The Swords of Faith, by Richard Warren Field

The Swords of Faith

Richard Warren Field

For a little while now there has been an effort to examine the Crusades from both a Christian and Muslim viewpoint. From my own research I have found that the former record can be quite spotty, for instance when the three accounts we have of the Crusade of 1101 are not only not by witnesses to the events but one was not even written until some years later. It must be gratifying for those authors who turn to the Muslim record, for it appears that it is fulsome. The Christian records are full of propaganda, but whether or not this is true of the Muslim I cannot say.

Richard Warren Field's The Swords of Faith is one of those works dedicated to a balanced look at, in this case, the Third Crusade. It follows three central characters each of whom represents one part of the dialectic. The great Muslim leader, Saladin, known for his honorable and courteous manner, is one. The second is the legendary King Richard of England, known as Lionheart, who while arrogant and blinded by his quest for glory, cares enough for chivalry to recognize Saladin's qualities. The third represents the synthesis of the two sides, the fictional character Pierre. Early in the novel he is captured at the Battle of Hattan and winds up being sold to a Muslim trader named Raschid for two pairs of ugly shoes. Because both Pierre and Raschid are good men, Pierre working hard and honestly for Raschid and Raschid treating Pierre justly, they become friends and allies. They share a desire to see a pluralistic society take root in the Holy Land, where Christians, Muslims, Jews and all can live in harmony.

The story follows Saladin's attempt to make the Holy Land Muslim and Richard's drive to retake Jerusalem and reestablish the Christian kingdom. One of the first things I noticed about this novel comes through their separate and opposed quests, and that is the book's skillful rendering of relentless movement towards confrontation accomplished through Field's shift back and forth between the onward progress of the two leaders. I found my heart beating in time with this sense of an inevitable clash. At the same time the antiphon is Pierre's and Raschid's developing relationship, as the trader frees the slave as a wedding gift for him and the favored servant woman who may well be Raschid's own daughter. The two men struggle to help each other survive in an increasingly hostile and dangerous world, one that views their alliance with trepidation and spite. Whether peace and cooperation can be achieved and persist appears, in the end, to be up to the next generation.

The author clearly painstakingly researched the events of this novel as well as the personalities of the two leaders and those around them. There is authenticity in its rendering, along with a clear sense of Field's fascination with everyone and everything involved. There are tender love scenes, stirring battle, gripping adventure, and crushing loss. The characters are distinct and the reader comes to know them in a personal way.

If I remember correctly I received this novel from the publisher and author as a document which I was able to read on my Kindle 3.