Professor Jonathan Phillips: Life and legacy of the Sultan Saladin
Tue, 20 Sep 2022 19:00 - 20:30 British Summer Time (UTC+1)
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In the autumn of 1187 the Sultan Saladin etched his name in history when he regained the holy city of Jerusalem for Islam…
About this event
His decision to spare the Christian inhabitants – in stark comparison to the massacre perpetrated by the knights of the First Crusade 88 years before – did much to mark him out as a man of honour and mercy.
This talk traces his emergence as the rising star of an ambitious Kurdish clan who ascended to power through military skill and, in his case, considerable charm, piety and good fortune. Saladin and his followers drew together the Muslim Near East to take the jihad to the Christians and capture Jerusalem. The sultan then faced a huge crusading expedition, led by Richard the Lionheart, king of England but in this epic struggle Saladin held on to Jerusalem. Making considerable use of contemporary poetry and medical texts, we will explore the sultan’s charismatic leadership, but it will also show him as fallible and prone to long periods of ill-health.
Since his death Saladin’s exploits have attracted admiration and attention in the Muslim world and in the West. This talk reveals how a man initially branded as ‘the son of Satan’ became so esteemed in Europe and, through extensive new research, will follow how his character and achievements have acted as a role model for generations across the Near East down to the present day.
Biography:
Jonathan Phillips is Professor of Crusading History at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is the author of numerous books on the subject, most recently The Life and Legend of the Sultan Saladin, described as ‘superbly researched and enormously entertaining… one of the outstanding books of the year’ by The Times in April 2019. It has been translated into Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Danish. Earlier titles included Holy Warriors: A Modern History of the Crusades (2009), The Second Crusade: Extending the Frontiers of Christendom (2007) and The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople (2004). Phillips has presented many radio and television programmes including The Cross and the Crescent (History Channel) and The Road From Christ to Constantine (PBS). He is also the co-editor, with Dr Iris Shagrir, of the academic journal Crusades and in August 2021 was elected President of the Society of the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East.
