000			01752nam a2200205 a 4500
001			ASIN1859842313
003			AUCL
005			20210125112933.0
008			130509s1999 xxu eng d
020			_a9788177588743 (paperback) _c$16.95
040			_cAUI
082			_a620.3 _bRAO
100	1		_aRao, S. Singireus
245	1	4	_aMechanical Vibrations _cRao, Singireus S
260			_a[S.l.] : _bVerso, _c1999.
300			_a1108 p. ; _c19 cm.
520			_aTariq Ali's second novel in The Islam Quintet is a rich and teeming chronicle set in twelfth-century Cairo, Damascus and Jerusalem. The Book of Saladin is the fictional memoir of Saladin, the Kurdish liberator of Jerusalem, as dictated to a Jewish scribe, Ibn Yakub. Saladin grants Ibn Yakub permission to talk to his wife and retainers so that he might present a full portrait in the Sultan's memoirs. A series of interconnected stories follows, tales brimming over with warmth, earthy humor 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 Sultan's favored wife, Jamila, and the beautiful Halina, 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. This is a medieval story, but much of it will be uncannily familiar to those who follow events in contemporary Cairo, Damascus, and Baghdad. Betrayed hopes, disillusioned soldiers and unrealistic alliances form the backdrop to The Book of Saladin .
856	4	0	_3Amazon.com _uhttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859842313/chopaconline-20
942			_2ddc _cBK
999			_c4687 _d4687