Muslims and Crusaders supplements and counterbalances the numerous books that tell the story of the crusading period from the European point of view, enabling readers to achieve a broader and more complete perspective on the period. It presents the Crusades from the perspective of those against whom they were waged, the Muslim peoples of the Levant. The book introduces the reader to the most significant issues that affected their responses to the European crusaders, and their descendants who would go on to live in the Latin Christian states that were created in the region.
This book combines chronological narrative, discussion of important areas of scholarly enquiry and evidence from primary sources to give a well-rounded survey of the period. It considers not only the military meetings between Muslims and the Crusaders, but also the personal, political, diplomatic and trade interactions that took place between Muslims and Franks away from the battlefield. Through the use of a wide range of translated primary source documents, including chronicles, dynastic histories, religious and legal texts and poetry, the people of the time are able to speak to us in their own voices.
Chapter 2. The Muslim world before the Crusades
Chapter 3. The First Crusade and the Muslim response, 1095–1146
Chapter 4. Nur al-Din and Saladin, 1146–74
Chapter 5. Victory and stalemate, 1174–93
Chapter 6. War and peace in the twelfth-century Levant
Chapter 7. The Successors of Saladin, 1193–1249
Chapter 8. The Mamluks, 1249–1382
1. Extracts from the Qur’an and hadith
2. A depiction of the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah (r. 996–1021)
4. The fall of Jerusalem to the crusaders: two accounts
5. Muslim views of the crusaders and their motives
6. Extracts from the Book of the Jihad of ‘Ali ibn Tahir al-Sulami (d. 1106)
7. The failure of the Second Crusade at Damascus: two accounts
8. Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Wasiti (fl. 1019): extracts from The Merits of Jerusalem
9. Ibn al-Athir on Nur al-Din and Saladin
10. ‘Imad al-Din al-Isfahani on the Battle of Hattin and Saladin’s conquest of Jerusalem
11. Baha’ al-Din ibn Shaddad on Saladin’s virtues
12. An exchange of letters during the Third Crusade
13. Extract from al-Harawi’s treatise on Muslim military tactics
14. Usama ibn Munqidh on Frankish culture
15. Ibn al-Qaysarani and ‘Imad al-Din al-Isfahani on Frankish women
16. Al-Kamil Muhammad and the Fifth Crusade
17. Two sources on the handover of Jerusalem to Frederick II
18. Ibn al-Dawadari on the Battle of ‘Ayn Jalut
19. Qalawun’s treaty with the Lady of Tyre, 1285
20. Abu’l-Fida’ on the fall of Acre, 1291
21. Statements of Usama ibn Ladin (Osama bin Laden, 1957–2011), 1998