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The Crusades Through Arab Eyes (French: Les Croisades vues par les Arabes) is a French language historical essay by Lebanese author Amin Maalouf.[1]

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 (Franj), as the Arabs called them – who were considered cruel, savage, ignorant and culturally backward.[2]

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", and unaware of the most elementary rules of honor, dignity and social ethics.[3]

References

Citations

  1. ^ Bourget 2006, pp. 265–6.
  2. ^ Bourget 2006, pp. 264, 267, 268–9.
  3. ^ Bourget 2006, pp. 270–71.


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