Crusades Through Arab Eyes

The author has combed the works of contemporary Arab chronicles of the Crusades, eyewitnesses and often participants. He retells their story and offers insights into the historical forces that shape Arab and Islamic consciousness today.

"In the minds of most Westerners the Crusades conjure up romantic images of Christian knights fighting the Muslims in order to recapture the Holy Lands once again for Christianity. To the Arabs, however, the Crusades represented two centuries of repeated invasions and turmoil instigated by the West. In this volume the author presents the observations and views of Arab historians in a series of selective excerpts from their works over the two centuries of conflict that culminated in the defeat of the West in 1291. In his informative epilogue the author argues convincingly that much of the present day mistrust of the West by the Arab world is one of the lasting and bitter legacies of the Crusades." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)

"A readable and entertaining mirror image of events that are as familiar in the West as fairy tales." New Yorker

"Amin Maalouf, in his outstanding and thoroughly researched work, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, sets out to redress the balance by presenting the Arab side of the Crusades in their own words." Jon West, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs

The author has combed the works of contemporary Arab chronicles of the Crusades, eyewitnesses and often participants. He retells their story and offers insights into the historical forces that shape Arab and Islamic consciousness today.

European and Arab versions of the Crusaders have little common. What the West remembers as an epic effort to reconquer the Holy Land is portrayed here as a brutal, destructive, unprovoked invasion by barbarian hordes. When, under Saladian, a powerful Muslin army-inspired by prophets and poets-defeated the Crusaders, it was greatest victory ever won by a non-European society against the West.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [267]-276) and index.