The Crusades Through Arab Eyes

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).

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).