Saladin - Rilegato

Edde, Anne-marie

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0674055594 ISBN 13: 9780674055599

Casa editrice: Belknap Pr, 2011

Riassunto

Working simultaneously on two levels, Saladin represents the best kind of biography—a portrait of a man who is said to have made an age, and the most complete account we have to date of an age that made the man. Unlike biographies that focus on Saladin’s military exploits, especially the recapturing of Jerusalem from European Crusaders in 1187, Eddé’s narrative draws on an incredible array of contemporary sources to develop the fullest picture possible of a ruler shaped profoundly by the complex Arabian political environment in which he rose to prominence. The result is a unique view of the Crusades from an Arab perspective.

Saladin became a legend in his own time, venerated by friend and foe alike as a paragon of justice, chivalry, and generosity. Arab politicians ever since have sought to claim his mantle as a justification for their own exercise of power. But Saladin's world-historical status as the ideal Muslim ruler owes its longevity to a tacit agreement among contemporaries and later chroniclers about the set of virtues Saladin possessed—virtues that can now be tested against a rich tapestry of historical research. This tension between the mythical image of Saladin, layered over centuries and deployed in service of specific moral and political objectives, and the verifiable facts of his life available to a judicious modern historian is what sustains Anne-Marie Eddé's erudite biography, published to acclaim in France in 2008 and offered here in smooth, readable English translation.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

An impressive biography of Saladin ... supported by a multiplicity of sources, known or previously unknown: chronicles, travel narratives, letters, poems, administrative treatises... Although [Edde] is intent on placing that extraordinary figure within his context, on understanding his conception of power and how he founded his dynasty, she endeavors above all to analyze the discourses of which he has been the object from the Middle Ages to the present, discourses serving to fashion his myth. The result of that exacting and rigorous undertaking is at once accessible to the non-specialist and compelling, allowing us to rediscover a Saladin richer and more complex than his Western or Eastern legend. --Georgia Makhlouf, Le Jour

...this splendid monograph will now have a wider international readership thanks to this fluent translation by Jane Marie Todd. 'Saladin' is a rigorous and scholarly work...so filled with lively anecdote and a thoughtful, balanced analysis of the points at issue, as to be eminently readable... ...Anne-Marie Edde has drawn a charismatic figure in a richly coloured environment, to produce a refreshingly, enjoyable and valuable book. --Jonathan Phillips, Times Literary Supplement, Friday 6 July 2012

Edde mines below the official rhetoric of Saladin's secretaries and administrators to develop a historical account independent of the many mythologies surrounding his biography...Extensive research creates a picture readily distinguishable from the many Saladin myths. --Kirkus Reviews 20110915

L'autore:

Anne-Marie Edde is Director of Research at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, and Professor of Medieval History at the University of Reims.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Belknap Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0674055594
• ISBN 13: 9780674055599
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 660