Arab Historians of the Crusades

by Francesco Gabrieli and Seelcted And Translated From The Arabic Sourcs By Francesco Gabrieli

Book Overview

The recapture of Jerusalem, the siege of the Acre, the fall of Tripoli, the effect in Baghdad of events in Syria; these and other happening were faithfully recorded by Arab historians during the two... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0880294523
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Dorset Pr
• Length: 406 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 4.8" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

History lives today

A considerable amount of history during the early Middle Ages was written by Middle Easterners, and their scholarship should be taken seriously, as shown in this book. There is a lot of information appropriate to the issues in the region even now. See other reviews in the resource library at civilsociety dot seedwiki

Wonderful source material

Once you've read the popular histories of the Crusades, and your appetite for the original source materials has been whetted by the excerpts in Payne, Runciman, etc., you will want this book. It's THE source reader for the Arab perspectives, better in many ways than The Crusades Through Arab Eyes (Maalouf). You get the flavor of the culture as well as their particular slant on the events and personalities. And the snarky footnotes can be delicious!

Good book

A good book. It has many parallels with accounts of the original Muslim invasions and subsequent 700 year occupation of most of the Iberian (Spain/Portugal) Penninsula. Due to this initial Muslim invasion and occupation of Christian Europe, the Christian Crusades were launched into Spain and the Holy Land. Same story in the Balkans and Anatolia with the Seljuk and Ottoman Turk invasions of those Christian lands. First hand accounts of events always make for good reading. A good book, unfortunately I lost it.

Great achievment

Gabrieli must be congratulated on condensing the mass of Islamic sorce material for the covered period, into one condense book that fairly reflects the Islamic view on events all well known to the armchair historian from the Christian chronicles. Not only is it a great work of selection, editing and translation, but it is an enthralling read throughout. Always intersting, sometimes shocking and humourous. An essential accompliment to anyone's book collection who is intersted in crusader history.

Why were the Crusaders there - any way?

The history of the Crusaders cannot be complete without the contribution of the inhabitants of that part of the world. There are only a few books, probably no more than two or three, that attempt to relate the stories of the invaded against probably hundreds written from the view point of the invaders. The earnest reports of the Arab historians of the time contained in the book must be a reflection of the pain and outrage that must prevailed throughout the 100-year invasion of Syria's littoral region. Sensitive readers would find it easy to understand!Serious teachers of history will find this book authentic, clear and revealing. It represents a very interesting example in history writing by Arab historians of those days. For a narrative of some of the historic text included in this book, the invaluable work of A. Maalouf and J. Rothschild, "The Crusaders Through Arab Eyes" is a rich companion.