It is 1289, in the waning years of the Christian Crusader states in the Middle East. The preeminent Muslim power of the day—the Egypt-based Mamluk sultanate—is poised to overrun the last Crusader strongholds on the eastern Mediterranean coast.
The Mamluk sultan Qala ¯’u ¯ n plans to march against the Crusader city of Tripoli (in present-day Lebanon), but William of Beaujeu, 21st grand master of the Knights Templar military order, has inside information about the sultan’s plan. William has a paid informant within Qala ¯’u ¯ n’s inner circle— Badr al-Din Bektash al-Fakhri, who oversees the sultan’s armories and part of his guard force. Badr al-Din sends word to William the Mamluks are planning an assault on Tripoli; William in turn sends a representative to warn the people of Tripoli, but the city’s residents refuse to accept his information and accuse him of concocting the report for some cynical scheme of his own.
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