Be Specific About Books During The Crusades Through Arab Eyes
| Original Title: | Les Croisades vues par les Arabes |
| ISBN: | 0805208984 (ISBN13: 9780805208986) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Richard I of England, Saladin |
Amin Maalouf
Paperback | Pages: 293 pages Rating: 4.19 | 6960 Users | 573 Reviews
Details Based On Books The Crusades Through Arab Eyes
| Title | : | The Crusades Through Arab Eyes |
| Author | : | Amin Maalouf |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 293 pages |
| Published | : | April 29th 1989 by Schocken (first published 1983) |
| Categories | : | History. Nonfiction. Religion. Islam |
Narrative To Books The Crusades Through Arab Eyes
This was a challenging reading experience, and I struggle to put into words why. I loved Maalouf's reflections on identity and cultural belonging, In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong, to the extent that I read it with students several times. I admired his autobiographical work Origins, which offers an explanation for his deep understanding of the diverse strands that make up an individual personality, shaped by numerous family patterns, education and personal experience. I thought I would love his well-researched, brilliantly detailed account of the crusades from the perspective of the Arab world as well. It promised to deliver new angles on a topic I had already studied with interest from the more common European standpoint, giving me a unique opportunity to gain better insight into the other side of the story that features the origin of East-West, Islam-Christian clashes - with lasting effects reaching into our contemporary world and history writing. I had to force myself to read on however. On multiple occasions, I was about to break it off altogether. Why? It was not the fact that all names and events seemed strangely distorted, told without the overarching context I was used to. That was quite charming, actually, once I got used to it. I had no issues whatsoever with the narrative bias either, as that was what I expected and hoped for. What made me cringe, over and over again? The interchangeable actors in a play filled with shortsighted power struggles, hubris, greed, stupidity and violence. It does not really MATTER that the perspective has changed from a European to an Arab setting. The reckless, faithless, brutal rapists and killers are just the same on both sides of the conflict. Yes, it is true that the crusaders are guilty of invasion, and the Arab local community is innocent. In that respect, the Christian rulers and their followers certainly are more guilty than the defenders of their own territory. But the outcome for the narrative is the same. One sequence of treason, violence, cowardice and war after the other, with no end in sight. What that means for civilians, and most of all women and children, I do not want to describe in detail. Such a completely meaningless, utterly idiotic conflict, forced upon people by criminal kings and churches in Europe, carried out by armies full of violent, uneducated brutal men, claiming to be acting in the name of an all-powerful god. Both sides were convinced that they were divinely justified to kill and ravage according to their current political needs. The book was, to be short and precise, too depressing to make a rewarding read. As it focuses on the military aspects rather than on cultural questions, I missed the erudite and balanced prose that I am used to from Maalouf, and had to work my way through countless sieges, all quite similar, regardless of which side won, and which side suffered more - depending on occasion. I believe it is important for this book to exist, and to be read, especially by European historians, but it was hard - very hard - to digest.Rating Based On Books The Crusades Through Arab Eyes
Ratings: 4.19 From 6960 Users | 573 ReviewsWeigh Up Based On Books The Crusades Through Arab Eyes
Recommended reading for an alternative look on the Crusades - just supported with copious quotes by Arab historians, no "Western" sources. Extremely interesting to see this clash of cultures from the "other" side - "our" extremely brutal fighters with little moral qualms, slaughtering everyone in their path in most brutal ways, the "early" Arabs being wholly unprepared and completely confused by so much religious zealotry. Especially the epilogue, linking this story to modern developments of theI have refrained from rating this book, because I really don't know whether it's a good account of how the arabs saw the crusades or not. My trust in the author's objectivity got a serious dent today after reading one of the sources he used. Amin Maalouf renders an account of Frankish barbarianism in medicinal practice on p. 131-132. When I check this passage in the original account of Usama ibn Munqidh, there are at least two more examples of Frankish medicinal practice directly following the
From ReemK10
I came to this book after reading several of Maalouf's fiction works. Even though it is a history book, it is very readable, and if it weren't for all the names, I would have thought I was reading a story. He draws the main figures of the Crusades as real people, not just objects of scholarly interest. I cried when Saladin died. Being an Arab myself, it was hard to shake the feeling of history repeating itself, but obviously the truth is more complex than that. What made the book important for
The Crusades were for the Arabs the Frankish Wars, and more exactly an invasion in different waves. Interesting account from another perspective and nice conclusions about the decline of the Arab World as center of knowledge in the aftermath.
Not only did our troops not shrink from eating dead Turks and Saracens; they also ate dogs! Documentation of rampant cannibalism among the Franj comes from the Franj themselves, but the historical accounts from Arab witnesses are what makes this book so enjoyable: the cannibalism, the elective surgery by battle-axe, the trials-by-ordeal,all described by genteel observers shocked at the barbarism of the blond peril. The book covers a long period where many rulers come and go, but major figures
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