Book
The Book of Saladin
This fictional memoir presents Saladin’s life through the work of Ibn Yakub, a Jewish scribe commissioned to record the sultan’s memories and speak with members of his household. The narrative follows Saladin’s rise in Egypt and Syria, his struggle against the Crusader states and the campaign that culminates in the recovery of Jerusalem. Court politics, military command and intimate testimony combine to show the ruler behind the public legend and the religiously mixed society of the twelfth-century eastern Mediterranean.
The fictional scribe gives the narrative a deliberately mediated view of power. Saladin’s public image as warrior and defender of Islam is placed beside household memory, administrative burdens and relationships with Christians and Jews. The recovery of Jerusalem after Hattin remains central, but the novel is equally interested in how a ruler becomes a legend through the testimony preserved around him.
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