In the study of history, one often tries to recreate cultures and movements for the sake of narrative coherence or linear structure. Many historians have fallen into this trap, including the general number of pilgrims, but mainly the concentration of participants in Arabs and Westerners. Especially in the works of Islamic annals, Maalouf is not drawn into the temptation, but rather delivers a more complex account of the pilgrim, highlighting politics and regional power struggles rather than running between monolithic ideologies.
Indeed, while the Seljuk Turks nominally controlled the entire Muslim East, their empire was little more than a loose confederation. Indeed, the Muslim world into which Peregrine entered was hardly the tyrannical and poor ‘Mohammedan’ whom the Catholic bishops accused. On the other hand, Middle Eastern culture and living conditions were superior to those of the West. While Europe is still recovering from its darkness, Maalouf recounts the work of Muslim grammarians discussing mathematics, science, and philosophy.
The Muslims, it seems, were superior in civilization and for a time they perceived the Franj military as solidly barbaric, thoroughly impure, and deadly perfidy. Cavalrymen began to percolate into the Middle East, although the archers of the Turks made the cavalry obsolete, and Franjus was finally feared for their ferocity and ruthlessness. It chills the blood to read Maalouf’s primary source transcriptions of the sack of the Holy City or the Cannibals at Ma’arra. Nevertheless, it is tempting to claim that Franj is so barbaric. While the brutality of the French rule certainly occurred, Maalouf found an exception in Emperor Frederick II. It is suggested that Frederick II was an atheist because he was far from religious. His peaceful conquest of Jerusalem is not only the latest in the history of the Pilgrims, but also the bloodiest.
In fact, Maalouf describes the relations between the Pilgrim Kingdom and Muslim leaders as more realpolitik than adhering to religion. The success of the Crusaders of the 1090s and the nearly century-long occupation of Jerusalem was, in large part, due to Muslim disunity. Maalouf argues that there is a lack of a coherent succession tradition in the East and the birth of a divisive conflict between the rulers and their emirs. Since power is thickest in blood, leaders often help the French to gain the upper hand in their own power through personal struggles. The book deals with the evidence of Islamo-Frankish coalitions, including the conflict at Tel Bashir where both armies were captured by Franco-Muslim coalitions.
Maalouf thus presents a more complex view of the Pilgrims than most history books present, and the use of early Muslim sources helps to rescue a perspective not previously seen in the West it was seen Crusades Through Arab Eyes is a seminal work in a field previously dominated by a Western perspective of simplistic, monolithic cultures designed for narrative coherence rather than historical accuracy.
Maalouf, Amin. A Pilgrim through Arab Eyes. New York: Schocken Books, 1984.
