God’s Wolf

ΓÇ£[Jeffrey Lee] brings a blockbuster sensibility to this slice of the 12th century Levant.ΓÇ¥ΓÇöDan Jones,Sunday Times (UK) In a 2010 terrorist plotAl-Qaeda hid a bomb in a FedEx shipment addressed to a man who had been dead for 800 years. Born in twelfth-century France and bred for violenceReynald de Chatillon was a young knight who joined the Second Crusade and rose through the ranks to become the preeminent figure in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalemchief foe of the Muslim leader Saladinand one of the most reviled characters in Islamic history. In the WestReynald has long been considered a minor player in the crusading sagaand is often dismissed as a bloodthirsty maniac who brought disaster on his fellow crusaders. Howeverby using contemporary documents and original researchJeffrey Lee overturns this popular perception and questions other prejudices about the crusades that underlie modern misunderstandings of the Middle East. GodΓÇÖs Wolf shows how the crusader kingdom was brought down by a treacherous internal factionrather than by ReynaldΓÇÖs belligerence. In factdespite ReynaldΓÇÖs brutalityLee argues that he was a strong military leader and an effective statesmanwhose actions in the Middle East had a far-reaching impact that endures to this day. An epic saga set in the midst of a violent clash of civilizationsGodΓÇÖs Wolf is the fascinating story of an exceptional crusader and a provocative reinterpretation of the crusading era.