Saladin
A reluctant leader, Saladin has no interest in becoming a hero. All he wants to do is earn an honest day's pay for an honest day's work. Unfortunately, the world is a dishonest place and Saladin cannot bring himself to stand by and do nothing in the face of tyranny.
As a result of constantly trying to right the wrongs of the world and helping the helpless, Saladin often finds himself in over his head and fighting for his life. Naturally, Tarik and Duncan are dragged into trouble along with him. Separated from his family, Saladin has created a makeshift one with himself playing older brother to the constantly bickering Tarik and Duncan.
Skilled but naive, Saladin will have to learn the rules of the real world if he is going to survive. And given the number of enemies he makes on a weekly basis, he needs to learn quickly.
Tarik
Saladin's best friend, Tarik is a thinker, an academic and slightly ahead of his time. A bit of a coward, he would much rather talk his way out of a fight than resort to violence.
With his knowledge of history and science, he is the lone voice of reason pleading for caution while Saladin and Duncan dive head long into all manner of dangerous situations.
Completely loyal to Saladin, he will always stand by his side. Unfortunately, that side usually involves sharp weapons, tyrannical misfits and a slim chance of survival.
Duncan
A former soldier of the Franks, Duncan grew disillusioned with General Reginald's leadership and decided to strike off on his own and make his living as a mercenary.
Motivated mainly by self-interest, every course of action seems to revolve around how much he is getting paid versus how much personal risk he has to take.
The good news is that deep down, beneath the layers of grumpiness and irritability, beats a very soft heart. The bad news is that this soft heart is buried very, very deep down.
Anisa
A pickpocket, thief and con woman, Anisa has spent her entire life on the wrong side of the law. Quick witted and charming, her specialty is lulling her marks into trusting her and then taking them for all their worth.
Her one weakness is a growing attraction towards Saladin. To her horror, she finds herself helping him when there is no profitable reason to do so. Emotions are a dangerous thing in her line of work. How long will it be before her criminal past catches up with her?
Friday, January 26, 2007
The Story of Saladin
Saladin (1138-1193) was born into a prominent Kurdish family, and it is said that on the night of his birth, his father, Najm ad-Din Ayyub, gathered his family and moved to Aleppo. There, his father entering the service of 'Imad ad-Din Zangi ibn Aq Sonqur, the powerful Turkish governor in northern Syria. Growing up in Ba'lbek and Damascus, Saladin was apparently an undistinguished youth, with a greater taste for religious studies than military training. There appears to have been few if any depictions of Saladin, but apparently tradition holds that he was a short man with a neat beard and even somewhat frail.
His formal career began when he joined the staff of his uncle Asad ad-Din Shirkuh, an important military commander under Nur al-Din. Nur al-Din, the ruler of Damascus and Aleppo, succeeded his father, Zengi, after that ruler's death, engaged in a race with the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem to take over Egypt. During three military expeditions led by Shirkuh into Egypt to prevent its falling to the Latin-Christian (Frankish) rulers of the states established by the First Crusade, a complex, three-way struggle developed between Amalric I, the Latin king of Jerusalem, Shawar, the powerful vizier of the Egyptian Fatimid caliph, and Shirkuh.
In the last of these military expeditions, together with his uncle, Saladin approached the walls of Cairo on January 2, 1169 at which point the Franks, who had the city of Cairo under siege, retreated. Six days later, after allowing the Franks to evacuate unopposed, his troops reached the walls themselves. Thereafter, Saladin lured the rather untrustworthy Shawar into an ambush on January 18th, killing him. His uncle, Shirkuh then became vizier. However, he also died unexpectedly on the 23rd of March.
Subsequently, Saladin became vizier to the last Fatimid caliph (who died in 1171), earning him the title al-Malik al-Nasir ('the prince defender'), and therefore his relations and successors were all given this title. It took Saladin, or more properly, Salah al-Din Yusuf Ibn Ayyub (meaning Righteousness of Faith, Joseph, Son of Job), only a few more years to became the sole master of Cairo and the first Ayyubid sultan of Egypt in 1174. The Fatimid caliph's death on September 12th of 1171 left the reins of power in Saladin's hands, under the suzerainty of Nur al-Din. The situation could not have lasted indefinitely, but the death of Nur al-Din on May 15, 1174 allowed Saladin, as the sole ruler of Egypt, to assert his right to the throne. Saladin soon moved out of Egypt and occupied Damascus and other Syrian towns, though Egypt continued to be a base of his operations.
Saladin, like the great Amr Ibn el 'As, is a romantic historical figure in whom it is difficult to find much fault. In fact, some of his most ardent admirers have often been his Christian biographers. They, as much as the Arabs, have made a myth of him, and what always attracted Europeans to Saladin was his almost perfect sense of cultured chivalry. It is said that the crusader knights learned a great deal about chivalry from him. For example, when the Crusaders took Jerusalem in 1099 they murdered virtually all of its inhabitants, boasting that parts of the city were knee-high in blood. When Saladin re-took the city in 1187, he spared his victims, giving them time to leave and safe passage. It was, after all, a holy city, and it was captured by the Muslims in a 'just war'.
In fact, despite his fierce opposition to the Christian powers, Saladin achieved a great reputation in Europe as a chivalrous knight, so much so that there existed by the 14th century an epic poem about his exploits, and Dante included him among the virtuous pagan souls in Limbo. His relationship with King Richard I of England, who managed to repel him in battle in 1191, was one of mutual respect as well as military rivalry. When Richard was wounded, Saladin even offered the services of his personal physician.
Trade and commerce was essentially built into the Muslim faith and Mohammed himself had laid down the religious rules for honorable behavior because caravan trade and business demanded a particular kind of trust in the words of others. Thus, it is said that Largesse was an essential part of Saladin's faith.
Saladin brought an entirely different concept of a city to Cairo after the Fatimids, because he wanted a unified, thriving, fortified place, protected by strong walls and impregnable defenses, but functioning internally with a great deal of commercial and cultural freedom, and with no private or royal enclaves and no fabulous palaces. He wanted a city that belonged to it's inhabitants even though he would be it's absolute ruler.
Many historians have attributed Saladin's plan for Cairo to purely local or military considerations, but Saladin had what would now be called a world view. He was, in fact, trying to defend a whole culture as well as it's territory, an ideology as well as a religion. He looked on Egypt as a source of revenue for his wars against Christian and European encroachments, and against the dissident Muslim sects who divided Islam at this time. Apparently, he wanted Cairo to be the organizing center for an orthodox cultural and ideological revival, as well as a collecting house for the vast wealth he needed for his defense against the crusades.
Though he began his career in Egypt under the Fatimids, he sought to re-educate Egypt in orthodoxy (Sunni faith) rather than simply crush his rival Muslims with the sword, which he did only when necessary (though he did lock up or execute the entire Fatimid court). In fact, while his most famous creation in Cairo today may be the military fortress known as the Citadel, his greatest architectural contribution to Cairo was probably the madrasa, a college-mosque where the interpretive ideology of the religion and Islamic law could be taught once more instead of Shi'a dogma. To this end, he imported Sunni professors from the East to staff his new schools. In eleven years, he built five such colleges as well as a mosque. However, they taught more than religion, with studies in administration, mathematics, geodesy, physics and medicine.
One of the schools that he built was near the grave of the Imam el Shafi'i, the founder of one of the four main rites of the orthodox Sunni sect, and the school to which many Egyptians still belong and to which Saladin himself was a member. This was in the southern cemetery known as Khalifa.
Saladin's imprint on Cairo is still very visible today. Above all, he wanted to enclose the whole of it, including the ruins of Fustat-Misr with a formidable wall, and he began with Badr's wall to the north and extended it west to the Nile and the port of al Maks. On the east, under the Mukattam Hills, he carried Badr's walls south to his Citadel, which was built two hundred and fifty feet above the city on its own hill.
Regrettably, however, though he may have shaped Cairo, little of his building work remains. None of his religious monuments have survived, and little of Saladin's Citadel or his city walls are left. Perhaps the most impressive work that does still remain is the original perimeter of the Citadel, especially when viewed from the rear, which makes its medieval character absolutely real. However, most of today's Citadel was not built by Saladin, and in fact most every conqueror including the British added something to it.
Saladin opened the palaces of al-Qahira (Cairo) and sold off the fabled treasure of the Fatimids, including a 2,400 carat ruby, and an emerald four fingers in length and the caliph's splendid library, to pay his Turkish troops. He replaced the Fatimid's elaborate bureaucracy with a feudal system that gave his military officers direct control over all Egypt's rich agricultural lands, an act that has been blamed for a very sever famine which occurred during his successor's reign.
Such wealth enabled Saldin to stride from success to success in Palestine. At the Battle of Hattin (where he captured Jerusalem) in 1187, he dealt the Crusader kingdoms a blow from which they never recovered. Thousands of Christian prisoners were marched the 400 miles back to Cairo, where they were forced to work extending the city's fortifications and building the Citadel.
Saladin left Cairo in 1182 to fight the crusaders in Syria, and he never returned. By the time he died in Damascus in 1193, he had liberated almost all of Palestine from the armies of England, France, Burgandy, Flanders, Sicily, Austria and, in effect, from the world power of the Pope, as well as establishing his own family in Cairo. In his battles against these European crusaders, he often had the aid of eastern Christians, who were as much the victims of the western armies as anybody else in the eastern lands. The Proud Georgians, for instance, preferred Saladin to the Pope, and so did the Copts of Egypt.
In the end, Saladin was succeeded by his brother al Adil, but the groundwork of the city of Cairo was now developed and it would struggle on often through the reigns of cruel, arbitrary, intelligent, cultured, brutal, artistic rulers with a populace who lived a very full and risky life of hard work, trade, gaiety, terrible suffering, calamity, patience and extraordinary passions who somehow managed to break the confines of the religion and the harsh authority which governed their lives in future years.
A timeline of Saladin's Life:
- 1138: Born in Tikrit in Iraq as the son of the Kurdish chief Najm ad-Din Ayyub.
- 1152: Starts to work in the service of the Syrian ruler, Nur al-Din.
- 1164: He starts to show his military abilities in three campaigns against the Crusaders who were established in Palestine.
- 1169: Serves as second to the commander in chief of the Syrian army, his uncle Shirkuh.
- 1171: Saladin suppresses the Fatimid rulers of Egypt in 1171, whereupon he unites Egypt with the Abbasid Caliphate.
- 1174: Nur al-Din. dies, and Saladin uses the opportunity to extend his power base, conquering Damascus.
- 1175: The Syrian Assassin leader Rashideddin's men make two attempts on the life of Saladin. The second time, the Assassin came so close that wounds were inflicted upon Saladin.
- 1176: Saladin besieges the fortress of Masyaf, the stronghold of Rashideddin. After some weeks, Saladin suddenly withdraws, and leaves the Assassins in peace for the rest of his life. It is believed that he was exposed to a threat of having his entire family murdered.
- 1183: Conquers the important north-Syrian city of Aleppo.
- 1186: Conquers Mosul in northern Iraq.
- 1187: With his new strength he attacks the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, and after three months of fighting gains control over the city.
- 1189: A third Crusade manages to enlarge the coastal area of Palestine, while Jerusalem remains under Saladin's control.
- 1192: With The Peace of Ramla armistice agreement with King Richard 1 of England, the whole coast was defined as Christian land, while the city of Jerusalem remained under Muslim control.
- 1193 March 4: Dies in Damascus after a short illness.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Weaving the magic of Saladin
A HISTORICAL figure from the Crusades. A team of enthusiastic and talented animators. A national project.A lot is riding on Saladin, an animated series conceived and produced by the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC)..
The project represents the collective talent in the animation field in the country, said Kamil Othman, vice-president for MDeC’s creative department.
Animation for Saladin will be done by Silver Ant and the sound effects by Imaginex Studios – both local companies.
Salah al-Din or Saladin is one of Islam’s most legendary figures that united and led the Muslim factions during the Crusades.
“Saladin was chosen because he was a reluctant warrior that was sucked into the machinery of war,” said Kamil.
“He was the most chivalrous warrior and also the most well known in the time of the Crusades.”
Saladin will be a 13-part animated TV series. Production started in May 2004 and a six-minute trailer was previewed during the Multimedia Super Corridor’s 10th Anniversary celebration in April 2005.
The trailer, which shows a dramatic battle scene between Saladin’s troops and his enemies at sea, with breathtaking fire and water visual effects, can be viewed at www.saladin.tv.
Silver Ant completed the trailer within three months while Imaginex took only two weeks to add the sound effects.
To highlight the project to investors and distributors, MDeC is planning to showcase the trailer at the upcoming Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival.
Currently, MDeC only has funds for the first two episodes and is actively seeking more funding from large local companies. However, MDeC declined to elaborate further.
Work on the production of the TV series commenced this month, and the pilot episodes (episode one and two) are expected to be ready by year-end.
“It’s the beginning of many things to come. Once the character has been properly developed, it can be turned into such things as videogames and merchandise – like figurines that accompany value meals,” he said.
Kamil, the main driver behind the project, speaks about his labour of love.
Why did you choose to make a movie about Saladin?
The only common denominator is that he was a Muslim hero. However, if a local hero or story was chosen we would not have the benefit or discipline to conduct proper research on the scale we had done with Saladin.
Saladin, which had to be seen from the context of a foreign character, required exacting research into a different culture.
Research of the period he lived in, the clothes, the horses and the mosques had to be studied in detail
If the project is successful, we can show to the world that Malaysian talents can tackle any subject, even if the origins are not Malaysian.
Furthermore, Saladin’s unique position in the western and eastern society will open more doors globally for the project.
Was all the animation done in Malaysia?
Yes, it’s 100% made in Malaysia. The pre-production work was done by the Visual Development Team in MDeC, animation was by Silver Ant and audio by Imaginex, a company based in Bangsar.
How many animators were involved in creating Saladin?
The pre-production phase of Saladin – designing the character and creating the look and feel of the world – was done by MDeC and the project involved 14 people.
The actual production of the trailer was done by Silver Ant, an animation company based in Damansara, and this took the effort of 40 people to finish it.
The actual number of people that will be involved in the production of the TV series is not known yet because the number of companies that will participate in the project has not been determined yet.
How long did it take?
The animation for the trailer took only three months to produce, but the pre-production work which include the production design, historical research and the script writing for 13 episodes started in August 2004.
What was the budget for it? Is it the biggest budget for a local animation movie?
MDeC is looking at a budget of around RM10mil for producing the entire TV series. This is arguably the largest domestic funded animation series.
What was the biggest challenge?
The biggest challenge was in adopting the project as an audit of our nation’s skills in the field of 3D animation as well as in interpreting a “foreign story” for the global market. To create exportable content, we must be very conscious of what the global audience seeks.
We are pleased that so far we have proven that creativity exists in Malaysia and by marrying this creativity with the available technology tools the opportunities will be endless.
All that needs to be done now is to pay attention to the elements that can facilitate a better ecosystem for the industry to flourish.
Also, we must find ways for using local talents to create content that can be marketed overseas. To achieve this, we must focus on skills development programmes, funding, marketing and infrastructure.
It was also a challenge selling the idea that Malaysia has the capability to produce work of global quality.
Many people still do not believe in the creative multimedia industry, especially in its potential to be a viable export orientated industry.
What type of animation techniques were employed?
With Saladin we chose to focus mainly on 3D animation techniques.
This does not mean that we will forsake 2D animation companies but MDeC believes that a strong showcase of 3D capability is essential to sell our industry globally.
When will this be shown? Will it be in cinemas?
The first roll out will be in 2008 and it will consist of 13 episodes.
It will be in time for the World Congress on Information Technology, which Malaysia will host.
Will it be shown overseas?
We are definitely targeting for a worldwide release, as the content is being created in a way that will be appealing to the global market.
We are already generating interest from several countries but all will depend on the final quality of the series.
Source :The Star Online (The Star Online)Posted : 31/5/2006
Saladin, the animated series
Hot on the heels of Singapore's first 3D animated film, Zodiac, the Race Begins, which screened during Chinese New Year, comes a 3D animated series from Malaysia, called Saladin, based on the life of Salah al-Din Yusuf bin Ayyub. Saladin was one of Islam’s most legendary figures, who united and led Muslim factions in the past. Funded with a couple million bucks of financial support from the Media Development Authority, Singapore's Zodiac received less-than-stellar reviews, and having seen it at the DVD stores, I am not exactly surprised. But then I read that besides us, some lucky folk from China, Thailand and Eastern Europe will also get to see enjoy it, because Zodiac has been sold to these countries wor.
From the trailer, this looks like a series that will rock. Creatively, I have some problems with it, like why does Saladin look like something out of Disney or Dreamworks (kind of a Prince-of-Egypt white-guy version of the man, I feel)? And why does he have to speak English with an "Arabic" accent? I mean, Chinese characters in English cartoons don't speak with a "Chinese" accent, so why should this renowned 12th century Kurdish Muslim warrior speak with that "Middle-Eastern" accent?
My creative misgivings aside, the technical work of this animated series is stunning. Fire and water are rendered with CGI beautifully. Wood flies across the screen as ship meets floating fire bombs. You can feel the weight of the Crusaders' armour pulling them down into the waters as their ships sink from the explosions. It made me mutter, "Wah lau eh, Malaysia really BOLEH, man!"
I wonder, why we can't produce work of this calibre? Is it for the lack of talent? I don't think so, because I have seen some stunning 3D animation work by a local dude done for his polytechnic's final year project. I kid you not. And if I have a chance to, one day I will share it his video clip with you.
Meanwhile, I cannot wait to see the 13-parter series from our northern neighbours. Go Malaysia!
Saladin Movie in Malaysia
For 32-year-old Spencer Ooi and his team at the Silver Ant Art Lab, it was the desire to elevate the status of the country's animation industry that kept them spirited and united during the gruelling production of the trailer for "Saladin".
"Saladin" will be a 13-episode 3D animated series about Salah al-Din Yusuf bin Ayyub, who led the Muslims during the Crusades.
Ooi, the chief concept-director, and his team were given three months by the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDEC) to come up with the six-minute trailer for the series, which was unveiled at the launch yesterday of the MSC Creative Multimedia Content Initiative in Cyberjaya.
The launch was in conjunction with the 10th anniversary of the Multimedia Super Corridor.
The trailer shows a dramatic battle scene between Saladin's troops and his enemies at sea, with breathtaking fire and water visual effects, and a haunting locally composed soundtrack.
"Our greatest challenge was in establishing the look and feel of the characters, which would set the tone for the production of the rest of the episodes," said Ooi.
According to Kamil Othman, vice president of MDEC, "Saladin" will add to the "curriculum vitae" of Malaysia's creative industry and help local animation companies secure overseas jobs.
"Nobody really has faith in the animation industry here, but we hope 'Saladin' will change that," Kamil said.
He said MDEC would release two pilot episodes of "Saladin" by year's end and the rest of the series by 2008.
The Star/Asia News Network
Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
Who is Saladin?
Saladin or Salah al-Din, or Salahuddin Ayyubi (Arabic: صلاح الدين الأيوبي, Kurdish: صلاح الدین ایوبی) (so-lah-hood-din al-aye-yu-be) (c. 1138 - March 4, 1193) was a twelfth century Kurdish Muslim general and warrior from Tikrit, in present day northern Iraq. He founded the Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt, Syria, Yemen (except for the Northern Mountains), Iraq, Mecca Hejaz and Diyar Bakr. Saladin is renowned in both the Muslim and Christian worlds for leadership and military prowess, tempered by his chivalry and merciful nature during his war against the Crusaders. In relation to his Christian contemporaries, his character was exemplary, to an extent that propagated stories of his exploits back to the west, incorporating both myth and facts. Salah al-Din is an honorific title which translates to The Righteousness of the Faith from Arabic.
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