Textcalibur!

In the interest of diversifying my ‘blogfolio’ (oh I kill me) and to share another aspect of my writing process, I thought I might start a new category: reviews. Specifically, book reviews. Even more specifically, historical book reviews. Even more…no, I’m done. Anyway, as those familiar with my project will know, I am writing a historical fiction book about the Crusades, focusing around the specific period of 1165-1188 AD. Whilst I am by no means attempting to write a history book, nor do I have any pretensions about my knowledge of the period being anywhere near deep enough to warrant such confusion, I do hope to capture some of the aspects of that period which enthralled me deeply enough to write about it in the first place.

This obviously requires research. In order to write about the 12th century in a credible manner, I have to know at least a little bit about what life was like then, who the major players were and so forth. I did have some knowledge of the period before attempting to write about it, but found my reserves decidedly lacking as it came time to provide examples of daily life, the social status of the varying ethnic minorities of Jerusalem or even what diseases might have been particularly prevalent in those days, and how they were treated(for example).

I’ve read quite a bit since then, and as I was recently brought back some tremendously fascinating books from Beirut(Damascus tends to be a little shy on English literature, and my Arabic is far from sufficient to peruse the selection available here) I thought it might be both fun and educational to share my thoughts on some of the opuses about the period. In this first installment of my reviews, I shall provide a brief overview of Amin Maalouf’s The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, published by Schocken Books in 1989. Click on the book cover to find it at amazon.com.

Amin Maalouf’s The Crusades Through Arab Eyes is not your ordinary history book. The first thing any reader will note is the complete absence of the footnotes, references and bibliographical notes which usually typify any historical opus. The second is undoubtedly its almost prosaic narrative, derived from a skillful mixture of the author’s own commentary and the verbatim retelling of his sources. Maalouf’s foreword gives the reader plenty of warning for the specific style of his delightfully unorthodox(by Western standards) compilation of historical accounts, proclaiming his book an attempt to tell the story of the Crusades(1099-1291 AD) through the eyes of contemporary Arabic sources.

There is no doubt that, due to the obvious bias of the sources used, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes is not suitable as a novice reader’s introduction to the Crusades. On the other hand, one should consider the unspoken bias of most western accounts of the Crusades – ‘Frankish’ sources can rarely be accused of any amount of objectivity and The Crusades Through Arab Eyes would provide an excellent companion to any traditional Western account of the Crusades.

Maalouf’s work does not need to be read as a history book, however – it is a tremendously entertaining read, even when taken out of the admittedly dry category of history books. Maalouf has transcribed his considerable number of sources into a very cohesive narrative, causing none of the literary discord typically found in works using multiple sources. The Crusades Through Arab Eyes provides both a holistic overview of the Arab response to the arrival of Frankish Crusaders and a detailed account of smaller, almost insignificant events which provide welcome relief from the barrage of information a reader is usually subjected to in a historical account.

Provided one comprehends the limitations of a work using solely ‘one-sided’ sources, Maalouf’s work stands as a uniquely comprehensive insight into the Arab mindset from their surprised reactions to the First Crusade to their eventual victory over the Frankish presence in the Levant.

Highly recommended!