Review

General Books

The Crusades are fundamental to the understanding of Western civilization because they represent the period when Europe reentered the larger world system. Nonetheless, they play a minor role in a survey of Middle Eastern history. Indeed, the concept of "crusade" was developed in the West and, as a subject, has engendered little interest among Muslim historians. This tension invigorates the subject and makes Carole Hillenbrand's The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives a very welcome addition to scholarship on the Crusades. Hillenbrand aims to present the Islamic perspective on and response to the Crusades in order to serve as a corrective to European-dominant views of the Crusades. In this effort, she introduces sources mainly unknown to Anglophone scholars. Her study also focuses on less well known issues such as Muslim and Frankish military alliances, long periods of détente and peace, trading links between East and West, and the complex political and religious motivations behind the actions of key figures like Nur al-Din, Saladin (Salah al-Din), and Beybars.	1
The introduction does a very good job in providing the historical context and the development of the Crusades with an emphasis on the Muslim perspective and contemporary situation. Hillenbrand's excellent discussion of the nature and problems of the sources as well as of Muslim historical writing and the inclusion of long quotations enliven the text and allow the reader to engage more directly with the material (especially since many of the sources she presents are not readily available in translation). She is, however, clearly aware of the limitations of contemporary Islamic historical sources, which are often fragmentary or focused only indirectly on the Crusades, but she makes full use of what is available. Furthermore, she is cognizant of the historiographical context, and places discussions of themes within that context, such as the overtly ideological nature of both Islamic and western Christian sources throughout the pre-modern era. The historical sweep clearly allows readers to see the development of ideas. For example, it shows a contrast between early sources which did not identify political or religious reasons for the Franks' presence in the Middle East and later ones which did recognize religious motivations along with colonial ones.	2
The first two chapters provide the essential historical context from which Hillenbrand takes readers to explorations of the development and practice of jihad (chapters 3-4), ethnic and religious stereotypes of the Franks in Muslim sources (chapter 5), practical life in the Middle East (chapter 6), conduct of war and armaments (chapters 7-8), and finally the afterlife of the Crusader era and its resonance in the modern Middle East (epilogue). Especially noteworthy is her consideration of social, economic, and cultural exchanges between the two cultures which underscores several chapters. Teachers of both medieval Europe and the contemporary Middle East will benefit from discussions of how the Muslims viewed the Frankish invaders and particularly Frankish women. Finally, her analysis of the historical memory of the Crusaders proves useful for understanding the modern world, e.g., the use of jihad, importance of Jerusalem as a site of Muslim piety, and so forth.	3
While the chapters on jihad provide some of the best parts of the book, Hillenbrand's discussion is somewhat problematic. Although she explains the term's more complex meaning and the greater significance to Muslims of jihad as a spiritual exertion in the path of god, she does so only after several pages of using it exclusively to mean "holy war." By explaining the concept later rather than right away, the author deposits the idea that "holy war" is the primary and dominant meaning, which is not only misleading but also feeds into the all-too-common misconception about the meaning of the concept prevalent in lay and academic circles.	4
The book includes many illustrations to "evoke in a general fashion the ambience of life in the Middle East between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries" (p. 434), but while in a sense she succeeds in accumulation, she does not do so in incorporation. The illustrations are infrequently analyzed, and it is often unclear how they relate to the text. While there is a better treatment of the statues and buildings illustrated, fabrics and architectural details are rarely addressed, and thus lack agency as historical objects encoded with meaning. Readers also should be aware that Hillenbrand overstates the Eurocentrism of Western medievalists, perhaps in part as a result of her aim of writing not only for a specialist audience but also a general one. Western medievalists regularly situate the Crusades in the larger context of European expansion, which included Spain, Southern Italy, and the Baltic, and have moved far beyond an isolated, triumphalist narrative. Moreover, one of the most popular source books in medieval history (Patrick Geary, Readings in Medieval History) offers four lengthy texts representing Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Byzantine views of the First Crusade that encourage students to think comparatively about the Crusades era.	5
At $50.00 the book is rather expensive for a non-specialist reader, who might be bettered served by the $25.00 Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades, edited by noted Crusade scholar Jonathan Riley-Smith (OUP, 1995), which includes an essay on Islamic views of the crusading movement, or the new Cambridge Textbooks entry, The Crusades, c. 1071-1291, By Jean Richard (CUP), also $25.00. However, while other books may be more affordable, they do not fully achieve her goal of presenting Islamic perspectives and sources on the Crusades. Hillenbrand's The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives received Honorable Mention by the Albert Hourani Book Award in 2000 given by the Middle East Studies Association. It is an important and useful book, strongly recommended to college and university teachers, upper-division students, and specialists in medieval history. Teachers interested in designing a comparative unit on the Crusades or interested in that era's modern resonance would be well served by this book. Hillenbrand's study provides and inspires many possibilities for comparative work, for example, Frankish and Muslim religious fanaticism, views of each other, their respective faiths, notions of chivalry, and so forth.	6
California State University, Long Beach Houri Berberian Leslie Knox

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