Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net THE CHARGE TOWARD DESTINY Daoud slung his bow across his back and drew his long, curving saif from the scabbard. The noonday sun flashed on it as he held it high. His men roamed and brandished their own swords. The band had caught up with them, and the trumpets and hautboys screamed death to the enemy while the kettledrums rumbled. There was nothing left to protect Charles d'Anjou now. There was not even time for the French leader to run. He seemed to know it. He had his sword out and he held up a white shield with a red cross. Urging the Arabian on, shouting the name of God, Daoud raced toward triumph.... _Also by Robert Shea:_ ILLUMINATUS! (with Robert Anton Wilson) SHIKE: TIME OF THE DRAGONS SHIKE: LAST OF THE ZINJA ALL THINGS ARE LIGHTS* THE SARACEN: LAND OF THE INFIDEL* *Published by Ballantine Books THE SARACEN: THE HOLY WAR ROBERT SHEA BALLANTINE BOOKS . NEW YORK Copyright (C) 1989 by Robert Shea All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States of America by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 88-92181 ISBN: 0-345-35933-X Manufactured in the United States of America First Edition: April 1989 Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Variant spellings remain as printed, whilst inconsistent hyphenation has been standardised. Thanks to Michael Shea for giving Project Gutenberg permission to distribute _The Saracen: The Holy War_. PROLOGUE A summary of _The Saracen_ Book One, _Land of the Infidel_ _A.D. April 12, 1264 / 4th day of Jumada, A.H. 662_ Feverish, his arrow-wounded leg throbbing, Daoud ibn Abdallah lies in bed after a night of battle and defeat. As dawn lights the eggshell-white windowpanes in his room, he recalls the events that led him to this bitter hour. Daoud was born to an English crusading family that had settled in Palestine. Captured by Muslims as a child, he was taken to El Kahira, Cairo, chief city of Egypt, and selected for the Mamelukes, the elite corps of slave warriors gathered from all parts of the Middle East to serve the sultans of El Kahira. He became a favorite of a leading Mameluke emir, Baibars. Young and in need of comfort, he converted to Islam. He came to love the faith of Muhammad, totally and humbly dedicating himself to its tenets and to the welfare of the Muslim people. He studied with Sheikh Saadi, a Sufi mystic, and with the Hashishiyya, the dreaded sect known in Europe as the Assassins.