Rating: 
Summary: Splendid
Review: I highly recommend this book. Of more than 200 books I bought in the last two years, I never finished one in one day or read every single word of it. This one was so easy and interesting to read that I read it in one day and word-by-word! Of course, I am biased, as this era of history interests me. But the author takes credit for making this book interesting, with easy language, and well-placed comparative quotations. You can pick any 3 consecutive pages of this book and make an interesting movie out of it! The author's notes at the end of the book are interesting but simplistic. He asks and hints why the Arabic civilization deteriorated though it won the Crusade wars -I would call it Muslim Civilization and not Arab! I have already bought several copies of "The Crusades Through the Arab Eyes" to give to my friends as Christmas gifts!
Rating:
Summary: History at its best!
Review: I love it when I find hidden jewels like this. Amin Malouf ranks high up on my list of favourites. Its hard to find a history book that is a page turner at the same time but remains focused on the subject throughout. Although its been a while since I read this book, I still remember the excellently detailed descriptions of the battles and sieges and some of the sickening atrocities committed by both sides (Muslims and Christians) against the innocent. There's so much more that can't be said here. Read it and you'll become a fan.
Rating:
Summary: Fair, lively, and full of surprises.
Review: I ordered several books on the Crusades for a research project I conducted last year, and this may have been the most interesting. Maalouf describes the book as a "true life novel," and he does indeed succeed in depicting the characters, European and Middle Eastern, in all their bumbling, hopeful, fracticious, murderous, and occasionally heroic or far-seeing humanity. The main body of the book is divided into six parts entitled "invasion," "occupation," "riposte," "victory," "reprieve," and "expulsion," and each section is full of freshly personal details. In part this is the story of a religious invasion and its repulsion, in part, of the education of a group of European semi-barbarians, and in part, a mixing of two cultures both with something to learn from the other. At the end is added an interesting epilogue in which Maalouf offers lessons to be learned, about pluralism and prosperity and about openness to ideas from other societies. As a scholar of East Asia, I immediately recognized in his arguments the contrary stories of Japan and China in the 20th Century. No one should take this book as the story of the Crusades; Maalouf is in part trying to balance the more common "Western" viewpoint. He begins the story with the "invasion" of the "Franj;" but of course that invasion was, from the point of view of the Franks, a counter-offensive. But within the limits the author has set, this is an excellent, helpful and fascinating piece of historical reconstruction. author, Jesus and the Religions of Man
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting narriative...
Review: I picked this book out due to a general lack of in-depth books on the crusades from the muslem/arabian perspective. I was initially pleased but I was hoping for a more scholarly work. It is very intersting and entertaining but lacks analysis. I would not recommend this book for hardcore scholars (although its wonderful for bedtime reading) but definately for those with a more casual interest.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: I've read it many years ago and I strongly recommend. My copy is full of highlighted parts, notes etc.
From time to time I go back to the book and re-read it. Good also to understand the roots of present day conflicts. Don't miss this book!!!
Rating:
Summary: Reading across the great divide
Review: It is probably not a surprise that historians in the Arab and Western worlds have been telling different versions of the Crusades story. What is possibly a surprise is how much can be learned about the current relationship between the two sides by looking at the differences in these stories about the past.
Maalouf uses the texts of historians writing at the same time as the Crusades were occuring to create a story of how the conflict was seen in the Near East. At the same time, he describes the complex political structure that existed and examines what happened when groups with such different religious and civil backgrounds came into close contact with each other.
I am amazed how much Maalouf was able to do with so few words. The situation was obviously very confused and potentially confusing, but he is masterful in that he manages to simplify the issues for the readers of the book without reducing them past the point of meaning. After reading this book, I was not surprised to find out that Maalouf is primarily a novelist and I am anxious to read some of his other work.
If I have any complaint it is that there were so many subjects that could have been expanded on, but were not. I cannot fairly fault Maalouf for this as the book was a complete reading experience in an of itself. The book simply does what a good history book should do: It provides new information to the reader while at the same time stimulating him or her to read further.
Rating: 
Summary: Holding up a Mirror to the West
Review: It is sad that only a major political catastrophe has put this book on the map again. For "The Crusades Through Arab Eyes" was written more than twelve years ago. It is very unfortunate that in the preceding years the publications of award-winning author Amin Maalouf, who writes in French, have not received attention they deserve in the English-speaking world. For also in his other books he introduces the Islamic world from a very different angle than the one provided by most Western media and sensationalist writers, who have jumped on the post 9/11 bandwagon. The Lebanese Amin Maalouf is uniquely well positioned to portray the encounter between the West and the neighboring Islamic world. His country straddles a 'vault line' between two culture zones -- to the terminology of Samual Huntington -- and the journalist Maalouf has personally experienced the tragedy of people being segregated or, worse, violently clash along such a line. No longer able to engage in his profession he has been forced to go into exile in France. In spite of such a traumatic experience he has not given up on what seems to have become his mission as a writer: to point out that there is much more that unites us than that divides us. But then on the other hand, no dispute can turn out so vicious as a family feud. Amin Maalouf cleverly employs the theme of the crusades to make the reader aware of how these alien invaders were regarded by the diverse population of the Near East (contrary to the generally held impression, the inhabitants of Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria were and are a veritable ethnic mosaic). He holds up a mirror, so the speak, in which Westerners can see how they came across to people, who in many regards were more cultured, cosmopolitan, and probably much more tolerant, than these uncough warriors from Europe's back-of-beyond. In fact they were the keepers of the Judeo-Christian and Hellenistic legacies that constitute the very building blocks of our own Western civilization. Against this grander scheme of things, the book is also a vignette of a vibrant medieval culture, thus offering a window on a fascinating world that has unfortunatelly disappeared. By examining Levantine society on a micro-level, Maalouf makes its people spring to live. The demonized "Saracens" of Christian crusader lore now come first and foremost across as fellow human beings. In fact, once settled in the Holy Land, many of the European knights and noblemen quickly became an integral part of that stimulating cultural melting pot. Apart from "The Crusades through Arab Eyes", readers should read some of Maalouf's other informative and entertaining books on Islamic and Middle Eastern history, like "Samarkand", "Leo Africanus" and "The Rock of Tanios". They will come away with an image of an entirely different Middle East than the one currently dished out.
Rating:
Summary: Just a History Buff
Review: It is very difficult to get an account of a war from the point of view of the enemy. This volume shows the human side of the arab people. They had families and their jobs. They wanted to live in peace. However, the Franj would not let this be.
It shows the suffering the arab people endured at the hands of the crusaders and makes one ponder if the wounds they suffered during the crusades will ever heal.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous!
Review: It reads like a novel and covers 300 years of history in a most wonderful and clear way. A great read whether you do it for fun or a class. Recommended!!!
Rating:
Summary: A very interesting viewpoint...
Review: Maalouf's thorough research on the period of the crusades... this topic sheds a lot of light on the source deep-rooted mistrust of Arabs of Westerners and more importantly of Arab disunity. Wonderfully written in Maalouf's fluid style.
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