8.4 /10 1 Votes8.4
Country France Originally published 1983 | 4.2/5 Goodreads ISBN 0-8052-0898-4 OCLC 22435105 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Publication date 19831984 English translation Similar The Rock of Tanios, Leo Africanus, Samarkand, The Gardens of Light, In the Name of Identity | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Crusades Through Arab Eyes (French: Les Croisades vues par les Arabes) is a French language historical essay by Lebanese author Amin Maalouf.
As the name suggests, the book is a narrative retelling of primary sources drawn from various Arab chronicles that seeks to provide an Arab perspective on the Crusades, and especially regarding the Crusaders – the Franks (Franj), as the Arabs called them – who are considered cruel, savage, ignorant and culturally backward.
From the first invasion in the eleventh century through till the general collapse of the Crusades in the thirteenth century, the book constructs a narrative that is the reverse of that common in the Western world, describing the main facts as bellicose and displaying situations of a quaint historic setting where Western Christians are viewed as "barbarians", unaware of the most elementary rules of honor, dignity and social ethics.