The Crusades Through Arab Eyes (Saqi Essentials)

Your jaw will be on the floor the entire time you're reading this book. It disposes of the dry expository style of most works of medieval history and instead takes on the narrative style of a novel. The unexpected twists of fate, spycraft, betrayals, assassinations, battlefield ingenuity, and unlikely alliances that make up the various kingdoms and city-states of the Middle East are laid out in a way where you'll genuinely get invested in these "characters" of history. You'll find yourself holding out hope that this time they'll stop the mysterious Frankish hordes, or rooting for Damascus over Aleppo or Acre over Jerusalem, only to suddenly have that hope smashed against the wall by marauding Turkish prince or a hashish-smoking Assassin from Iran.At the same time, Maalouf keeps his story completely based in hard research into *Arabic* primary sources of the time period, which is something only a tiny minority of the foremost "experts" on Middle Eastern history today ever even bother with. He maintains his credibility as a historian yet shows incredible prowess as a storywriter, seamlessly citing inline while encouraging the reader to be skeptical where appropriate. Writers like Ibn al-Athir become characters in and of themselves, contextualized into their own time periods and priorities as writers. Eurocentricity never once makes an appearance, keeping true to the title of the book by keeping you as informed or in-the-dark about the Europe of this period as the Muslims were then. Maalouf doesn't fall into a single racist trope about fanatical Muslims or anachronistic ideas of ethno-religious identity, ever the easy escape of the lazy Middle East expert. He does the hard work of showing you with hard fact the precise political motivations of every little prince of every little city, painting a beautiful picture of the region and time period that will leave you wishing for a TV adaptation of his work.

In this careful examination of the Crusades, Amin Maalouf paints a vivid picture of the events that transpired centuries ago and how they affect the Arab world consciously and subconsciously to this very day. The unfortunate theme in this book is the lack of unity. It took a person as strong as Muhammad to unite the people of the dessert and conquer land via a Islam. But it also took his death to decimate the unity and spark the Sunni/Shiite segregation. This unification, death, and power struggle repeats itself over and over to this very day.It easy to chalk of the Muslim world and misunderstood and violent (as the media presents it) but understanding their culture is very important in this globalized world. For example, Shiite Muslims from Iran are vilified but in order to grasp their ideologies one must first take into account the hostilities that surrounds the Shiite minority and why Sunnis have their own agenda against them. Then, how an act from a Western foreigner can easily trigger deeply rooted resentment and I don't mean to be political or sound like an apologist. Just giving some thoughts as to what this book puts into context when a religious political leader references Saladin or the reconquest of Jerusalem. The Crusades, to this day are considered acts of violence and rape that were somewhat avenged but still provoke a scar. Some forget that while the Franjs were sitting pretty in Damascus, the Moors were having a good old time in areas taken from Europe. Two sides to every story.This book read more like fable, in all honesty there are some things that make you wonder how much of it were real events and others were exaggerated to have grandeur. Nevertheless, this was an incredibly well written book that does a lot of justice to the Muslims with many bad ass people doing bad ass things in a time were doves were express mail and beacons on top of mountains were the instant message.Bravo Amin Maalouf. Peace be upon my Muslim brothers.

I have many books over the years regarding this subject and this is one of my favorites due to Amin Maalouf's outstanding organization and approach (six part chronology book) to this important time period. If you are not a student of the Levant Crusades you will be confused and bored with this book. Maalouf provides insight from the Arab chroniclers of the time to describe the mood and thoughts of rulers and peoples of the Levant during this time.Much of this history exposed to westerners is via writings from a Christian clergyman and 12th-century Levantine historian, William of Tyre. I would highly recommend the reader watching “The History Channel DVD, The Crusades” to obtain comprehension of this dynamic period of time. Here one gets to view the actors portraying William of Tyre and the Arab chroniclers of Ibn al-Qalanisi and Ibn al-Athir to obtain their emotions to various events that occur.This study offers much insight into the historical forces and factions of this time that even today shape Islamic disposition and consciousness. The reader needs to understand the Muslims took 88 years to ejected the westerners from their land in the 12th Century. They are looking for the new Salah al-Din Yusuf to come along in the next seventeen years to eject the Zionists.My only comment would be need of maps to illustrate areas of influence of Christians and Muslims during the periods discussed. I wish I had written this book.

The book does exactly what is said on the cover, written or translated into an easy to read style. Certainly an interesting perspective and well worth a read for any one interested in the period.

Detailed and informative. May be a little daunting to jump straight into this if you don't have any previous background knowledge or are a beginner to the subject. For those interested in the subject it provides a very well researched insight.

Really good read. Great perspective to see how this period mapped out through the eyes of the islamic inhabitants from squabbling petty rulers to the religious groups and the ordinary people. Seen through their eyes no one expected the invasions to be successful and so bloody and how the people despaired of their leaders to mount a defense and drive the crusaders back into the sea. As the story progresses we see how champions eventually emerged and were able to focus and turn the tide. We also see how the invaders eventually succumbed to the same intrigues and power struggles as their rival Islamic enemies.

This concentrates on documentary sources from the Arab side, which is fascinating but rather depressing as it turns out they were as squabbling, ego driven and venal as the Europeans. For every hero, there's a villain and plenty of people who were both at once. Well worth a read but not if you want to be cheered up!

As the title clearly indicates, this book is an attempt to depict the experience of the crusades through Arab eyes; in my opinion, it succeeded.Until I read this title, my two favourite works concerning the crusades were 'The first crusade' by Thomas Asbridge and 'The sword and the scimitar' by Ernle Bradford. This book joins that short list.One of the many bonuses to this title was that it filled a lot of the gaps in the aftermath of July 1099, such as the attempts by the Fatimids to reconquer Jerusalem, how the crusaders conquered Tripoli, Acre, the impact of the Mongols and the Mamluks on Arab civilisation. You come across interesting characters including Saladin, Zangi, Nur-Al-Din, Baybars, Qutuz, to name a few.If I have any criticism, it is that some bits of information should not be taken at face value. For instance, the author asserts that Richard the Lionheart had Conrad of Montferrat killed by the Assassins - this is speculation at best.I really enjoyed reading this and have certainly developed a more informed view of the crusades.