Military Review English Edition November December 2016 | Page 141

BOOK REVIEWS

Empire in a daring opportunistic move. As the book
recounts, he used his advantages of unity of command
and superior interior lines time and again against
the French, Russians, Swedes, and Saxons, as well as
the Hapsburgs. The Prussian Army was a formidable
machine capable of performing extraordinary feats for
a pragmatic leader who took little stock in the value of
titles and other aids for less secure warlords. Frederick
may have been forced into an early marriage, but he
never allowed his wife into his inner court in Potsdam.
He stayed away from the social life in Berlin, preferring to be in the field with his soldiers or talking to
his public in their villages. His will and determination
were as fierce as his sense of certainty about the sort of
world he wanted to create. Prussia emerged as a slashing Messer (or knife) in his hand.
The one major irritation I had with the book was its
organizational style by topics, which sometimes creates
contextual whiplash and repetition of key facts. The
content is still always very entertaining, for instance
as Blanning describes a German noble who preferred
to use the French language although he was far from a
Francophile. Frederick colorfully used curse words when
giving political directions to his courtiers. He also forced
his Jewish subjects to buy royal-made porcelain to build
up his national coffers. As a skeptical freemason, his tolerance of other faiths was calculated. He allowed a Catholic
cathedral to be built in Berlin while he lobbied to be the
defender of Protestant Germans. He ultimately could be
as cruel as his father but all in the course of his pursuit of
glory. Frederick wanted to teach the world by his example. It would be hard not to admit that Frederick the
Great makes a strong case for avoiding lazy stereotypes.

James Cricks, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

SALADIN

The Sultan Who Vanquished the
Crusaders and Built an Islamic Empire

John Man, Da Capo Press, Boston, 2016, 312 pages

J

ohn Man is a historian and travel writer. In
Saladin: The Sultan Who Vanquished the Crusaders
and Built an Islamic Empire, not only does he
chronicle the life of Saladin, the iconic hero of Islam,
but also he provides a thorough historical context of
MILITARY REVIEW  November-December 2016

the twelfth-century Middle East. Man examines the
virtues of Saladin the individual, as well as the persona
of his iconic status.
Man details Saladin’s birth in Tikrit, his rise to
power in Egypt, his anticrusader campaigns, and
his pauper’s death—constantly providing a holistic
historical perspective. Man consistently illustrates
the ideological and political differences between the
Abbasid (Sunni)
and Fatimid (Shi’a)
caliphates while
demonstrating
how the Frankish
Palestinian kingdoms and the Ismaili
Assassins influenced
the region. Man
describes in detail
Saladin’s use of both
hard and soft power
to gain control and
then to render insignificant the Fatimid
Caliphate. The book
continues with a description and analysis of Saladin’s
meteoric rise within the Abbasid Caliphate and his
confrontations with the Frankish crusaders, especially his nemesis Reynald de Chatillon.
Saladin: The Sultan Who Vanquished the Crusaders
and Built an Islamic Empire is consistently footnoted
with primary sources and is therefore easily referenced
for further study of Saladin or this historical period. I
found chapter 16, “A Brief History of Leadership,” provided an excellent illustration of the leadership principles internalized by yet another iconic figure—this
message resonates today. I found it interesting to read
how Saladin was conditioned as a child by his environment, which included effective role models, to become
the most significant figure in twelfth century Islam and
a celebrated figure today. His ability to resonate with
the common person as well as with the elite of his time
is a testament to his leadership acumen.
I would recommend this book to anyone with an
interest in the Middle East. It provides a solid historical
perspective on early cultural and religious fault lines that
still exist between Islam and Christianity. Additionally,
Man provides the reader with a solid contextual analysis
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