78 Books & arts The EconomistJune 1st 2019
1T
hewesthasfewMuslimheroesbut,as-
tonishingly, a 12th-century jihadist is
one of them. Saladin broke onto the Middle
East’s map in a drama not unlike the recent
eruption of Islamic State. Born on the
banks of the Tigris, he carved out an emir-
ate which by his death in 1193 stretched
from the modern-day borders of Tunisia to
Yemen, Turkey and Iran. Powerful realms
fell like matchsticks before him. He ended
the crusaders’ 88-year reign in Jerusalem,
reducing their kingdom to a few fortress
towns dotted along the coast of the Levant.
Warrior monks scorned Saladin as the
whore of Babylon and son of Satan. Medi-
eval England named a tax after him, the ul-
timate slur. But from the first the opprobri-
um was tinged with admiration. Crusader
accounts celebrated his reputation for
mercy, generosity (lavished on Christian as
well as Muslim visitors to his court), and
above all his adab, Arabic for chivalry. De-
cades after his death Boccaccio and Pe-
trarch extolled him. In “The Divine Com-
edy”, he merits a place in Dante’s first circle
of hell, alongside virtuous pagans such as
Plato—and seven levels above the Prophet
Muhammad. He was a hero of Victorian ro-
mantic novels; in the 20th century he gave
his name to a British battleship and a type
of armoured car. It is “impossible to think
of another figure from history who dealt
such a deep wound to a people and a faith,”
writes Jonathan Phillips in his gripping
biography, “and yet became so admired.”
As its title indicates, the book distin-
guishes the life from the legend. Mr Phil-
lips finds much to praise. Unlike the cru-
saders who killed the inhabitants when
they captured Jerusalem, Saladin spared
them when he recovered it. The crusaders
defiled Islam’s third-holiest mosque, using
al-Aqsa for stables. Saladin preserved
Christian places of worship, including Je-
rusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre
and Hospital of the Order of St John. He ran-
somed a Christian woman from her kid-
nappers; he generously redistributed the
wealth he took in plunder.
Yet the glowing contemporary accounts
owed much to Saladin’s tame and prolific
propagandists—courtiers, chroniclers and
muftis who were rewarded handsomely for
their efforts. Contrary to French bodice-
rippers, he never seduced crusader prin-Myth and historyA noble enemy
The Life and Legend of the Sultan
Saladin. By Jonathan Phillips.Yale
University Press; 520 pages; $32.50. Bodley
Head; £25
Forjane, a jobatGoldenOaks,an
elegant property north of Manhattan,
seems almost too good to be true. She
spends her days swaddled in cashmere,
engaged in light exercise and nourished
by organic superfoods. Her bedroom is
far more luxurious than the dormitory in
Queens where she and her newborn
daughter bunked with dozens of fellow
Filipinas; the pay is much better than her
previous jobs. The hitch is that she had to
leave her child, relinquish her freedom
and carry a baby to term for one of the
most powerful women in the world.
This is the unnervingly plausible
set-up for Joanne Ramos’s impressive
debut novel, “The Farm”. The title comes
from the employees’ name for this high-
end surrogacy outfit, where mostly
destitute women incubate the infants of
the 1%. Befitting an era when parents
strive to give their offspring ever-more
sophisticated advantages, the place is
calibrated to maximise “fetal potential”,
with customised diets, wristbands to
monitor activity levels and wearable
machines that broadcast Mozart’s sym-
phonies and Churchill’s speeches di-
rectly into the womb. Hired “hosts”
submit to constant scrutiny—there are
cameras everywhere. White surrogates
are rare and command a premium, par-ticularly if they have been to university.
Golden Oaks lets Ms Ramos skewer
the pretences of the wealthy and the
businesses that cater to them. The author
previously worked in finance (and for
The Economist), and knows what money
can buy. A chapter in which Jane’s older,
wiser cousin Ate explains the art of high-
end baby-nursing is winningly incisive:
“They will tell you to ‘make yourself at
home’—but they do not want you to
make yourself at home!” Yet the book is
too subtle to dwell in satire; instead it
becomes a suspenseful page-turner. Jane
grows increasingly worried about her
daughter’s welfare, just as readers learn
of the sinister lengths to which Golden
Oaks will go to serve its clients.
Ms Ramos, whose own family emi-
grated from the Philippines to Wisconsin
when she was six, tells her story through
four main characters. As well as Jane and
Ate (who came to America decades earli-
er to support her children back in the
Philippines), she introduces Reagan, a
young, white, soulfully rudderless grad-
uate who becomes Jane’s roommate; and
Mae Yu, a 30-something go-getter who
runs Golden Oaks while planning her
perfect wedding. It would have been easy
to reduce these figures to archetypes, but
Ms Ramos inhabits each one with affec-
tion, sensitivity and a keen ear for voice.
Together, these women tell a story of an
America in which “you must be strong or
young if you are not rich.”Womb for rent
New American fictionThe Farm. By Joanne Ramos. Random
House; 336 pages; $27. Bloomsbury
Publishing; £12.99Tough day at the office