Kingdom of Heaven

my kingdom of heaven! 

Managed to catch the epic Kingdom Of Heaven today. At first i was not sure what the movie was all about ; the only clue ; it was about the crusade as how it was shown on tv trailers. But me , being a history buff decided to watch it in TGV. It was easier nowadays as my younger brother ( now in his Semester break ) is currently working there ! haks.. all i needed to do was to call him up to book the seats.

Indeed it was a movie about the Crusade or Holy War; it was the story of how Jerusalem fell to Islam from the Christians. I was sceptic earlier as i know that usually the west would highlight their points , bias and there maybe some disillusion of facts. However, i was quite happy ..not fully approve it though but satisfied with how they potray Mighty Muslims then.

I find the movie interesting , as they potrayed the main reason for their downfall was disunity amongst the christian sects. Templars were potrayed as fanatics which is actually consistent with history facts. I was glad that the director complied to potray Salahuddin Al-Ayubbi as the great Muslim leader ; with his wisdom and grace manage to conquer Jerusalem without bloodshed. ( though in the movie they made it a dramaticly 2 day war ).However if i remember correctly , he was a young chap when he conquered Jerusalem and not that old looking fella casted.And it was soothing to see how the muslims were so powerful that the Christians then knew that if it was battle sword to sword , they would almost certainly loose the battle.FYI , Muslims were big in numbers and that scared the enemy ; the secret was half of it were the angels sent by Allah.

I fear that watching the movie may confuse most of our muslim youngsters.I dont think they have the knowledge to answer questions posed by their non-muslim peers about the history depicted. TO watch this movie , one must have enough knowledge about the history before one can sit down and understand it. Most of us were not really brought up by the courageous stories on Muslim warriors.If you ask them who was Robin Hood , Mona Lisa , Arthur and Merlin for example it will be easy for them to answer. But if you ask who Salahuddin Al-ayubbi , Who is Muhammad Al Fatih , who is Shah Jehan of the Moguls.. they will just ask you back.. WHO ??? haks.. I'm quite taken aback with this fact . It is a shame that we adore the knights of the ROund Table which is a fiction to date but fail to appreciate the might and wisdom of Salahuddin. He managed to defend the city from Richard the Lion Heart on the next crusade ; that too with lots of wisdom and non-violence negotiations. It is a known fact that when Richard was ill after a battle , Salahuddin stopped the battle for a while and went to visit him with his physicians to aid the King. How humble and wise can a leader be ??

I guess , the next movie that they may potray will be the conquest of Constantinople of the Byzantine empire by the muslims; led by yours truly Muhammad Al Fatih. and imagine him achieving that at 17 years of age !! It was one of the most brilliant tactical ploy and bluff - conquering the so called INVINCIBLE CITY. Take some time and read about it !! I assure you that you will be impress and proud of the great Islamic victory...