Skemmtileg frásögn af viðbrögðum araba við innrás kristinna herja þegar Evrópubúar réðust í Krossferðum sínum inn í Palestínu og hertóku Jerúsalem og fleiri borgir.
Höfundurinn Amin Maalouf byggir frásögn sína á arabískum frumheimildum og gjarnan samtímaheimildum. Sjá má vel sundrungu múslimanna sem áttu í miklum innbyrðis erjum um þetta leiti og útskýrir það m.a. gott gengi fyrstu krossferðanna.
Þetta breytist þó þegar krossfararnir mynda nokkur borgríki og hefja innbyrðis deilur eftir nokkurra áratuga hersetu. Um líkt leiti nær öflugur leiðtogi, Saladin, að sameina múslima undir merkjum sínum og vinna aftur Jerúsalem.
Endanleg niðurlæging krossferðanna var svo þegar einn leiðangurinn snérist upp í umsátur um Miklagarð, höfuðborg hins Aust-Rómverska Býsansríkis, í stað þess að halda suður til Jerúsalem.
Þó ýmislegt vanti inn í frásögnina um krossferðirnar í þessari sögu lýsir hún afskaplega vel sjónarhorni múslima og samskiptum þeirra innbyrðis. ( )

A relatively short, but detailed account of the crusades from the eastern side. Essential reading alongside classic histories of the crusades. ( )

i learned a thing or two about how the Arabs view the world. A most interesting book by an Arab who lives in France, He writes about the Franj invasions but does not number the crusades That is the only fault in the book which is very fair to the Arabs and the Crusaders both. His epiliogue is worth the price of the book; he discusses why the Arabs are so screwed up today and is knowledgeable about them. He also discusses the reasons that the West did so well out of the Crusades. ( )

For those in the West, the Crusades were a series of military expeditions that Western Christians launch against Muslims to reclaim the Holy Land, however for the Arabs and the rest of the Muslim world, the Crusades were a shocking event. “The Crusades through Arab Eyes” is a narrative history by Amin Maalouf to give Westerners a glimpse of how the Muslim world in general saw the Crusades as they were happening over two hundred year span.

Maalouf starts his narrative in Anatolia with the beginning of the First Crusade from the perspective of the Seljuk Turk Kilij Arslan defending his kingdom against his neighbors then against what he believed to be “Franj” troops fighting for the Byzantine Empire. However as the Turk sultan was to learn as well as others, these Franj had different plans. Maalouf’s follows the progress of the First Crusade and the subsequent 200 years through the historical writings of Muslim chroniclers and how the Muslim world reacted throughout that period. The vast majority of the book is the history of the Muslim political and religious currents that interacted and reacted with the Franj, who were themselves divided into permanent residents and military adventurers that came and went.

In the Epilogue besides looking at the long-term effects of the Crusaders on the Middle East, Maalouf highlights something that readers will noticed quickly and what I have already alluded to in this review. While the chroniclers were Arabs, the political and military leadership throughout the Crusader era were Turks or Kurds. During the roughly 200 years that the Crusades took place, the native Arabs watched and experienced the forces of two “foreigners” ruling over them which is a very impactful thought to keep in mind while reading this book.

I first read sections of “The Crusades through Arab Eyes” in 2003 for a Middle East history class. Having now read it in full, I can say that seeing it without the Western romantic veneer or viewpoint brings the period into better focus. While not in-depth as some other books might be, this book gives the reader an easy to follow narrative overview of The Crusades “from the other side”. ( )

Maalouf describes the Crusades as seen from an Arab perspective. It is a brutal description of the crusades that contrasts with the Richard the Lionheart crusader stories we grew up with which never mentioned the canibalism and genocide practied by the crusaders.

The book is particularly valuable for showing the lack of unity in the Arab world as it confronted the challenges from the invasion. As such it can help understand current events in the middle east since many of the cities discussed in this book are the sites of battles today.

This is the 4th book I have read from Mallouf and the second non-fictional work. His best work remains his novel "The Garden of Earthly Delight" ( )