The Crusades Through Arab Eyes

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1983

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Foreword-Prologue

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6-Epilogue

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Foreword-PrologueChapter Summaries & Analyses

Foreword Summary

The Crusades Through Arab Eyes details the lived experiences of Muslims who experienced the European Crusades, employing chronicles and histories authored by medieval Arab scholars. Eastern accounts view these conflicts not as Christian holy wars, or Crusades, but as invasions launched by the “Franj” (French). Maalouf asserts that extant scholarship overlooks this perspective, so this “‘true-life-novel’” fills this gap, and addresses clashes that shape relations between the Arab world and the West to the present (xiii).

Prologue Summary

A qādī (magistrate) of Damascus, Abu Sa`ad al-Harawi, arrived at Baghdad in August 1099 to chastise the caliph’s inaction in response to the Crusaders’ exploits in Syria and the suffering Muslims endured at their hands. Al-Harawi brought with him survivors of the terror to provide evidence of his account of the devastation. The Franj seized Jerusalem on July 15th, 1099, after besieging the city for 40 days. They massacred its inhabitants, including Muslim clerics and mystics. Jerusalem’s Jewish population suffered a similarly cruel fate. Some were killed in the streets while others were burned in a synagogue. Al-Harawi first became aware of these events when refugees arrived in Syria, stating, “for many believers, exile is a duty in the event of occupation” (xv).

These refugees felt it blasphemous to remain in lands non-believers controlled. They resolved to rally others to retake the holy city and vainly sought the caliph’s support in Baghdad. Al-Harawi was one of few Muslim leaders who recognized the severity of the threat: “Most, bitter but resigned, sought merely to survive” (xvi). The Crusaders’ conquest of Jerusalem launched years of tension between the Muslim world and the Christian West, though the Islamic resistance took several decades to materialize.

Foreword-Prologue Analysis

Maalouf introduces readers to several themes in his Foreword and Prologue. These include Crusading as a Multi-Ethnic Religious Conflict, The Context of Inter-Muslim Political Turmoil, and The Links Between Crusade History and Contemporary Politics.

Maalouf notes that his book will fill a void in Eurocentric Crusade scholarship that emphasizes the Western perspective and neglects the histories of Arab chroniclers. This bias has shaped Western views of Crusade history by presenting Muslims as barbaric and Crusaders as heroic figures. Maalouf’s book interrogates this perspective while situating the Crusades within the content of modern global politics. He argues that the Crusades continue to shape negative relations between the Arab and Western worlds.

He also challenges the notion that the Crusades were simply a conflict between Christianity and Islam, while still acknowledging their religious dimension. He points out that the Crusaders’ violence impacted Jews and eastern Christians, too. He also recognizes the refugee crisis they spawned, as Muslims fled the violence but also refused to live under European rule for religious reasons.

Maalouf introduces a critique that runs throughout much of the text: The failure of Muslim leaders to respond effectively to the First Crusade because of their internal conflicts. These internal problems caused setbacks for generations and, as he will suggest in his Epilogue, contributed to the Arab world’s cultural and intellectual decline.