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, Edde 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...