The Crusades Through Arab Eyes

By Amin Maalouf. New York: Schocken, 1987. 283 pp. $8.95 (paper).

Reviewed by Jon West

Two of the three divisions of the PLO (Hittin and 'Ain Jalut) are named after medieval battles fought between the Crusaders and Arab forces in the Levant. Although the Crusades ended on June 17, 1291, when the Muslim armies surrounding Acre finally pierced Crusader defenses, sending Henry of France into a headlong flight for Cyprus, their legacy can still be felt in the Middle East.

In the West, the sights and sounds of medieval Palestine became etched into cultural memory, later to form the basis of "Orientalism." The Saracens became synonymous with the entire Muslim world. In the Middle East, dark references are still made in the fundamentalist mosques of Cairo and Damascus to the invading enemies of Islam. The Crusades fueled Western myths of the "Orient" as a place of decadent splendor, and the Arabs as rapacious, cunning thugs—myths which endure in the minds of millions in the West today. One of the reasons for the persistence of these images is their existence in an intellectual vacuum, devoid of the corrective influence of different opinions. At Oxford University, for example, no Arab authors can be found on the reading lists of students of the Crusader era.

Amin Maalouf, in his outstanding and thoroughly researched work, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, sets out to redress the balance by presenting the Arab side of the Crusades in their own words. Lengthy quotations from original sources are incorporated into an exciting narrative packed with fresh insights, off-beat details, and succinct commentary. It will not surprise the reader to learn that Maalouf is a highly regarded journalist and former editor of the respected Lebanese daily An-Nahar, as well as an award-winning novelist. This book harnesses these talents to the task of letting Arab historians speak for themselves, while condensing 200 years of action-filled history into one volume and never losing the interest of the general reader. The Crusades Through Arab Eyes is a story and a historical discussion rolled into one, and to the author's credit he never overextends himself into polemics, which is left for the professional historians.

The Arab chroniclers, diarists, and historians he rescues from obscurity for the Western reader weave a fascinating tale of Arab history during the Crusader era. Maalouf begins with Ibn Al-Qalanisi, the young Damascene scholar who observed the Frankish armies as they advanced through Palestine in 1096. Only 23 at the time, he lived to the age of 87, and as a city official was a longstanding witness to the fratricidal hatred of Radwan and Duqaq in Syria, the sectarian struggles of the petty Arab princes, and the military impotence of Baghdad.

Many of the other sources of Maalouf's story are close to the principal characters on the Arab side: Usama Ibn Mundiqh, an emir and adviser to the great soldier-statesman Zangi; Abul Fida', the governor of Hama; Ibn Shaddad, an advisor to Saladin, as was 'Imad Ad-Din Al-Isfanhani, and Abduzahir, a secretary to two sultans. As in classical Rome, historiography was a respectable profession for men of power and influence, who were also men of letters, at a time when the Western aristocracy was mostly illiterate.

Maalouf does not shy from providing heavily detailed accounts of military battles, largely because for the Arabs the Crusades penetrated and affected their everyday existence as a society. The rise of the Assassins in the mountain fortress of Alamut is related, as is Ibn Jubayr's description of oil deposits near Mosul. "The product looks like a highly viscous, smooth, shiny mud, giving off a sharp odor .... We were told that when they want to extract the bitumen they set it on fire. Allah creates whatever he wills. Praise be upon him," is his non-plussed reaction to the substance that was to become inseparable from the popular concept of the Arab. An entire chapter is devoted to Usama's diplomatic mission to the Frankish kingdoms, as the polished statesman recoils at amputative medicine and picturesque festivals.

The book's epilogue is masterful. To what extent were the Crusades responsible for shifting the epicenter of history westward? Was the decline in Arab civilization due to its complacent reliance on a militarily and economically superior Western civilization? Was Europe's ascendency in the Middle East due to a willingness to learn Arab culture through the Arabic language? Maalouf gives the reader food for thought in positing tentative answers to these timeless questions still passionately debated in the Arab world.

Jon West is a history major at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University. He is currently an intern at the Jordan Times in Amman, Jordan.