Carole Hillenbrand's The Crusades
The Crusades are one of the most important processes throughout history. Carole Hillenbrand tries to portray this event from the Islamic perspective in her book “The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives”. She believes that the Crusades are underrated in Islamic historiography. A good book, describing this process from Muslims’ point of view, does not exist. The author refuses to use opinions of Near Eastern Christians: ”The material presented in this book excludes the views attitudes of Near Eastern Christians - Coptic, Syriac, Armenian and others - whose experiences are also an integral part, together with the Byzantine and Jewish perspectives... ” . Carole Hillenbrand complains that we do not have any source describing the Crusades from the Islamic
…show more content…
Carole Hillenbrand provides the main historical background of the Crusades, making the book easier to read. She discusses the first four Crusades, their motifs, failures and successes. She mentions the most popular participants of the Crusades such as Godfrey of Bouillon, Raymond of Toulouse and Bohemond of Sicily. Most of all I liked that she tries not to lose the reader in the mess of history by providing those important concepts about the Crusades. The Crusades are one of my favorite events throughout history. In addition, teaching about the Crusades at school is quite common in my country. For instance, personally, I had to learn new facts about it in two classes. Even though I gained decent knowledge about the Crusades, their reasons, their consequences, I have never read anything approaching this subject from the Islamic perspective. Each time, I hear the word “Crusades”, I start thinking about the Christians conquering Islamic lands, starting numerous battles against the Muslims and killing a lot of people, who would not give up sacred places like Jerusalem,not allowing the Christians to pray at this places. Furthermore, I think about the feelings of Christian soldiers, about their desires to get rich, about their motives, but I never think about Muslims. I think about the loss of a great number of Christian soles, but rarely about Muslim ones. I know the quite many names of the Christian
Carole Hillenbrand provides the main historical background of the Crusades, making the book easier to read. She discusses the first four Crusades, their motifs, failures and successes. She mentions the most popular participants of the Crusades such as Godfrey of Bouillon, Raymond of Toulouse and Bohemond of Sicily. Most of all I liked that she tries not to lose the reader in the mess of history by providing those important concepts about the Crusades. The Crusades are one of my favorite events throughout history. In addition, teaching about the Crusades at school is quite common in my country. For instance, personally, I had to learn new facts about it in two classes. Even though I gained decent knowledge about the Crusades, their reasons, their consequences, I have never read anything approaching this subject from the Islamic perspective. Each time, I hear the word “Crusades”, I start thinking about the Christians conquering Islamic lands, starting numerous battles against the Muslims and killing a lot of people, who would not give up sacred places like Jerusalem,not allowing the Christians to pray at this places. Furthermore, I think about the feelings of Christian soldiers, about their desires to get rich, about their motives, but I never think about Muslims. I think about the loss of a great number of Christian soles, but rarely about Muslim ones. I know the quite many names of the Christian