CHAPTER 61
Volume II: the Land across the Water CRUSADE
Before broaching this perennially thorny subject, a brief review is necessary of the Holy Land from the expulsion of the Etruscans to the eve of the Western invasion.
The desert has been always incontinent with prophets, but in the first century a flood of holy fools doused the land. Each heralded a new kingdom; each had a vision that bloomed as briefly as desert flowers, beautiful and inconsequential. The Prophetess’ message was different, and not merely in the sense that she preached with a dagger. In the great fire that consumed Jerusalem, she reforged Judaism into a proselytising creed. She turned an inchoate resentment of Etruscans into nationalism. In a remarkable few decades, waves of fanatical armies erupted from the desert to envelop the Middle East and beyond.22
After the Prophetess’ death, and under the guidance of her apostles,23 power migrated to the more refined coastal cities; the capital shifted north to Tyre, then south to Alexandria before meeting halfway in Akka. The nomadic fighting spirit of the desert was lauded ever louder as the Radinate became more cosmopolitan. The Melics’ belief that this savage hinterland would always save them in time of peril was about to be tested.24