The Rabbi's Knight

The year is 1290. The place is Palestine at the twilight of the Crusades. Warweary Knight Templar Jonathan St. Clair is garrisoned in the port city of Acre. In possession of an ancient scroll with a cryptic inscription, St. Clair is more interested in learning Kabbalah than fighting Moslems when he learns that the inscription holds the key to unlock the secrets of Jerusalem's Temple Mount. But no Jewish scholars in Acre can decipher the inscription. And time isrunning out; Acre will soon come under siege, and the one man able to divine the scroll's meaning, Rabbi Samuel of Baghdad, has been targeted for assassination. Deep in enemy territory, St. Clair apprentices himself to Rabbi Samuel and together they travel to Jerusalem. On their pilgrimage, they are hunted by scheming emirs in the service of a treacherous rabbi of Acre, a bitter enemy of Rabbi Samuel, and aided in their quest by others: a brilliant young scholar, Isaac of Acre; a powerful young Scotsman, William Wallace; a learned Moslem mathematician and cartographer; and the beautiful, independent-minded woman Zahirah, who avoids serving in an emir's harem by hiding among lepers in acolony on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Ultimately, Rabbi Samuel and St.Clair find they must risk everything to fulfill their shared and sacred destiny as guardians of the Temple Mount.