French histories into Arabic, leading to the replacement of the term "wars of the "Frankswith "wars of the Cross". The Ottoman Turk Namık Kemal published the first modern Saladin biography in 1872. Kaiser Wilhelm's Jerusalem visit in 1898 prompted further interest, with the Egyptian Sayyid Ali al-Hariri producing the first Arabic history of the Crusades. Modern studies were driven by political purposes in the hope of learning from the Muslim forces' triumph over their enemies. Before Wilhelm's visit, Saladin's Western reputation for chivalry was not reflected in the Muslim world. He had had been largely forgotten and eclipsed by more successful figures such as Baybars of Egypt. The visit and anti-imperialist sentiment led to the reinvention of his reputation by nationalist Arabs as a hero of the struggle against the West. Modern Arab states have sought to commemorate Saladin through various measures, often based on the image created of him in the 19th-century west. Historical parallelism and the tradition of drawing inspiration from the Middle Ages have become keystones of political Islam encouraging ideas of a modern jihad and long struggle while secular Arab nationalism highlights the role of Western imperialism. Muslim thinkers, politicians, and historians have drawn parallels between the Crusades and modern political developments such as the establishment of Israel in 1948. Right-wing circles in the Western world have drawn opposing parallels by considering Christianity to be under an Islamic religious and demographic threat that is analogous to the situation at the time of the Crusades. Crusader symbols and anti-Islamic rhetoric is presented as an appropriate response, even if only for propaganda purposes. These symbols and rhetoric are used to provide a religious justification and inspiration for a struggle against a religious enemy. Madden argued that modern tensions are the result of a constructed view of the Crusades created by colonial powers in the 19thcentury and transmitted into Arab nationalism. For him the crusades are a medieval phenomenon in which the crusaders were engaged in a defensive war on behalf of their co-religionists. References Bibliography Further reading Crusades Crusades Crusades