The Crusades Through Arab Eyes

The Crusades… Source of debate for most people of the Middle East.


For the purpose of this blog, my aim is to reflect upon the Christian experience of given events. True, it may be ironic that most of the accounts of the Crusades come to us through the Western Christian perspective already, but what about those “other” Christians? Oh yea, the ones in the Middle East, where the religion originated perhaps…?

There is a book on the subject which I deem highly informative and unique in its approach, for it describes the Crusades through the Saracens’ (Arabs’) perspective. The book does not concentrate on the religious differences between Middle Easterners of that time, but rather on their cultural similarities and shared views regarding the arriving Franks (Crusaders mostly from France) into their territories.

Perhaps it can be easy in the West to assume that the Crusaders were welcomed to the Holy Land and seen as “Christian brothers,” but the truth is that they were seen as barbarian invaders, plain and simple. And it seems that a lot of that had to do with cultural differences rather than religious affiliation. Some could say that the Christians, if not also the Jews, of the time had become “Arabized,” thus creating the gap between Eastern and Western Christians, but I think that the isolation of those worlds can be just as good a potential explanation. Communities were much more segregated and isolated in the Middle Ages which limited travel and encounters with those of far-off lands. It would make perfect sense for the Christians of the Middle East to feel more connected to their neighbors, whether Christian, Jewish or Muslim, than to these European foreigners even if they were “Christian” by definition.

No matter the chosen explanation, Amin Maalouf’s The Crusades Through Arab Eyes is a highly recommended read that is sure to both enlighten and entertain. As a lover of history, I personally would have read this book no matter its length or writing style, but I can pleasantly say for those who are not particularly history-inclined that this book is rather concise (293 pages) and written in such easily-absorbed language that you may find this very hard to put down. Plenty of action, alliances and betrayals on all sides…
men killing men as history has repeatedly shown.

The least I want to do is examine at least 2 sides of the story. +

Amazon.com link to purchase, read reviews, etc.:

The Crusades Through Arab Eyes - Amin Maalouf