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Saladin
Pour le monde arabo-musulman, Saladin est une figure mythique: de Nasser à Saddam Hussein, nombreux sont les dirigeants du XXe siècle qui se sont réclamés de lui, nombreux les poètes et les artistes qui ont exalté sa mémoire. A Damas, son mausolée est aujourd'hui encore un lieu de pèlerinage. En Occident aussi, une véritable légende s'est construite autour de ce sultan kurde (1137-1193) devenu champion de l'islam et souverain d'un immense empire. Par-dessus tout, il est celui qui sut reprendre Jérusalem aux croisés et susciter chez ses adversaires chrétiens, notamment Richard Cœur de Lion, un sentiment proche de l'admiration. Près de dix ans de travail ont été nécessaires pour écrire cette biographie, la première en français depuis un demi-siècle: à partir de sources variées (chroniques, récits de voyages, lettres, poèmes, traités administratifs...), Anne-Marie Eddé a voulu comprendre la formidable popularité qui fut celle de Saladin, une popularité à laquelle il veilla toujours de très près. Une propagande inlassable encensait le sultan, défenseur de l'islam, serviteur fidèle du calife de Bagdad, parangon de justice, magnanime et généreux envers ses sujets comme envers ses ennemis... S'efforçant de faire la part de l'imaginaire et de la réalité, Anne-Marie Eddé replace le personnage dans l'époque tourmentée qui fut la sienne. Elle décrit l'ascension d'un homme doté d'un grand sens politique, qui parvint à étendre sa domination sur un territoire allant du Nil à l'Euphrate et du Yémen au nord de la Mésopotamie ; un homme authentiquement intéressé par la vie religieuse, soucieux d'appliquer la loi musulmane, sans concessions mais sans excès non plus, notamment à l'égard des communautés juives et chrétiennes qu'abritait son empire; un homme qui fut un guerrier infatigable, mais aussi un administrateur doué d'une prodigalité qui faisait le désespoir de ses proches. Un homme, enfin, qui montra autant de volonté dans la maladie, le deuil et les combats déçus que sur les chemins de la gloire.
768 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
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923 people want to read
About the author
Anne-Marie Eddé
12 books2 followersAnne-Marie Eddé is Director of Research at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, and was Professor of Medieval History at the University of Reims.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 19, 2011
On the first morning of my first full day in Egypt the first place I visited was the old Citadel of Cairo, with fortifications built by Saladin in the late twelfth century to protect it from the Crusaders.
I first came across this remarkable figure, an historical giant who stands across both the Muslim and Christian world, in the pages of The Talisman, Sir Walter Scott’s nineteenth century historical romance of the crusades, which I read in my early teens. In so many ways Saladin was the real hero of this book, a verray, parfit, gentil knyght, a Victorian recreation of a chivalric ideal.
Saladin has long been celebrated by his enemies, much more than his friends, even as far back as the Middle Ages. He seemed to be the very personification of a code of conduct that was more mythic than real, a reproach to his Christian opponents, who professed an ideal which they ignored in practice. Saladin here was the mirror of virtue. In Dante’s Inferno he is to be found in the mild first circle of hell, along with Homer, Euclid, Socrates and other virtuous pagans.
In contrast, he was a largely forgotten figure in the Muslim world, his reputation surpassed by Baibars, the Mamluk sultan of Egypt who was instrumental in bringing the Crusader presence in the Middle East to an end. He was only rediscovered in the late nineteenth century as an avatar of Arab nationalism, rather ironic considering that he was Kurdish.
Given that Saladin is a man possibly more wrapped in myth than any other it would take a bold person to attempt to disentangle the Gordian knot; to separate out fact, fiction and dewy-eyed romance. So, it was with keen interest that I opened the pages of Saladin, a biography by Anne-Marie Eddé, originally published in France in 2008. The new translation by Jane Marie Todd, published last month by Harvard University Press, was the first book I bought on my return from Egypt.
It’s a remarkable piece of work by a woman I can only describe as a historian’s historian. It’s well-argued, scholarly, and thoroughly researched book, rich in all sorts of detail. It’s also an excellent exercise in deconstruction or exploration. It does not demolish the myth of Saladin; it simply makes him, and it, more understandable.
Eddé, a specialist in Medieval history, begins with one basic question: how did this relentless jihad fighter come to be identified as valiant, generous and magnanimous figure among his former foes? Some truths are simply stated: Saladin was everything he was cracked up to be: he was pious and he was tolerant; he was a man of his word; he was a skilful soldier and an even more skilful politician; he was a patron of the arts and the sciences…and he was the world’s first spin doctor.
The Saladin myth, in other words, really begins with Saladin himself. In the complex religious and political world of twelfth century Islam he made his way to the top by selling himself, by advancing his own platform, by convincing others he was the man and this was his moment.
He was a deal-maker without parallel, moving by soft degrees to the point where he replaced the Fatimids with his own Ayyubid dynasty, uniting Egypt and Syria. He was a self-promoter, convincing much of the Muslim world that only he was capable of leading it against the threat posed by the Crusaders. He was pious, certainly, but he was no Osama bin Laden, no stupid fanatic. He could be pragmatic as occasion demanded, making bargains even with the enemy, all part of a bigger political game. Such was his success that he laid the basis for multiple interpretations of his life and actions, something the author explores with admirable skill.
Some of the details are fascinating, things I was not previously aware of. For instance, even in the midst of conflict, Saladin negotiated trade deals with Italian merchants, obtaining the wood, pitch and iron that enabled him to build the Egyptian fleet, no matter how hard the Papacy raged.
There is another truth here worth emphasising, that the Crusades themselves, from beginning to end, were a political disaster, which in the long run weakened and destroyed Christian power in the east, the power and integrity of the Byzantine Empire. Compared with such cynical ‘crusaders’ as Venice’s Enrico Dandelo it’s little wonder that Saladin is such a paragon, a true Christian gentleman!
Another virtue of Saladin is that it helps to give some understanding of what the Crusades looked like from a Muslim perspective, this movement of outlandish outsiders they generally referred to as the Franks. It was their beliefs that the Muslims found most perplexing, as one twelfth century Syrian document makes clear;
The most amazing thing in the world is that the Christians say that Jesus is divine, that he is God, and then they say that the Jews seized him and crucified him. How can a God who cannot protect himself protect others? Anyone who believes his God came out of a woman’s privates is quite mad; he should not be spoken to, for he has neither intelligence nor faith.
And for once my comment is to say no comment!
Saladin was of and beyond his times, a figure I personally would parallel with the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick II, another wonder of the world. Eddé certainly gives us a better sense of the man, as a politician as well as a soldier, an individual who was inevitably going to appear like Ozymandias to subsequent generations. She disposes of the exaggerations while still leaving us with a figure whose myth was in a traditional form, a simple narrative explaining a complex truth. Saladin was no icon; he was a man, but what a man.
I thoroughly recommend this book and I’m going to give it five stars. I should say, though, that its strength is in academic detail rather than narrative line; some people may be discouraged by her thematic arrangement. Notwithstanding this, Eddé’s approach is forensic and exhaustive, and on that level I really don’t think this book will ever be surpassed, either as a work of history or of biography.
I first came across this remarkable figure, an historical giant who stands across both the Muslim and Christian world, in the pages of The Talisman, Sir Walter Scott’s nineteenth century historical romance of the crusades, which I read in my early teens. In so many ways Saladin was the real hero of this book, a verray, parfit, gentil knyght, a Victorian recreation of a chivalric ideal.
Saladin has long been celebrated by his enemies, much more than his friends, even as far back as the Middle Ages. He seemed to be the very personification of a code of conduct that was more mythic than real, a reproach to his Christian opponents, who professed an ideal which they ignored in practice. Saladin here was the mirror of virtue. In Dante’s Inferno he is to be found in the mild first circle of hell, along with Homer, Euclid, Socrates and other virtuous pagans.
In contrast, he was a largely forgotten figure in the Muslim world, his reputation surpassed by Baibars, the Mamluk sultan of Egypt who was instrumental in bringing the Crusader presence in the Middle East to an end. He was only rediscovered in the late nineteenth century as an avatar of Arab nationalism, rather ironic considering that he was Kurdish.
Given that Saladin is a man possibly more wrapped in myth than any other it would take a bold person to attempt to disentangle the Gordian knot; to separate out fact, fiction and dewy-eyed romance. So, it was with keen interest that I opened the pages of Saladin, a biography by Anne-Marie Eddé, originally published in France in 2008. The new translation by Jane Marie Todd, published last month by Harvard University Press, was the first book I bought on my return from Egypt.
It’s a remarkable piece of work by a woman I can only describe as a historian’s historian. It’s well-argued, scholarly, and thoroughly researched book, rich in all sorts of detail. It’s also an excellent exercise in deconstruction or exploration. It does not demolish the myth of Saladin; it simply makes him, and it, more understandable.
Eddé, a specialist in Medieval history, begins with one basic question: how did this relentless jihad fighter come to be identified as valiant, generous and magnanimous figure among his former foes? Some truths are simply stated: Saladin was everything he was cracked up to be: he was pious and he was tolerant; he was a man of his word; he was a skilful soldier and an even more skilful politician; he was a patron of the arts and the sciences…and he was the world’s first spin doctor.
The Saladin myth, in other words, really begins with Saladin himself. In the complex religious and political world of twelfth century Islam he made his way to the top by selling himself, by advancing his own platform, by convincing others he was the man and this was his moment.
He was a deal-maker without parallel, moving by soft degrees to the point where he replaced the Fatimids with his own Ayyubid dynasty, uniting Egypt and Syria. He was a self-promoter, convincing much of the Muslim world that only he was capable of leading it against the threat posed by the Crusaders. He was pious, certainly, but he was no Osama bin Laden, no stupid fanatic. He could be pragmatic as occasion demanded, making bargains even with the enemy, all part of a bigger political game. Such was his success that he laid the basis for multiple interpretations of his life and actions, something the author explores with admirable skill.
Some of the details are fascinating, things I was not previously aware of. For instance, even in the midst of conflict, Saladin negotiated trade deals with Italian merchants, obtaining the wood, pitch and iron that enabled him to build the Egyptian fleet, no matter how hard the Papacy raged.
There is another truth here worth emphasising, that the Crusades themselves, from beginning to end, were a political disaster, which in the long run weakened and destroyed Christian power in the east, the power and integrity of the Byzantine Empire. Compared with such cynical ‘crusaders’ as Venice’s Enrico Dandelo it’s little wonder that Saladin is such a paragon, a true Christian gentleman!
Another virtue of Saladin is that it helps to give some understanding of what the Crusades looked like from a Muslim perspective, this movement of outlandish outsiders they generally referred to as the Franks. It was their beliefs that the Muslims found most perplexing, as one twelfth century Syrian document makes clear;
The most amazing thing in the world is that the Christians say that Jesus is divine, that he is God, and then they say that the Jews seized him and crucified him. How can a God who cannot protect himself protect others? Anyone who believes his God came out of a woman’s privates is quite mad; he should not be spoken to, for he has neither intelligence nor faith.
And for once my comment is to say no comment!
Saladin was of and beyond his times, a figure I personally would parallel with the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick II, another wonder of the world. Eddé certainly gives us a better sense of the man, as a politician as well as a soldier, an individual who was inevitably going to appear like Ozymandias to subsequent generations. She disposes of the exaggerations while still leaving us with a figure whose myth was in a traditional form, a simple narrative explaining a complex truth. Saladin was no icon; he was a man, but what a man.
I thoroughly recommend this book and I’m going to give it five stars. I should say, though, that its strength is in academic detail rather than narrative line; some people may be discouraged by her thematic arrangement. Notwithstanding this, Eddé’s approach is forensic and exhaustive, and on that level I really don’t think this book will ever be surpassed, either as a work of history or of biography.
October 12, 2014
An absolutely exhaustive and comprehensive biography of Saladin! Written in a non-chronological structure, this book takes topical approach instead. Which to be honest I found a little difficult to follow somewhere around the middle of the book. This book is thorough in cataloging every aspect of Saladin's life and in addition to that, it also covers quite a lot of peripheral history of the time. The panegyric narrative and the critique both run side by and the author has done a wonderful job to gradually and methodically portray Saladin as a person and as an image that evolves very naturally over the course of the book. Definitely an academic work. It is not very enjoyable at times, but still is extremely informative. The author has remained true to their duties as writing down a fantastic, objective, thorough and complete biography covering every facet of Saladin's life.
There is quite an excess of medieval weaponry and war terms, political and historical jargon, plenty of names and places to remember. But that I am made aware now is extremely important while reading an actual historical book that is solely written to objectively unfold a great man from parchments of history onto the canvas of this century.
A fantastic biography of the man, the legend, the warrior, the irreproachable, one of my favorite personalities. A champion of a man!
In the end, a massive thanks to my buddy Aimal for sending this exquisite hardcover copy to me from London. It is a prized possession.
There is quite an excess of medieval weaponry and war terms, political and historical jargon, plenty of names and places to remember. But that I am made aware now is extremely important while reading an actual historical book that is solely written to objectively unfold a great man from parchments of history onto the canvas of this century.
A fantastic biography of the man, the legend, the warrior, the irreproachable, one of my favorite personalities. A champion of a man!
In the end, a massive thanks to my buddy Aimal for sending this exquisite hardcover copy to me from London. It is a prized possession.
July 22, 2016
Cet ouvrage est la biographie de référence sur Saladin. Figure mythique du monde arabo-musulman, ses représentations et utilisations dans le discours politique sont abondantes. A Damas, son mausolée est aujourd'hui encore un lieu de pèlerinage. En Occident c'est aussi un personnage de référence, sa présence dans les chroniques médiévales traverse le temps jusqu'aux représentations cinématographiques les plus récentes (Kingdom of Heaven par exemple).
Première impression : c'est gros, très gros, 755 pages de biographie. Ce qui peut faire fuir les plus courageux. Cela s'explique par sa longue et trépidante vie, les nombreuses références littéraires du Moyen-Age à aujourd'hui. Anne-Marie Eddé a tout dépouillé, analysé et organisé. Quelques répétitions peuvent apparaître au fil de la lecture mais l'ensemble reste homogène. Une première partie est consacrée à sa vie de sa naissance à sa mort ; une deuxième partie présente la vie sous Saladin (entendez la vie quotidienne auprès du Prince) ; enfin une troisième partie ajoute des éléments de lectures historiographiques sur les représentations postérieures de son image (en somme comment il est devenu légende). Le problème qui structure l'analyse est l'ambivalence des sources, souvent des panégyriques ou extrêmement dépréciatives, il faut arriver à faire la part des choses. Ce que parvient à faire l'auteur. Même si les traits et le caractère sont célébrés, l'auteur montre la base "vérité". Une trajectoire riche en événements, mais l'auteur est là pour rappeler les circonstances politiques et religieuses (peut-être un peu trop à certains moments). Un sultan qui a su s'entourer de sa famille, répartir les rôles et les honneurs, de fidèles, naviguer dans les intrigues et les conflits, dans la complexité du monde arabo-musulman entre le califat fatimide et le califat abbasside. Une très bonne vue d'ensemble.
Première impression : c'est gros, très gros, 755 pages de biographie. Ce qui peut faire fuir les plus courageux. Cela s'explique par sa longue et trépidante vie, les nombreuses références littéraires du Moyen-Age à aujourd'hui. Anne-Marie Eddé a tout dépouillé, analysé et organisé. Quelques répétitions peuvent apparaître au fil de la lecture mais l'ensemble reste homogène. Une première partie est consacrée à sa vie de sa naissance à sa mort ; une deuxième partie présente la vie sous Saladin (entendez la vie quotidienne auprès du Prince) ; enfin une troisième partie ajoute des éléments de lectures historiographiques sur les représentations postérieures de son image (en somme comment il est devenu légende). Le problème qui structure l'analyse est l'ambivalence des sources, souvent des panégyriques ou extrêmement dépréciatives, il faut arriver à faire la part des choses. Ce que parvient à faire l'auteur. Même si les traits et le caractère sont célébrés, l'auteur montre la base "vérité". Une trajectoire riche en événements, mais l'auteur est là pour rappeler les circonstances politiques et religieuses (peut-être un peu trop à certains moments). Un sultan qui a su s'entourer de sa famille, répartir les rôles et les honneurs, de fidèles, naviguer dans les intrigues et les conflits, dans la complexité du monde arabo-musulman entre le califat fatimide et le califat abbasside. Une très bonne vue d'ensemble.
Want to read
January 5, 2023索恩2023待出萨拉丁
September 12, 2014
Eddé's nobly attempts to provide a portrait of Saladin in a way that shows simultaneously the man who defined his times and the times who defined the man. Her historiographical approach aims to steer clear of plumbing through the sultan's intentions. For example, she has no time for questions such as "was he REALLY a pious Muslim defending the faith or merely a Machiavellian master of realpolitik?" As her account makes apparent, the deeper you try to go into the primary sources, both on the Muslim and Frankish sides, the more elusive the "real" Saladin becomes. Nevertheless, Eddé lets the primary sources speak for themselves, intervening only to refute outright falsehoods. Yet, she never completely writes off outlandish claims about Saladin. Rather, she emphasizes how exaggerations or legends reflect the ideals of the time in which they were formed. This approach to history was a breath of fresh air.
However, this book only gets three stars from me. Eddé structures her book thematically rather than chronologically (under the subjects The Sultan, Jihad, Governance, The Legend, and a few others). This allows her to pack heaps of information about a particular area of Saladin's life in a confined space, but this structure occasionally tempted her to go a bit too far and include heaps of extraneous information, to the point that I had to ask myself several times "how does this relate to Saladin again?". Additionally, this structure means that she often repeats previous claims and passages from primary sources that we've seen ad nauseam beforehand.
The book advertises itself as a book for the layman, but many medieval Islamic terms and concepts are left completely unexplained or only explained when they reappear for the fifth time hundreds of pages later. For example, she often mentions the "turcopoles," and I had no idea what that meant until the second half of the book.
Finally, the translation felt stilted and not written in English. The translator relied on archaic older words that made me stumble while reading.
I don't mean to point out only the negative. The book is a fantastic journey through the primary sources of the time, and in some sections, especially the section "Jihad" and "The Legend", Eddé truly shines as a historian, as she has a firm grasp of the sources she's using. I'd highly recommend this book to those who have some background in Islamic history and already have some idea about who Saladin is.
However, this book only gets three stars from me. Eddé structures her book thematically rather than chronologically (under the subjects The Sultan, Jihad, Governance, The Legend, and a few others). This allows her to pack heaps of information about a particular area of Saladin's life in a confined space, but this structure occasionally tempted her to go a bit too far and include heaps of extraneous information, to the point that I had to ask myself several times "how does this relate to Saladin again?". Additionally, this structure means that she often repeats previous claims and passages from primary sources that we've seen ad nauseam beforehand.
The book advertises itself as a book for the layman, but many medieval Islamic terms and concepts are left completely unexplained or only explained when they reappear for the fifth time hundreds of pages later. For example, she often mentions the "turcopoles," and I had no idea what that meant until the second half of the book.
Finally, the translation felt stilted and not written in English. The translator relied on archaic older words that made me stumble while reading.
I don't mean to point out only the negative. The book is a fantastic journey through the primary sources of the time, and in some sections, especially the section "Jihad" and "The Legend", Eddé truly shines as a historian, as she has a firm grasp of the sources she's using. I'd highly recommend this book to those who have some background in Islamic history and already have some idea about who Saladin is.
January 19, 2015
Informative but with too many irrelevant tangents. The last chapter of the book was the worse. I think the author became bemused by all her information and let it cloud her narrative. I also think the translation from French into English was a little awkward in places. Unfortunately although this book gave you many interesting facts about Saladin and the customs of his time; it didn't really bring anything new to the table. You know Saladin was chivalrous and generous and magnanimous and all of that. I was hoping to gain a more nuanced perspective and sometimes it felt the author was close to doing that but just fell back on the general opinion. William Dalrymple would I think have done a better job.
March 21, 2024
My Crusades teacher was right when he said i'd be an expert on Saladin by the end of this thing, because I could tell you pretty much anything about this guy with a reasonable degree of accuracy. Very informative and at times even entertaining, but for most of my reading time, i genuinely had to fight off sleep. So, on the basis of information and as a sleeping medication, Saladin gets a recommend. Y'know. If you're into Crusades.
October 7, 2023
Une mine d'or d'informations sur ce grand guerrier. L'actrice fait le point sur la frontière entre mythe et réalité qui entoure le personnage de Saladin grâce à un travail de recherche pointu et dense.
June 16, 2018
A fantastic and comprehensive history of Saladin that covers everything from his political accomplishments to his economic and social policies. Like all good histories, its relies primarily on primary sources and makes sure to integrate plenty of direct passages. Most importantly, Edde recognizes the impossibility of ever having a firm grasp on a figure as famous as Saladin who lived during a time from which very few sources survive, and so she acknowledges that her history is as much a history of representations of Saladin as it is of Saladin himself:
“It is also necessary to read these sources with eyes different from those of a historian seeking to establish ‘how things actually happened,’ to borrow the expression of the famous nineteenth-century German historian Leopold van Ranke, one of the founders of “scientific” and “objective” history. The facts have their importance, of course—no one can deny that—but the way they were presented, understood, and experienced by Saladin’s contemporaries is key. What image did they retain of Saladin and of his power? How and why did they spread it? What is covered by that propaganda? Is it intended simply to glorify and individual? Though these discourses, does not a political conception of power emerge, as well as a certain vision of the world and of the religious and moral values on which the society of that time was founded? The images, metaphors, and words chosen are indicative of the idea the authors held of an ideal prince, while the description, true or false—it hardly matter in this context—of their enemies is itself the occasion to point out his good qualities. Therefore, the interest in noting the comparisons our sources make between Saladin and one biblical figure or another obviously lies not in demonstrating the validity of these comparisons but rather in attempting to understand the intentions and objectives concealed behind such an approach."
“It is also necessary to read these sources with eyes different from those of a historian seeking to establish ‘how things actually happened,’ to borrow the expression of the famous nineteenth-century German historian Leopold van Ranke, one of the founders of “scientific” and “objective” history. The facts have their importance, of course—no one can deny that—but the way they were presented, understood, and experienced by Saladin’s contemporaries is key. What image did they retain of Saladin and of his power? How and why did they spread it? What is covered by that propaganda? Is it intended simply to glorify and individual? Though these discourses, does not a political conception of power emerge, as well as a certain vision of the world and of the religious and moral values on which the society of that time was founded? The images, metaphors, and words chosen are indicative of the idea the authors held of an ideal prince, while the description, true or false—it hardly matter in this context—of their enemies is itself the occasion to point out his good qualities. Therefore, the interest in noting the comparisons our sources make between Saladin and one biblical figure or another obviously lies not in demonstrating the validity of these comparisons but rather in attempting to understand the intentions and objectives concealed behind such an approach."
February 2, 2012
An in-depth construction. Dizzying skills are revealed as Saladin perfects his diplomatic gestures, honoring some horrifying others, yet playing perfect realpolitik centuries early, both against Franks and Germans and against/with Turks, Arabs, Selucids, Persians. Although militarily oblique at times (a single chapter deals with siege strategy, technology, and spoils distribution) the book illustrates not every chess move, but differing windows of life, myths, customs, the widows in power, the practical concerns of shifting allegiances. Moments of potential romanticism, sparsely employed are properly unexploited: Reginald's beheading is taut and powerful. Nuances like histories of the sultan/Seljuk title, interspersed, are amazing. At times a travelogue tragedy. An ocean of desert at night for a knife at throat bedouin raid, the march of entire cities leaving every valuable behind while others are left untouched. Sensations of the 12th century between the conflicts of Saladin's unique empire. Watch Saladin's archetype emerge from the mythic chapters into western media.
May 16, 2014
An OK biography of Saladin. The book does not go in chronological order but covers the various aspects of Saladin’s life, Political, religious, his rise to power, his effect on trade etc. in a chapter and then moves onto the next subject. A timeline at the beginning of the book is helpful. A cast of characters would also help greatly as a lot of Saladin emir’s and lieutenants have very similar names and titles.
Want to read
August 4, 2014Reviewed by Open Letters Monthly
September 29, 2012
False start - got through the introduction just fine (although it's very, very French), but couldn't maintain the momentum. I'll have to try this one again some other time.
September 12, 2013
A most excellent work of scholarship with a depth of research, illuminated in the historical context, and supported by many accounts of contemporaries, foes, and followers.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews