Jerusalem: The Biography

* Baibars’ Sufi guru, Sheikh Khadir, became so powerful that he was able to seduce the wives, sons and daughters of the Mamluk generals in a reign of terror. It only ended when they presented Baibars with such full evidence that he had to order Khadir’s arrest for sodomy and adultery. He was spared death only because he predicted that Baibars’ death would rapidly follow his own.