The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives

Front Cover
Psychology Press, 2000 - History - 648 pages
This comprehensive work of cultural history gives us something we have never had: a view of the Crusades as seen through Muslim eyes. With breathtaking command of medieval Muslim sources as well as the vast literature on medieval European and Muslim culture, Carole Hillenbrand has produced a book that shows not only how the Crusades were perceived by the Muslims, but how the Crusades affected the Muslim world - militarily, culturally, and psychologically. As the author demonstrates, that influence continues now, centuries after the events. In The Crusades the reader discovers how the Muslims reacted to the Franks, and how Muslim populations were displaced, the ensuing period of jihad, the careers of Nur al-Din and Saladin, and the interpenetration of Muslim and Christian cultures. Stereotypes of the Franks in Muslim documents offer a fascinating counter to Western views of the infidel of legend. For readers interested in the Middle Ages, military history, the history of religion, and postcolonial studies, The Crusades opens a window onto a conflict we have only viewed from one side. The Crusades is richly illustrated, with eighteen color plates and over five hundred line drawings and black and white photographs.
 

Contents

Expanded Contents List
xv
Preface by Yasir Suleiman
xxxvii
Dynastic Tables
xlix
Expanded Contents List
1
The Nature of Medieval Muslim Sources
9
Prologue I
31
The Eastern Perspective Seljuq Disunity 48549210921099
38
Syria and Palestine on the Eve of the First Crusade
48
How the Muslims Saw the Franks Ethnic
257
The Value of Popular Folk Literature
263
Later Medieval Views of the Franks in the Cosmographical
271
The Religious Dimension
282
The Frankish Threat to the Pilgrimage and to the Holy Cities
291
The Evidence of Contemporary Muslim Poetry
297
Whats in a Name?
303
Muslim Polemic and Propaganda about Frankish Christianity
310

Muslim Accounts
54
The Conquest of Jerusalem
63
Muslim Reactions to the First Crusade and the Establishment of
69
Crusader Expansionism and Muslim Disunity 49151810991124
76
Tailpiece
83
The Egyptian Perspective 48749210941099
85
Jihad in the Period 49356911001174
89
Spiritual Jihad the Greater Jihad
97
The Lack of Jihad Spirit in Syria and Palestine
103
Zengi and the Fall of Edessa
112
The Religious Dimensions of the Career of Nur alDin
118
The Image of Nur alDin in the Written Sources
132
The General Status of Jerusalem in the Medieval Islamic World
141
The Role of Jerusalem in the Propaganda of the CounterCrusade
150
Jihad Literature from the Time of Nur alDin
161
117
170
Jihad in the Period from the Death of Nur alDin until
171
The Evidence of the Medieval Muslim Chroniclers
180
Saladin and Jerusalem
188
Nur alDin and Saladin a Comparison
193
A Hollow Sham?
204
The Fate of Jerusalem in the Ayyubid Period
211
The Power of the Preacher to Rouse the Populace to Jihad
223
The Jihad Titulature of the Mamluks Evidence of Monumental
230
The Attitude to Jihad amongst the Military and Religious Classes
237
An Overview
243
Jihad in More Recent Times
250
The Propaganda Value of Saladins Magnanimity
316
Aspects of Life in the Levant in the Crusading Period
329
Muslim Views of the Frankish Leadership
336
Frankish women
347
Was the Frankish Lifestyle Influenced by the Muslims?
354
Travel
366
The Incidence of Conversion amongst Muslims and Franks
375
Cultural Exchanges between Muslims and Franks the Evidence
381
The LongTerm Effects of CrusaderMuslim Contact
391
Conclusions
419
Armies Arms Armour and Fortifications
431
The Aims of this Chapter
432
The Mirrors for Princes Literature
439
The Arms and Armour of the Muslims
450
Fortifications in the Levant in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries
467
The Conduct of War
511
Battles
518
Muslim Accounts of Individual Sieges
533
General Remarks
540
The Naval Dimension
556
An Overview of the Value of the Islamic Sources on the Conduct of War
578
Epilogue The Heritage of the Crusades
589
Some General Reflections
611
Bibliography
617
Index
635
Copyright

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About the author (2000)

Carole Hillenbrand is Reader in Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Edinburgh.

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