The crusades are a series of religious wars launched by the Medieval Christian European
Kingdoms against the Muslim states of the Middle East with an aim to gain Jerusalem
for the Christian realm. Much has been written about the crusades, many videos have been made
on this topic, but most of them share the same shortcoming. The majority of the mainstream
accounts of crusades are extremely Euro-centric, as often only Christian European perspective on
this process is being described. In this video, we are going to talk about the perspective of
Muslim chroniclers on the crusades and their views on the Medieval Europeans in general.
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While the Muslim and Christian states have warred throughout the Medieval era, there was not that
much contact between these two civilizations. The centers of the respective civilizations were far
from each and the more regular contacts were only in the peripheries - Iberian peninsula,
Mediterranean islands, and Anatolia. And most of these contacts contained military conflict.
This enabled both sides to have a stereotypical view of each other. Medieval Muslims thought of
their contemporary Europeans as savage, warlike barbarians, who lacked any sense of hygiene
and were backwards in their development. Europe was thought of as a cold, dark, and misty place.
At the time the Islamic world was much bigger, wealthier, and more scientifically developed.
Major cities of the Islamic world like Baghdad hosted hundreds of thousands of inhabitants,
while European cities like Paris and London would have had around 20k people each.
It probably only increased the condescension of Muslim chroniclers writing about the Medieval
Europeans before and during the crusades. But the Islamic world was politically divided.
The Abbasid Caliphate was well past its prime and on the eve of the First Crusade it had become a
mere figurehead. Centralized power had weakened and many small clans based on family ties thrived
throughout Syria and Palestine. The Shia Fatimid Caliphate, which ruled over Egypt at the start of
the crusades, was also on the decline on the eve of the First Crusade and had its own fair share of
problems. The power on the rise in the Middle East was Seljuk Turks. By the mid-11th century, they
governed over the Abbasid Caliphate in everything but name, and established the Rum Sultanate of
Seljuk in Anatolia from the formerly Byzantine territories. Right on the eve of the Crusader
invasion, the Islamic world had become subject to the losses of its main political leaders.
In 1092, the Seljuk Vizier Nizam al-Mulk, the Abbasid Caliph al-Muqtadi, and the Seljuk Sultan
Makhshah died. Two years later the Fatimid Caliph al-Mustansir died, along with his vizier Badr
al-Jamali. Such losses only worsened the disarray in the Islamic world and made the daunting task of
the Crusaders to conquer Jerusalem more realistic. According to mainstream historiography,
the era of the Crusades started with the call of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont in 1095,
to rise up and save Jerusalem from Muslims and protect Constantinople. The First Crusade was
successful in regaining Western Anatolia for the Byzantine Empire and most importantly in
the capture of Jerusalem, Tripoli, Antioch, Edessa, and other territories in the Levant,
which eventually led to the establishment of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Counties of Tripoli,
and Edessa and the Principality of Antioch. The Second Crusade was a failure. It started as a
reaction to the fall of the County of Edessa, as French and German armies headed by their kings
moved into Anatolia, where they were destroyed by the Seljuks. The remainder of the Crusaders’
force perished during and after the failed siege of Damascus. The failure of the Second Crusade
ultimately led to the Muslim forces commanded by Saladin Ayyubid regaining Jerusalem, which
became the key factor behind the mobilization for the Third Crusade. This time the Crusaders were
more successful, as some of the iconic medieval European monarchs like Frederick Barbarossa and
Richard the Lionheart played an important role in it. The Crusaders managed to regain major parts of
the Levant, captured Acre, but the ultimate prize - Jerusalem was protected by Saladin. The Treaty
of Jaffa was signed between Richard and Saladin in 1192, which recognized Saladin’s control over
Jerusalem, who pledged to allow unarmed Christian pilgrims and merchants to visit the holy city.
The following crusades did not do much to alter the status quo in the Levant. The original purpose
of the crusades was forgotten so much that instead of attacking Jerusalem at one point the Crusader
army got meddled in the internal Byzantine affairs and captured Constantinople inflicting
an immense blow on the Eastern Roman Empire at the time, when it was struggling to contain the
ever-increasing Turkic threat. In1291 the Mamluks of Egypt destroyed the remnants of the Crusader
states in the Levant putting an end to the Crusading period from the European perspective…
The view of the Muslim world on Crusades significantly differs from the Christian sources.
First of all, Muslims did not see the Crusades as a process
starting after the speech of Pope Urban in 1095, but rather as a continuation of the
Christian or Frankish aggression on the Muslim lands from the Iberian peninsula to Sicily.
Similarly, for Muslims, the Frankish aggression did not end with the fall of Acre in 1291but
continued throughout the Medieval era with events like Reconquista arguably all the way
until the rise of the Ottoman Empire as a state powerful enough to protect the Islamic realm.
It is notable that the Muslims of the Levant, who were at the receiving end of the First Crusade,
at first, thought of the invaders as another mercenary army sent by the Byzantines to plunder
their lands. Only after understanding that this time the threat was coming from Europe,
the Arab chroniclers started referring to the Crusading armies as Franks.
One of the first Muslim chroniclers to write about the Crusades was a legal scholar and
a preacher at the Great Mosque of Damascus, Ali ibn Tahir al-Sulami. Six years after the
crusader conquest of Jerusalem he presented his account of the Crusader attack in his book Kitab
al-Jihad (the Book of Holy War), which became an important part of medieval Islamic historiography.
Al-Sulami saw the First Crusade as a continuation of the Christian aggression on the Islamic world,
which started with the Norman conquest of Sicily,
then continued in Spain, and finally arrived in the Levant.
“A host [of Franks] swooped down upon the island of Sicily at a time of division and dissension,
and likewise they took possession of town after town in Islamic Spain [al-Andalus]. When reports
mutually confirmed the condition of this country [Syria] – namely, the disagreements of its lords,
the discord of its leading men, coupled with its disorder and disarray – they acted upon
their decision to set out for it [Syria] and Jerusalem was the chief object of their
desires . . . They [the Franks] continued zealously in the holy war (Jihad) against
the Muslims . . . until they made themselves rulers of lands beyond their wildest dreams.”
Ibn al-Qalanisi, a chronicler from Damascus, was 23 when the Franks arrived in the Levant.
He wrote from the first-hand experience about the hardships brought by the First and Second
Crusades. Most of al-Qalanisi’s writing is the narration of events that happened in this period,
but we also see some of the observations he made about the crusaders.
He recognized their prowess on the battlefield. He spoke of fear imposed on many Muslims by heavy
armored mounted Frankish knights. Al-Qalanisi spoke of the Crusader victory over Seljuks
describing fear caused by it in the Islamic camp: ”...this event, so shameful for Islam,
became known, there was a real panic, dread and anxiety swelled to enormous proportions”.
In general, al-Qalanisi played an important role in shaping the Crusader/Frankish stereotype
of powerful, but savage warriors, who would often commit atrocities, which would continue
to impact the writings of future chroniclers. Usama ibn Munqidh is another notable chronicler
of the Crusades. This illustrious man was born at the start of the Crusading movement
and lived very eventful 93 years acting as a close aide of different Muslim dynasties and leaders,
including Saladin Ayyubid, a poet, a diplomat, a warrior. Ibn Munqidh both fought the crusaders
and befriended some of their leaders. He maintained the general view of the
Medieval Christian Europeans held by the Muslims, which was lack of refinement,
low intelligence, and savagery. Ibn Munqidh was critical of medical treatment used by Europeans,
but as many other contemporary Arab chroniclers he recognized their military capabilities:
"all those who were well-informed about the Frank saw them as beasts superior in courage
and fighting ardour but nothing else, just as animals are superior in strength and aggression”,
“Franks (God curse them) are the most cautious of all men in war."
“God curse them” was a common phrase of reference to the Crusaders by the Muslim chroniclers.
Usama ibn Munqidh had the first-hand experience of military encounters with the Crusaders,
as he fought them at the city of Ascalon. But as a diplomat, he also traveled to Crusader states,
and had quite warm relations with some of its leaders. Ibn Munqidh was said to be
impressed with their courts and like that they were not fully autocratic.
Ibn Jubayr was arguably the Muslim chronicler with the most animosity and contempt for the Crusaders.
Being born in Muslim Spain and experiencing a slow decline of the Muslim presence in the
Iberian peninsula probably predisposed him to a negative attitude towards Christian Europe.
He travelled through the Levant on his way to pilgrimage to Mecca at the end of the
12th century and the Christian occupation made a huge negative impression on him. Ibn Jubayr
met refugees from Palestine and Northern Syria, who left the lands captured by the Crusaders and
understandably carried a lot of resentment and anger towards the foreign invaders.
Ibn Jubayr was unhappy with Muslims, who decided to continue living in the occupied lands,
alongside the Christian invaders. He argued that "there is no excuse before God for a Muslim to
remain in a city of unbelief, unless he is merely passing through In the land of Islam he finds
shelter from the discomforts and evils to which he is subjected in the countries of the Christians,
as, for example, when he hears disgusting words spoken about the Prophet,
particularly by the most besotted, or finds it impossible to cleanse himself properly, or
has to live among pigs and so many other illicit things. Beware of entering their lands. You must
seek God's pardon and mercy for such an error”. Apparently, the occupation of Jerusalem and
other lands in the Levant failed to cause that much resentment and mobilization in
the fragmented Muslim world apart from the refugee communities. Ibn Jubayr tried to
change this situation and did his utmost to rally the Muslims against the occupation.
Another important Muslim chronicler of the period Ibn al-Athir is mostly known for his monumental
work Al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh (The Consummate History”). He is among the chroniclers,
who argued that the Christian aggression against the Islamic world started earlier, when Toledo and
other cities of Islamic Spain, along with Sicily were taken by the Christian Europeans. Considered
a chief Muslim historian of the crusading period Ibn al-Athir, used his platform to call the
Muslims to mobilize and end the occupation of the Levant. He wrote about the fear, which grappled
the Muslim communities of cities under attack by the Crusaders, along with overemphasizing
the Muslim successes in repelling the Crusader aggression, while underplaying Muslim defeats,
arguably in an attempt to raise the Muslim morale for mobilization against the infidels.
One of the contemporaries of the latter Crusade period was Abu al-Fida,
a participant of the sieges of Tripoli and Acre. He presented accurate facts about atrocities
committed by both sides. Namely, he talked about the massacre of the male population of
Acre by the Muslim army following the siege and its women and children being sold into slavery.
He described the ultimate decline of the Crusader states following the defeat at Acre amidst the
despair and loss of morale by the Franks. In general, we can trace a trend of Muslim
attitudes towards the Crusaders throughout the crusading period. While at first there was more
curiosity towards the Crusaders rather than anger, continued occupation and massacre of the
Muslim population such as in Ma’arra started to change the attitude towards hostility.
Gradually the calls for Muslims to unite and expel the foreign invaders and cease
any kind of cooperation started to increase. The impact of the Crusades in the Muslim world
is still felt. While for the Christian West, the Crusading period is merely an important and
curious part of their history, which does not really have much to do with their modern lives,
for many Muslims it is seen as just an early episode of the Western aggression,
which is still going on today. Some Muslim politicians and opinion leaders still refer
to the perceived modern Western attacks on the Islamic world as a continuation of the Crusades.
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