Here it is.
The Crusades Through Arab Eyes: Life from the Other Side
In The Crusades Through Arab Eyes the author Amin Mallouf presents a history of the crusades from the time of the Frankish invasion of Palestine in the year 1096 on through to the end of Frankish occupation in the year 1291. Throughout this history Maalouf sets out to, in his own words, “To tell the story of the Crusades as they were seen, lived, and recorded on ‘the other side’ - in other words, in the Arab camp.” (xi). Maalouf carries out his task in a very compelling way. Maalouf’s narrative moves along nicely from event to event in the two hundred years of war with the Franks. His forward is brief and to the point, describing what he wishes to do with the book and sets up the main emphasis of the epilogue. In this forward he describes his philosophy, “Rather than offer yet another history book, I have sought to write, from a hitherto neglected point of view, what might be called the ‘true-life-novel’ of the Crusades, of those two centuries of turmoil that shaped the West and the Arab world alike, and that affect relations between them even today.” (Maalouf xi). And he does present the history more as a novel than a textbook although he does not forsake academic integrity, as seen when one of his sources gave the death toll of an Arab city in the hundreds of thousands, Maalouf interjects with, “Ibn al-Athir’s figures are obviously fantastic, for the city’s population at the time of its fall was probably less than ten thousand.” (Maalouf 39). Which brings up a very important part of the book: Maalouf consistently cites the accounts of Arab scholars or historians from the time of the Crusades. By doing this Maalouf gives the narrative an authentic tone and also by giving the reactions he presents some of the culture of the Arabs at the time. Within the text there are no footnotes, although at the end he goes chapter by chapter giving notes and sources for each chapter, if he uses an Arabic word he defines it within the narrative. Maalouf does not insert maps during the story but rather has one map at the very beginning of the book giving the political map of the Middle-East in the time of the Crusades and one at the end presenting the current political map of the Middle-East. Within the main body of the text, the background he gives on certain events is very interesting. Such as when to adequately describe one of the instances of the infighting that went on in the Arab camp he goes into the back story of the Assassins sect, the radical cult of devoted killers.
As his story begins, Maalouf opens with a prologue that is set three years after the start of the Crusades. And in this prologue he presents a kind of overview of much of what happens throughout the book. He presents the cries of the faithful of Islam, hoping for those in power to unleash justice on their invaders, and their disappointment when those leaders turn a deaf ear to their plea. Perhaps most importantly he introduces one of his many contemporary sources. For it is after he does this that he proceeds to go back three years to where it all began.
As chapter one begins Maalouf opens with a quote by the chronicler from the prologue. In this quote Maalouf foreshadows much of the first chapters, namely the trickle of terror that starts to run through the land of the Arabs as the Crusaders enter their territory. From that point on he moves sequentially through the entire occupation of the Holy Land by the Crusaders. The perspective he gives for the Crusades is very interesting partly because of the sources he uses and how he presents them. For instead of taking in all of his research and paraphrasing it all, he instead lets the people of the times speak for themselves much of the time. This does not mean that he does not have his own words for what is going on throughout the book but he will first let the witnesses of the events speak for themselves, then he will go about interpreting the information given. This way of presenting his information is very satisfying and vital for his main objective of giving the perspective of, “The other side” (Maalouf xi).
While he is not hesitant to show the faults of the Crusading armies (and there were many to be sure) he also is willing to bring into the light the flaws of the Middle-Eastern armies, such as the wars of succession that followed the death of nearly every leader mentioned throughout the book. Maalouf does have a sort of bias in favor of the Arabs throughout the account though, but it is not without reason. It is very difficult to not feel sympathy for the invaded peoples for they were so advanced in almost every way over the Crusaders, only to be invaded by an army brutal enough to, in one instance Maalouf cites, describing the Crusaders, the self proclaimed ‘defenders of Christendom, fighting even with the “Christian” empire of Byzantium, “All the Rum [Byzantines] were killed or despoiled… some of their notables, pursued by the Franj, attempted to seek refuge in the great church they call Sophia. A group of priests and monks came out … begging the attackers to spare their lives, but the Franj paid no heed to their entreaties. They massacred them all and plundered the church.” Maalouf (221, 222). It is these instances when his bias can seem very justifiable.
In conclusion, the book is well written though sometimes I would get lost for a couple pages, not clearly seeing what was going on in the narrative. This usually came about due to the many different names presented to me that with which I was not familiar. So the fault is not really the authors. Aside from this though, his book is an insightful look on events that should be taken into account even today when considering the affairs of the Middle-East. He even mentions this in his epilogue, in which he spends much of its time talking about the effects the Crusades had on both East and West and the differences between the two societies. He ends the epilogue with the dramatic phrase, “And there can be no doubt that the schism between these two worlds dates from the Crusades, deeply felt by the Arabs, even today, as an act of rape.” (Maalouf 266). And that is one of history’s purposes as a science is it not? To better understand the events of today through the lens of the past.
Works Cited
Maalouf, Amin. The Crusades through Arab Eyes. New York: Schocken Books, 1984
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