The Crusades Through Arab Eyes

Though I enjoy reading history, the crusades had never generated much interest. With the events of the past six months as background, the intriguing title of Amin Maalouf's book "The Crusades Through Arab Eyes" was enough to compel me to read it. This small book doesn't purport to be a thorough history of this period, though it has ten pages of sources. But it is a thoroughly enjoyable read, and one I can recommend for anyone with an interest in that period of history or of the Mid-East in particular.Though supposedly propelled by religious fervor to reclaim the holy land from the Muslims, the Europeans often exhibited a ferocity and barbarous nature that seemed contrary to the teachings of Christ. Maalouf takes pains to document from Western sources specific actions, such as putting whole populations to the sword and cannibalism. Against this purposeful force, the various Arab powers presented a fragmented and often bewildered front. The infighting and intrigue within the various Arab kingdoms precluded effective leadership to develop against the foreigners for more than a hundred years. It was fascinating to read about the many alliances between the Westerners and the various Arab leaders as each strived to attain or retain power in their respective areas. I had not realized the "Mongol Scourge" had been pressuring the Arab powers during their struggle with the Westerners.Toward the end of the book, Maalouf points out how events occurring during this period still reverberate in the Mid East and have significance for the Arab world today that it does not in the West. While the West began to develop, the East began its slide into isolation and suspicion of foreigners and foreign culture. For example, it was fascinating to read about the emergence of the Assassins and the role they played during this period and to note the similarity of their philosophy and actions to some of today's Mid East terrorists. The one area where the book was disappointing was the pathetic lack of maps. The two maps were appallingly incomplete and as my frustration mounted I tried, sometimes unsuccessfully, to find locations in atlases or on the web. Place names change. I finally printed out copies of maps I found on the net of Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt, but I shouldn't have had to.

A friend loaned me this book years ago, but for whatever reason I didn't get around to it until recently. I finally picked it up the other day, partly for the obvious motivation of gaining a better understanding of Islamic cultures. It's a riveting book, and an authentic learning experience. The subject is pretty much spelled out by the title: Maalouf draws on various writings by Arab historians and diarists from the time of the Crusades and shortly thereafter -- from 1096 to 1291 (AD) -- to re-tell that story from their point of view. It's a tribute to Maalouf's skill that the resulting, novel-like narrative is so crisp and engaging, and the details are often astonishing and unforgettable. (On occasion there are too many names to keep track of on a given page, but that happens only rarely.) Maybe it's not surprising that the Arab perspective on the Crusades would paint that exercise as a barbaric invasion, but the book (written in the 1980s) is evenhanded, not an anti-Western polemic. We learn about barbarity, and duplicity, on all sides. We also learn how often one side's victory was really the result of internecine squabbling among its foes. Plus, there is illumination of the jihad idea; an examination of the birth and actions of the Assassins sect; interesting anecdotes about the relationship between religion and regional power, and much else that resonate with current Middle East politics. Finally, the book's brief but very sharp epilogue examines how the Crusades may have affected Islamic attitudes toward the Western vision of modernity. For understanding that reaches deeper than many more-current titles on the Middle East and Islam, this is an excellent place to begin. Very readable, and even more informative.

This is really a terrific idea. Before this book, you probably would have needed to be a graduate student in history before you even realized that the Arab point of view of the Crusades had ever even been recorded, let alone preserved. This book strikes a beautiful balance between being a purely popular edition, and being something that people who study stuff like this for a living might read... It's the kind of book that Barbara Tuchman might have been proud to write.Amin Maalouf specifically disavows any intention to write a "history book" in his preface. His background is in journalism, and sure enough, he shows evidence of a journalist's ear and eye for the great story... for the gripping and/or galvanizing detail... for the telling gesture that provides the key to a character's persona. Furthermore, he makes it plain that he is not out to write a balanced account, any more than Western authors have historically been interested in providing balanced accounts of the Crusades. This really is presented from the Arab point of view... That said, it might be worth balancing your reading of this book with a concurrent reading of a western account, or you might get a little lost. It isn't easy to read a long book with so few familiar points of reference. Admit it -- unless you are a major history buff, you probably don't know much about this period even from the Western point of view! I think especially as Americans, there is a tendency to feel that this period in history is not very relevant to our country's history. After all, the events of this book took place long before nationalism, before (clearly) freedom of religion or of speech, mostly even before the Magna Carta was a glimmer in anyone's eye. It's hard for us Americans to really relate to this period -- our whole country was essentially created in reaction to it! In a funny way, this book fits in well with that feeling of being alienated -- Europeans of the time of the Crusades were every bit as alien to us, in terms of their mindset, as they would have been to the Muslims of that time.Let me offer a few thoughts. The whole text is sprinkled throughout with Arabic terms, which are helpfully explained in a glossary at the end. The glossary is only 2 or 3 pages long. You should xerox it, and keep the xerox handy while you're reading, or you might go mad from turning back and forth to the end of the book all the time. Also -- there ARE maps in this book. They aren't mentioned in the table of contents, and they're sort of tucked away obscurely, but they are in there. There's a fairly localized map of the eastern shores of the Mediterranean at the very beginning of the book, and a larger-scale map of the Islamic world in general, tucked in at the book's end... Also, don't miss Maalouf's great epilogue, where he tries to place the Crusades in context, in terms of their impact on Europe, and on the Islamic world.If you like this book, look for Bernard Lewis' "The Political Langu

The best effort I've ever seen at putting the reader in Arab shoes. It's not objective - read the title, it's not INTENDED to be objective. It's the Arab viewpoint, and it's grand. Perhaps the subtler lesson is that the Arab viewpoint is not a simplistic view of Arab victims and Western criminal aggression. It's far more nuanced; the Arabs of the day and of today were and are perfectly aware of the effects of internecine politics on their ability to stand up to the Afranj. What one might mistake for objectivity is the surprising discovery that the subjective viewpoint of the Arabs is complex and does not absolve them of all responsibility for their travails. What Maalouf succeeds best at is planting the reader squarely in a world centered around Baghdad, Damascus, and Cairo. Much as the Western depictions of the Mongols and Huns gain resolution as the events draw nearer to Europe's heart, the Afranj begin as a nebulous barbaric horde passing Constantinople, and become real people with real personalities as they approach Jerusalem, establish roots, and become part of the Middle Eastern political reality. One of the most successful attempts I've seen at portraying a familiar historical event from an unfamiliar perspective.

What can one say about a book that has the chief fault of leaving one wanting more? The Crusades Through Arab Eyes (hereafter, "Arab Eyes") is a beautifully composed book that draws almost exclusively from Arabic primary sources to tell the tale of the Western conquest, 1100-1300 AD. Unfortunately, whenever Maalouf isn't talking about military or political intrigue, he seems to loose interest. The book raises many fascinating topics -- the influence of Arab society on the Holy Roman Empire, the rise of a slave class to become the masters of all Islam -- without going into detail on any of them.The first encounter between Muslim and Crusader is told from the perspective of Kilij Arslan, a seventeen-year-old sultan who would go on to become a legendary name in the struggle of the Islamic people. The "Franj", as the invaders were called, were pouring into his country by the tens of thousands. A skilled military leader, Arslan carefully withdrew his forces into a defensive position, only to be startled by his first glimpse of this "army": ragged, untrained peasants with strips of cloth pinned to their tunics in the shape of the cross. Reluctantly forced into battle, Arslan easily smashed the Crusader legion into bits, considering the matter settled. He had no way of knowing that what he had seen was only the rumor of war, not the war itself.What may be most surprising to Western readers, such as myself, was that the majority of the Islamic struggle during the Crusader period, 1100-1300 AD, was not against Europeans, but against other Muslim leaders. The "empire" of Islam was sharply divided, and the question of rule was always at issue. In fact, many great Islamic kingdoms actually _joined with the Crusaders_ to gain rivals' territories.This is one of the many intriguing topics that Maalouf does not deem worth going into. In fact, he saves direct analysis of this for his epilogue, writing:"Every monarchy was threatened by the death of its monarch, and every transmission of power provoked civil war. Does full responsibility for this lie with the successive invasions, which constantly imperilled the very existence of these states?... Such a complex question cannot be dealt with in this brief epiloue. But let us at least note that in the Arab world the question is still on the agenda."As noted above, this is just one of many fascinating questions the book raises without answering. Students of Western history may be surprised to learn that the Florentine renaissance may have been the outgrowth of the Syrian renaissance that began with a bloody revolution led by a former slave. That a major Holy Roman Emperor favored Islam in every respect was certainly news to me.Maalouf's book isn't necessarily a place to find the answers to questions you may have about the evolution of world history during the period of the Crusades. Instead, it's a wonderful jumping off point, a brilliantly-organized work that suggests questions