Samuel England is Assistant Professor of Arabic at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has published articles in Mediterranean Studies and Middle Eastern Literatures.

• Note on Arabic Translations Abbreviations Introduction: Courtly Gifts, Imperial Rewards "Baghdad is to Cities what the Master is to Mankind": The Rise of Vizier Culture The Sovereign and the Foreign: Creating Saladin in Arabic Literature of the Counter-Crusade Alfonso X: Poetry of Miracles and Domination Saladino Rinato: Spanish and Italian Courtly Fictions of Crusade Conclusion: The Ministry of Culture Bibliography

There is much to praise here...The basic idea that medieval courts negotiated their own identity through their literature(and through literary debates) – or, at the very least, that it is possible to unpick the way in which a medieval court negotiated its identity through an analysis of its literature – is entirely plausible and persuasive...This is a book that achieves the important objective of challenging its readers both to consider new questions and to ponder the surviving sources from new perspectives.