Reviews

• Amin Maalouf must be read by anyone and everyone

  The Occident lives in a mindset where the Occident is the standard of all things, and anyone or anything that diverts from it is immediately classified as something other than “normal” or “natural”. When this authors proposed to write the history of the crusades - several decades ago - from the point of view of the normally described as enemies or impious or heretics or enemies of the faith, he broke through centuries of remarkable scholarship and what I must call a pacific and I disturbed understanding of the world by the Occident. This author has, however, produced such an amazing work that decades later he became one of the most important members of the Académie Française of the French language, which is no small achievement at all. All of this is to say that great works in History and Literature necessarily have to make us think and rethink a thousand times what we consider the normal and given understanding of the world. If nothing else, Amin Maalpuf has achieved this rare and remarkable status and his work is a must for any person who wants to really understand the world from a multicultural perspective.

• Estupendo!

  Un libro necesario hoy en dia para comprender mas el mundo arabe. Ademas se lee muy fácilmente y con un ritmo frenético. Lo recomiendo mucho

• History repeats itself

  This is an alternative view of an era normally seen through western eyes. For such a detailed book it is amazingly easy to read. The parallels between the crusades and the present are fascinating. Put al-Qaeda in the role of the crusaders trying to destroy a culturally more advanced society. The arab mystification at the schism between eastern and western christianity and the violence between the two mirrors the schism between Sunni and Shia muslims today. The old man of the mountains sending out his assassins on suicide missions just as Osama Bin Ladin does today. Perhaps we can also find solutions in the past. The sect of the assassins was only destroyed when the arab world sickened of their violence and turned against them.

• Need of Primary Non European Materials: This work is a contribution

  The book is a primary source book for theoretical and narrative historians and students. One problem with historiography ,especially for Asian historians,is that most materials are from the West and naturally Euro-centric. So making original Asian materials is of great value. Of course contemporary narratives also need textual criticism but this book gives life experiences and so can be given almost the value of epigraphic materials. I had always doubted the history of crusades I studied in school/college and had later developed my hypothesis that the phenomenon is comparable to the predatory Mongol invasions .That is, predatory invasions of poverty stricken martial societies plundering rich settled societies. This book gave me solid evidence for my hypothesis .i have made some inquiries about the social,martial,ideological,sacred organisation of Mongols but i am yet to come across such a sociological work about tribal/early feudal Latin Europe. Can somebody give some link? This book gives such details about the Anatolian/Syrian society. The book also supports my thesis that a wealthy creative civilization need not be one which is politically and militarily unified (the West Asian society of the period was rich and cultured and because of that had decentralized polities and civic politics).This becomes a disadvantage when confronted by less civilized societies which are militarily well organised.Reading about such details gave me insights and pleasure(example,about the cities of Aleppo,Tripoli etc). My knowledge about the roles the Italian city states,Catholic imperialism etc in this process was substantiated besides my suspicion that the Crusades were the the factor which created Islamic fundamentalism in the cultured societies of West Asia. And crusades made the West Asian Christians' lot precarious This a good addition to my reference library

• How Arabs see past events and their influence on current affairs.

  Translated from the French, this book forgives no-one but does seek to set the record straight re The Crusades and the angst that we here in the west inherited as a result of our misguided efforts. Seeing the problem from the other side is crucial to understanding what fronts of diplomacy may be possible in the coming century, if at all. Not a light read, but worth it. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

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