Christian-Muslim Relations during the Crusades
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Arc Humanities Press
Published:30th Jun '23
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
The popular view of the Crusades is that of two zealous armies ranged against each other in a state of practically permanent warfare, lacking mutual respect, understanding, or co-operation. Scholars long ago replaced such ideas with a much more nuanced understanding, in which rulers from both sides could work together for mutual benefit, even while pretending to ascribe to the principles of crusade and jihad. This perspective, however, focused almost exclusively on the actions of the elites; the attitudes of those who made up the vast majority of the society in the Levant have been all but ignored.
In a clear and accessible form, this book explores everyday relations and interactions between Christians and Muslims in the Levant during the Crusades, demonstrating that it was usually practicality rather than religious scruples that dictated their responses to the religious other.
Mallett (Waseda Univ., Japan) investigates the accommodating interactions of Christians and Muslims during the crusades “in order to demonstrate that they [the crusades] not only resulted in violent conflict, but also produced some of the most tolerant and multicultural spaces of the whole medieval period” (p. 1). After an introduction summarizing both the events of crusading history from 1095 to 1291 and their modern historiography, additional chapters address five topics that embodied interchanges: alliances and treaties; knowledge exchange (educational forms, technological science, medicine, geography, magical lore); inter-religious knowledge and perspectives; aspects of everyday social, professional, religious, and cultural relations; and religious conversions. As much as he is able, Mallett attempts to highlight non-elitist attitudes, but such written sources are admittedly meager. In the end, readers will decide whether the evidence presented here supports the convivencia that the author presents, namely that “everyday life in and around the crusader states was as tolerant and mutually cooperative as anywhere else in the medieval world, and perhaps predominantly more so” (p. 98).
-- R. C. Figueira * Choice Connect 61, no. 8 (April 2024) *For such a contentious topic as the crusades, [Mallett] never enters into polemics and makes sure that the readers do not draw biased conclusions based upon partial evidence. His treatment of the First Crusade massacre at Jerusalem in 1099 (57–58), for example, is one of the most balanced I have seen. Early Muslim sources for the massacre are adduced, then the later ones, with both of their biases highlighted, and then a final note that the massacre should be understood within the context of the time, as the Seljuq Turks had equally massacred the entire population of Jerusalem some thirty years prior to the First Crusade.
Christian-Muslim Relations is a solid introductory work to the entire period of the crusades (1095–1291) and would be quite useful as a quick overview and reference work.
-- David Cook * Speculum 100, no. 3 (July 2025): 825-ISBN: 9781641890199
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
114 pages
New edition