by Josh Owens

Created on: January 10, 2007   Last Updated: December 02, 2011

The Crusades were a very violent time in the History of the Arab world. Most of the books that you read today on the subject, especially in the western world, were written by western historians. Western historians always referred to this period as the Crusades to reclaim the Holy Land from the barbarian Muslim people. I set out to find a view from the opposite side of the table, and was successful.

The Crusades through Arab Eyes was written by an Arab historian and not a western historian. Amin Maalouf wrote this book in 1984. It was written to finally give the point of view from the Muslim side. The content of the book is based exclusively on the testimony of Arab historians and chroniclers. These historians and chroniclers refer to this period not as the Crusades but as the Frankish wars or the Frankish invasions.

These invaders were referred to as the Franj, which is an Arabic word that is used today to describe Westerners and the French. The author states that he wanted to write from a "hitherto neglected point of view, what might be called the true-life novel' of the Crusades, of those two centuries of turmoil that shaped the West and the Arab world alike, and that affect relations between them even today. These chroniclers that Amin used for information were often eyewitness accounts of what was going on.

At the beginning of the Crusades the invading Franks had the momentum. The Muslims seemed to be asleep and unwilling to work together to repel the invaders. The Franks were driven by their religion to reclaim the holy lands and the Muslims did nothing. "Regard the Franj! Behold with what obstinacy they fight for their religion, while we, the Muslims, show no enthusiasm for waging holy war". This statement was made by Saladin one of the great Muslim leaders of this period. Muslims did not seem to want to fight for their religion and were willing to allow the Christians in their lands as long as the Christians left them alone. The Muslims bribed the Frankish leaders with gold and lavish gifts, which actually made the Franks even greedier.

The Franks slaughtered cities. The people of the cities that they took over were slaughtered. Even the people that were Christian were killed or sent out of the city. The Muslims didn't know what to think about the ruthlessness that the Christians showed. "Every time the Franj took one fortress, they would attack another. Their power mounted relentlessly until they occupied all of Syria and exiled the Muslims of that

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