Men of Blood Secondary Title

In 701 B.C. the Assyrian empire was in its ascendancy. It had already vanquished the kingdom of Israel to the north including the capital at Samaria. It then prepared an assault on Judah and its capital at Jerusalem.

But in one of those significant events that changes the course of world history, Assyria was repelled. Jerusalem was saved until 586 B.C. when the Babylonians sacked the city, forcing its leadership class into exile.

Henry Aubin, in a major feat of scholarship, determines that Jerusalem was aided by a Kushite army from Africa which had marched northeast from the Nile valley. While the Bible attributes the Assyrian retreat to an angel and secular commentators cite pestilence, Aubin, in a meticulously documented work, demonstrates that an alliance with the African nation of Kush bolstered Jerusalem’s defences.

Kush, also known as Nubia, was located in what is now southern Egypt and northern Sudan. A monarchy that existed for more than 1000 years, from 900 B.C. to A.D. 350, Kushites held sway over Egypt from 712 B.C. to about 660 B.C. Of Egypt’s 31 dynasties, this, the 25th Dynasty, is the only one that all scholars agree, was black.

The commander of the Kushite expeditionary force was Taharqa (or as the Bible calls him Tirhakah). This Kushite prince, who had his own interests in halting Assyrian expansion, likely caught the aggressors by surprise as they prepared their siege of Jerusalem.

Aubin offers a thrilling military history and a stirring political analysis of the ancient world. He also sees the event as influential over the centuries.

The Kushite rescue of the Hebrew kingdom of Judah enabled the fragile, war-ravaged state to endure, to nurse itself back to economic and demographic health, and allowed the Hebrew religion, Yahwism, to evolve within the next several centuries into Judaism. Thus emerged the monotheistic trunk supporting Christianity and Islam.

leyton Men of Blood

McClelland & Stewart 2002

Men of Blood

“Probably the world’s most widely consulted expert on serial killing and a godhead of modern criminal psychology.”
London Sunday Telegraph

A milkman shares a take-out supper with his cousin and then fatally stabs him.…A man breaks into a shelter for abused women and snuffs out the life of his wife who has taken refuge there.…A youth rapes and kills a woman on the landing of her apartment building.…The boyfriend of a single mother batters her eighteen-month-old daughter to death. . . .

In Men of BloodElliott Leyton, described by William Langley in the London Sunday Telegraph as “probably the world’s most widely consulted expert on serial killing and a godhead of modern criminal psychology,” reviews a decade’s worth of real murders and analyses their common features. Sometimes surprising, often shocking, always compelling, the result is an important addition to the literature of murder.

Elliott Leyton is a professor of anthropology at Memorial University in Newfoundland. He holds research and faculty appointments in Ireland and England, has delivered lectures throughout Europe, the United States, and Canada, and is a past president of the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association. Because of his recognized expertise in the psychology of the multiple killer he has established close links with police forces around the world. His books include Dying HardThe Myth of DelinquencyHunting HumansMen of Blood and Touched by Fire (with photographer Greg Locke).

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