
The Crusades Through Arab Eyes
1983 · 293 pages
Two centuries of crusade told from the receiving end, out of the Arab chroniclers: the Franj, as they called the invaders, eat the dead at Maarat and sack Jerusalem the following year.
★ 5.4

Two centuries of crusade told from the receiving end, out of the Arab chroniclers: the Franj, as they called the invaders, eat the dead at Maarat and sack Jerusalem the following year.

Scott built the Middle Ages everyone still pictures: tournaments, Norman lords over conquered Saxons, Robin Hood in the greenwood, and Rebecca, a Jewish healer tried for witchcraft, who takes the novel over.

Runciman tells the Crusades from Constantinople looking west, and the men in armor come off badly. Three volumes of grand narrative build toward his verdict: one long act of intolerance in God's name.