Crusade and Jihad
"As a beneficiary of 9/11, my ironies abound. George W. Bush helped the attention I was getting by proclaiming a crusade five days after the attack. Osama bin Laden would thus gain credence for his claim to be the leader of jihad against Western imperialism."
Sometimes, as they say, timing is everything. I had settled on the subject of the Third Crusade as my next book after The Last Apocalypse, because it met my paramount rule in writing history: the story of old had to be relevant to current events. The Third Crusade is the most interesting of the five major crusades of the Middle Ages first because of its Olympian antagonists, Richard the Lionheart and Saladin, second because the Christian forces reached the gates of Jerusalem only to turn back, third because of the extraordinary negotiations between the two religious leaders for a graceful exit for Richard I, and last, because the story is the perfect example of the clash between crusade and jihad. When I began the book in 1998, I thought the story was relevant only to the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East.
Warriors of God was published in May 2001. It had pretty good reviews---the New York Times called it “splendid and thrilling….a wonderfully told story”---and modest sales, the norm for me…..until four months later 9/11 happened. In the fall of 2001, as the country struggled to comprehend what had happened in New York and Washington, the book took off. It was to have nine printings in hardcover, move on to splendid sales in soft cover, be translated into thirteen languages, and secure a Hollywood movie option. By the end of 2011 over a quarter of a million copies had been sold.
"Splendid and thrilling....A wonderfully told story."
-New York Times Book Review on Warriors of God
As a beneficiary of 9/11, my ironies abound. George W. Bush helped the attention I was getting by proclaiming a crusade five days after the attack. Osama bin Laden would thus gain credence for his claim to be the leader of jihad against Western imperialism. For the ten years that followed, the terms, crusade and jihad, were batted around like badminton shuttlecocks by politicians and journalists who did not understand their real meaning or the emotional power the words possessed. In articles I wrote during this past decade I tried without success to offer a corrective.
I followed Warriors of God with two more books about the clash of Christianity and Islam in ancient history. Dogs of God (2005) dealt with the final defeat of the Islamic Moors in Spain at the hands of the Catholic kings, Ferdinand and Isabella, in 1492. Defenders of the Faith (2008) treated the advance on Vienna in 1529 and 1532 by the Ottoman Turks, a story that also featured titanic antagonists, Suleiman the Magnificent vs. the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.
"A highly entertaining, thoughtful and complex narrataive that both introduces and analyzes a greatly misunderstood era."
-Publishers Weekly on Dogs of God
In the ten years after 9/11 as I wrote these books, I also did a number of essays and book reviews on the subject. In 2002, before the American invasion of Iraq, I had an audience with the Grand Imam of the Al-Ahzar mosque in Cairo. As the highest moral authority of Sunni Islam, I wanted to hear what he had to say about bin Laden.
I also include in this section an article from the New York Times on my claim that the English director, Ridley Scott, his screen writer, William Monahan, and 20th Century Fox, plagiarized Warriors of God in making their terrible movie, “Kingdom of Heaven.” Had they been honest and had they consulted with me forthrightly, they might have made a much better movie. NYTimes 5/25/2005
Warriors of God was published in May 2001. It had pretty good reviews---the New York Times called it “splendid and thrilling….a wonderfully told story”---and modest sales, the norm for me…..until four months later 9/11 happened. In the fall of 2001, as the country struggled to comprehend what had happened in New York and Washington, the book took off. It was to have nine printings in hardcover, move on to splendid sales in soft cover, be translated into thirteen languages, and secure a Hollywood movie option. By the end of 2011 over a quarter of a million copies had been sold.
"Splendid and thrilling....A wonderfully told story."
-New York Times Book Review on Warriors of God
As a beneficiary of 9/11, my ironies abound. George W. Bush helped the attention I was getting by proclaiming a crusade five days after the attack. Osama bin Laden would thus gain credence for his claim to be the leader of jihad against Western imperialism. For the ten years that followed, the terms, crusade and jihad, were batted around like badminton shuttlecocks by politicians and journalists who did not understand their real meaning or the emotional power the words possessed. In articles I wrote during this past decade I tried without success to offer a corrective.
I followed Warriors of God with two more books about the clash of Christianity and Islam in ancient history. Dogs of God (2005) dealt with the final defeat of the Islamic Moors in Spain at the hands of the Catholic kings, Ferdinand and Isabella, in 1492. Defenders of the Faith (2008) treated the advance on Vienna in 1529 and 1532 by the Ottoman Turks, a story that also featured titanic antagonists, Suleiman the Magnificent vs. the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.
"A highly entertaining, thoughtful and complex narrataive that both introduces and analyzes a greatly misunderstood era."
-Publishers Weekly on Dogs of God
In the ten years after 9/11 as I wrote these books, I also did a number of essays and book reviews on the subject. In 2002, before the American invasion of Iraq, I had an audience with the Grand Imam of the Al-Ahzar mosque in Cairo. As the highest moral authority of Sunni Islam, I wanted to hear what he had to say about bin Laden.
I also include in this section an article from the New York Times on my claim that the English director, Ridley Scott, his screen writer, William Monahan, and 20th Century Fox, plagiarized Warriors of God in making their terrible movie, “Kingdom of Heaven.” Had they been honest and had they consulted with me forthrightly, they might have made a much better movie. NYTimes 5/25/2005
Articles:
"The Specter of Saladin…and Richard the Lionheart"
unpublished, date unknown view PDF
"Seeking Meaning from the Grand Imam"
Appeared in Washington Post March 31, 2002 view PDF
"To the Arabs this Crusade Too Will Fail"
Appeared in Los Angeles Times March 23, 2003 view PDF
Left: ARAB TRIUMPH: The heroics of Saladin figure prominently in the history of the Middle East. Center: Grand Imam 2002. Right: From Purification USA Today article, 2007
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