This Week Those Books is chock-full of crucial context in just five minutes — from fiction and non-fiction — to the shouty, doomscroll news cycle. Click here for a quick read
All together now. Why the Mecca pact matters
Tariq Ali’s novel on Saladin takes us to a key period in Islamic history. And what drives alliances
AI helped create an image of Saladin as inspiration
The Big Story:
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have signed a military pact that unifies parts of the Muslim world in a strategic consolidation that has faint echoes of Saladin’s efforts in the 12th century.
The Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, signed in Islam’s holiest city, was instantly dubbed the ‘Muslim Nato’:
- In the style of Nato’s Article 5, it stipulates that an attack against one “shall be regarded as attack on them all”.
- Unlike Nato, it does not provide for an integrated military headquarters, a unified command structure and a permanent joint force.
- It’s one of the most significant realignments in West Asia in decades, bringing together the world’s only nuclear-armed majority Muslim country, the world’s largest oil exporter and Nato’s second largest military.
As one of our book picks says, alliances treaties are “costly signals” and they “deter threats by informing potential aggressors of the allies’ intention to defend one another”.
This Week’s Books:
- A fictional account of, and by the Muslim world’s favourite hero.
- A measured look at what a defence alliance really means.
Click here to read on about the books and the back story
