A tall, blond, blue-eyed leader orders Jews to be burned to death. The orders of a Gestapo agent in World War II? No, it was the command of a 13th century Muslim named Baibars. He was born in the Crimea, sold by Mongols as a slave, ending up in Syria, then in Egypt, where he became a bodyguard to an Ayyubid ruler. He was described as fair-skinned, blond, very tall, and had a cataract in one of his bluish eyes. Baibars became a commander of the Mamluks in about 1250 when he defeated the French Crusaders. He became Sultan of Egypt and engaged in more successful battles against the Mongols and the Crusaders. In revenge for Baibars’s destruction of churches in Syria, Coptic Christians in 1264 allegedly set several fires in Fustat, the Muslim capital of Egypt. In retaliation, Baibars ordered that all Copts and Jews, including their elders, be burned to death. They responded by offering to ransom themselves. If Baibars looked like an Aryan poster boy for the Nazis, that would add a new twist to the term “Islamofascist.” Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baibars The Sultan, The Tyrant, and the Hero: Changing Medieval ...
