Kingdom of Heaven

[lollardfish]

I was thinking of writing something like this. Madden, a very good historian, did it better.

MOVIE REVIEW

Comments

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

The problem is that you can read the easily available english sources and say, "Hey, Yeah, Saladin was complex and kind of seen as 'honorable' to both sides and the movie did something kind of like that."

But even these sources make it clear that Saladin was a man of deeply held religious convictions, massacred Christians as freely as Christians massacred Muslims, used Jihad and the mission to reclaim the holy places for Islam as /the/ unifying theme in his Empire, and so forth ...

[lee-os.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Saladin may have been seen as 'honorable' to both sides, but stop and consider what sort of actions were seen as honorable.

And he was successful in building a large empire -- that kind of thing garnered a lot of respect in those days.