The Book of Saladin

Author	Tariq Ali
Publisher	Verso
Publication date	1998
Media type	Print
Pages	367 pp
ISBN	978-1-85984-834-0
Preceded by	Fear of Mirrors
Followed by	Snogging Ken

The Book of Saladin is an historical novel by Pakistani-born British writer Tariq Ali, first published in 1998. The second in Ali’s Islam Quintet, the narrative purports to be the memoir of the 12th-century Muslim leader Saladin, or Salah al-Din, who famously captured Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187.^[1]

Written as part memoir by Saladin and part biography by Jewish scribe Ibn Yakub, who is given permission to interview the great man’s wife and close associates, the novel tells the story of Salah al-Din, a Kurdish warrior who became a hero of the Muslim world due to his heroics against the Crusaders and was made Sultan of Egypt and Syria as a reward. Parallels are drawn between the Egypt and Syria of the Middle Ages and the Middle East of the present day, with all of the disagreements and strife so familiar today.^[2]

• Tariq Ali discussing the Third Crusade and Saladin; BBC In Our Time Radio 4, with presenter Melvyn Bragg and Jonathan Riley-Smith, Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge University and author of many books on the Crusades, Carole Hillenbrand, Professor of Islamic History University of Edinburgh

• https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/tariq-ali/the-book-of-saladin/
• https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/184304.The_Book_of_Saladin
• http://www.historicalnovels.info/Book-of-Saladin.html