wilting rot in their civilization. Mind you, this
trend is reversible and it is quite within the scope and power of itsmembers to
buck this trend and drive the Arab civilization back into growth again. But
this requires calm analysis and patient evaluation of the alternatives. Blind
allegiance and wild recourse to past military-cum-religious victories at Badar,
Yarmuk, Hattin and Ain Jalutor irrational adoration of mediaeval rulers are not
going to take them anywhere. Salah al-din Ayyubi was a mediaeval sultan in the Near
East who has found a revival in the modern Middle East since the nineteenth
century. Known as Saladin in the West, he unified the forces of Syria and Egypt
and took back Jerusalem from the crusader kingdom which snatched it away from
Muslims 88 years ago. Quiteuncharacteristically for mediaeval rulers, Saladin showed
extraordinary kindness and accommodation towards his enemies. This is attested
by Western sources as well and in that sense, he was much ahead of his time in
enlightenment. This book examines the life and legend of the great sultan and
analyses his relevance in the modern age to fulfil a specific Arab need - to
position him as a source of hope for the disappointed Middle East since the First
World War. Jonathan Phillips is Professor of Crusading History at Royal Holloway,
University of London. He is the author of many books on crusades. He writes for
the BBC and has made numerous radio and television appearances.
Jerusalem was lost to Islam in 1099 CE in the first
crusade. The holy city was central to all three monotheistic religions of
Christianity, Islam and Judaism. For Christians, the presence, resurrection and
the expected return of Christ provide a prominent link to it. For Jews, it is
the location of the Old Temple and its centrality is made paramount in the
Jewish literary tradition. Jerusalem is the third most important city for
Muslims after Mecca and Medina. The Prophet's night journey to heaven took off
from here and it is the site of resurrection on the Last Day. Recovering the
city was a religious duty that was driven home by calls for jihad to retake the
city. Saladin could liberate the city when he managed the combined resources of
Syria and Egypt under his own throne and with active support from the caliph at
Baghdad and Muslim kingdoms in Iraq and Persia. He trounced the Frankish
crusaders in the Battle of Hattin in July 1187 and evicted them from Jerusalem
two months later. However hard they tried, the Christians could not conquer it
again till Saladin was alive. A few decades later, they managed to occupy it for
the second time, only to be sent packing after a short spell. It remained in
Muslim hands still 1967, when Israel occupied the city after the Six-Days War
in which it inflicted a humiliatingly devastating defeat on the combined Arab
forces. The frustration at the loss of the city sculpts Arab minds to prop upSaladin
as a great hero even today and evokes nostalgic memories of his victory over
the Western forces.
One thing that is abundantly clear in the text is
the sense of tolerance and ethical behaviour of the two parties engaged in a
holy war between them. It is far above the inhuman cruelty of the Islamic State
and al-Qaeda today that provide no room for the enemy. Saladin himself was kept
as a hostage by Franks in 1167, but was treated with all respects. His
relationship with king Amalric, his captor, was very cordial as evidenced in Saladin’s
fond reminiscence about the king in a letter to his son Baldwin IV after the
monarch died in 1174. On the other hand, Saladin’s kindness and mercy to the
captives was legendary, surprising even an early modern king. He was extremely
generous to his relatives and supporters. He lavishly heaped patronage on poets
and religious scholars.He didn't enrich himself and sidestepped accusations of
greed. Saladin’s generosity had almost entirely emptied his personal treasury,
leaving only one dinar of Tyre and 36 Naziri dirhams at his death. It is
reported that money had to be borrowed to complete the burial arrangements
because he possessed no houses, gardens or estates himself.
What probably elevates Saladin as the greatest
Muslim sultan ever, anywhere in the world, is his kindness and tolerance.
However, even he was not totally immune to the bloodlust that was the spirit of
the times. After the Battle of Hattin, warriors of the orders of Templars and Hospitallers
were massacred. These were specially designated monks who were the fiercest
enemies of Islam. The sultan offered a reward of 50 dinars to Islamic scholars
for killing each monk. In another instance that finds echo in the bigoted
administration of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Saladin dismissed Jews and Coptic
Christians from administrative positions andconfiscated their property. As can
be expected and must have been desiredby the rulers, many of them turned
Muslims to keep their livelihood. The name of Saladin elicits lukewarm praise
among Shiites for his atrocities against their supposed heresy in the face of
Sunni orthodoxy. He terminated the ShiiteFatimid caliphate of Egypt and unfurled
the banner of the SunniAbbasid caliph of Baghdad in its place.Cairo’s Shiite qadi(religious
judge) was replaced by a Sunni one. In 1170, Saladin rebuilt the police
interrogation centre as a Shafi madrasa. Likewise, the Hall of Justice was also
reconstructed as a Shafi madrasa. In a shocking episode of philistinism, he
disbanded the grand library of the Fatimids, the greatest in the Middle East,
with more than one million volumes. The books were sold for cash offered by
anyone.
A major part of the book deals with the mediaeval
period in which Saladin lived and ruled. This was marked by truces, alliances,
agreements, betrayals, cooperation and dynastic ambition saturating the
political atmosphere, delivering opportunities and flexibility to all. It also
includes a section on re-emergence of Saladin in the Arab world in modern
times. This occurred by the beginning of the nineteenth century, by which time
the Ottoman Empire crumbled and Western powers began to nibble on Arab lands as
part of their imperial aspirations. Military weakness compelled the Arab
society to find an icon of resistance and overwhelming potential to oust the
foreigners. After the Second World War, secular politicians like Gamal Abdel Nasser
of Egypt, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Gaddafi of Libya and Hafiz al-Asad of Syria
have tried to donSaladin’smantle with varying degrees of failure. The
predicament of Arab society is that it can never get out of its religious moorings
in a changing world. It still longs and craves for mediaeval heroes who
defeated the ancestors of their present enemies. If Saladin had not been born,
they would have gone straight back to the legacy of the Prophet and his
companions.
The book is very easy to read. A number of
photographs are included to add interest. An extensive list of primary and
secondary sources is also included. Philips follows a non-confrontational
approach on all issues which give it the feel of a textbook. He has also expressed
a distinctly anti-crusade stance so as to make the book appealing to Arab
readers.
The book is highly recommended.
Rating: 4
Star
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