Word: saladin
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Yousef Abu Ghannam's family holds the key (and the souvenir concession) for the Mosque of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives; it was a Christian shrine until Saladin took Jerusalem back from the Crusaders. Abu Ghannam reports sadly that business is down. "We used to get 700 to 800 people a day," he says. "Now we're lucky to get 150. People are afraid." The few visitors who brave Jerusalem today encounter a metropolis again edgy and turbulent. In the sanctuary of the city's churches, mosques and synagogues, pilgrims can find momentary tranquillity. But the streets bear...
...blame Arafat for missing his best opportunity to found a peaceful Palestinian state. But Palestinians and their Arab brethren would--and do--say history will praise him for having the dignity and strength not to sell them out. When he returned from Camp David, crowds hailed him as "the Saladin of this generation!" Everything that has happened since reflects these opposite visions of reality...
...ceases to see himself as a politician. Instead he envisions himself emblazoned across the pages of history with the only two Islamic leaders to stride victorious into Jerusalem, securing the holy city for the Muslim faithful. Caliph Omar bin Khattab won the city for Islam in the seventh century. Saladin liberated it from Christian Crusaders 550 years later. The Palestinian leader can compromise on refugees, on territory, even on the parameters of statehood. But Arafat sees Jerusalem as his chance to transcend politics and enter the pantheon of great Islamic heroes, a coup that could wipe away the disdain...