Tariq Ali’s Latest novel is a rich and teeming chronicle set in Twelfth-Century Cairo, Damaseus and Jerusalem. The Book of Saladini s the fictional memoir of Saladin, the Kardish literator of Jerusalem, as dictated to a Jewish scribe, Ibn Yakum, Saladin grants Ibn Yakub ermission to talk to his wife and retainers so that he might portray a complete picture of him in his memoirs. A series of interconnected stories follow, tales brimming over with warmth, earthy humour and passions in which ideals clash with realities and dreams are confounded by desires. At the heart of the novel is an affecting love affair between the saltan’s favoured wife, Jamila, and the beautiful Halima, a later addition to the harem. The novel charts the rise of Saladin as Sultan of Egypt and Syria and follows him as he prepares, in alliance with his Jewish and Christian subjects, to take Jerusalem back from the Crusaders. It is a medieval story, but much of it will be cannily familiar to those who follow events in contemporary Cairo, Damascus and Baghdad. Betrayed hopes, disillusioned soldiers and unreliable alliances form the backdrop to the Book of Saladin. This is the second of a planned quintet of historical novels depicting the confrontation between Islamic and Christian civilizations. The first, Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree, recounted the story of the fall of Islam in Spain.
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