Saint George

Al-Tha`labi, a Sunni scholar of the 11th century, was one of many Muslim writers to tell stories of Saint George: the soldier saint’s popularity transcended religions. But Al-Tha`labi makes no mention of the dragon George slayed, 700 years earlier, or his roots as a Greek living in Turkey. In this story, he was a Palestinian Christian killed three times by the pagan king of Mosul, yet always resurrected. After his fourth death, however, an incensed God rained fire on Mosul and nobody, not even George, made it out alive. Many centuries later, after Mosul fell to the Islamic State, militants turned a church dedicated to Saint George into a bomb factory.

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