This volume recreates the collision of the Christian holy wars and the Muslim jihad at the end of the twelfth century. A dual biography of the legendary Richard the Lionheart and the Sultan Saladin, iconic hero of the Islamic world, the author recounts the life of each man and reveals the passions of the times that brought them face-to-face in the final battle of the Third Crusade. Richard the Lionheart, commonly depicted as the romantic personification of chivalry, here emerges in his full complexity and contradictions as the author examines the dark side of Richard's role as the leader of the blood-soaked Crusades, and breaks new ground by openly discussing Richard's homosexuality. This work's portrait of Saladin brings to life the wise, highly cultured leader who realized an enduring Arab dream by united Egypt and Syria and whose conquest of Jerusalem not only sparked the Third Crusade but ignited the first jihad and turned Saladin into a hero of epic proportions. The author captures the fascinating clash of the two armies as they battled their way to the outskirts of Jerusalem. There, Saladin's brilliant maneuvers and Richard's sudden failure of nerve turned the tide.