74289X1 Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London England: 2011. 704 pages. Hardcover with dustjacket. Brand new book. Working simultaneously on two levels, Saladin represents the best kind of biographyÑa portrait of a man who is said to have made an age, and the most complete account we have to date of an age that made the man. Unlike biographies that focus on Saladin's military exploits, especially the recapturing of Jerusalem from European Crusaders in 1187, EddŽ's narrative draws on an incredible array of contemporary sources to develop the fullest picture possible of a ruler shaped profoundly by the complex Arabian political environment in which he rose to prominence. The result is a unique view of the Crusades from an Arab perspective. Saladin became a legend in his own time, venerated by friend and foe alike as a paragon of justice, chivalry, and generosity. Arab politicians ever since have sought to claim his mantle as a justification for their own exercise of power. But Saladin's world-historical status as the ideal Muslim ruler owes its longevity to a tacit agreement among contemporaries and later chroniclers about the set of virtues Saladin possessedÑvirtues that can now be tested against a rich tapestry of historical research. This tension between the mythical image of Saladin, layered over centuries and deployed in service of specific moral and political objectives, and the verifiable facts of his life available to a judicious modern historian is what sustains Anne-Marie EddŽ's erudite biography, published to acclaim in France in 2008 and offered here in smooth, readable English translation. Translated into English from the French by Jane Marie Todd Anne-Marie EddŽ is Director of Research at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, and was Professor of Medieval History at the University of Reims. "An impressive biography of SaladinÉsupported by a multiplicity of sources, known or previously unknown: chronicles, travel narratives, letters, poems, administrative treatisesÉAlthough [EddŽ] is intent on placing that extraordinary figure within his context, on understanding his conception of power and how he founded his dynasty, she endeavors above all to analyze the discourses of which he has been the object from the Middle Ages to the present, discourses serving to fashion his myth. The result of that exacting and rigorous undertaking is at once accessible to the non-specialist and compelling, allowing us to rediscover a Saladin richer and more complex than his Western or Eastern legend."ÑGeorgia Makhlouf, Le Jour "A central figure in the history of the Crusades, an enlightened sovereign, a reunifier of the Muslim world, Saladin É is more than an icon in the East, he is the greatest figure of its glorious past and the model of the ruler par excellence. Profoundly attached to Arab values, he is awash with unparalleled glory and respect from the time of his reign until the present, and from his own territories to Europe. That cannot fail to raise problems when it comes to writing his biography. In fact, between hagiographical accounts emerging directly from his close circle and hostile criticism from his fiercest detractors, there was no objective middle course. This book constitutes the first step on that path: rigorous without being academic, resituating the man within his context and noting the influences exerted on him, it proposes to discover, beyond the usual panegyrics, the hidden face of Saladin, a portrait in light and shadow."ÑChrysostome Gourio, Libraire Le Comptoir des Mots "EddŽ mines below the official rhetoric of Saladin's secretaries and administrators to develop a historical account independent of the many mythologies surrounding his biographyÉExtensive research creates a picture readily distinguishable from the many Saladin myths."ÑKirkus Reviews "In this insightful biography, the Muslim hero who impressed even his Christian adversaries personifies the complex religious and cultural dynamics of the crusading eraÉEddŽÉpicks carefully through tendentious, often hagiographic medieval sources to assemble an objective portrait of Saladin, and sifts the legends surrounding himÑmany of them self-generatedÑfor clues to the ideologies of his day; presented by himself and others as the defender of a sacred community against a cruel, impious, animalistic Christian Other, he was even to Europeans the mirror image of the Crusader. EddŽ's shrewd and informative, if stolid, biography shows us how much two clashing civilizations had in common."ÑPublishers Weekly $35.00USD
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