The Crusades Through Arab Eyes [B0451]

1989 PB in excellent condition, translated from the original French. European and Arab versions of the Crusades have little in common. For Arabs, the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were years of strenuous efforts to repel a brutal and destructive invasion by barbarian hordes. Under Saladin, an unstoppable Muslim army inspired by prophets and poets finally succeeded in destroying the most powerful Crusader kingdoms. The memory of this greatest and most enduring victory ever won by a non-European society against the West still lives in the minds of millions of Arabs today. Amin Maalouf has sifted through the works of a score of contemporary Arab chroniclers of the Crusades, eyewitnesses and often participants in the events. He retells their stories in their own vivacious style, giving us a vivid portrait of a society rent by internal conflicts and shaken by a traumatic encounter with an alien culture. He retraces two critical centuries of Middle Eastern history, and offers fascinating insights into some of the forces that shape Arab and Islamic consciousness today.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "I've read many books about the Crusades, all written from the Western perspective. Reading one which examines this historic period from the perspective of those invaded by the Crusaders, is eye-opening indeed. Well worth reading. It requires one to see the world from a much wider perspective. There is never just one view of life, of history ... it is always, inevitably going to be a reflection of one's individual, group, cultural, ethnic, et al perspective, no matter how careful we are to remain open to the reality that there is never just one truth. Excellent."; "This was well written and very informative. I am astonished at how much I was not taught or how singular the focus was in my history classes regarding the crusades."