It has long been regrettable that, despite seemingly vast numbers of general histories of the crusading period from the Latin perspective, there has been no attempt to produce a similar work for the Muslim side. There have been some studies, but these have either been rather sensationalist (such as Maalouf's The Crusades through Arab Eyes, London, 1982) or do not provide a general political history (such as Hillenbrand's excellent The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives, Edinburgh, 1999). However, rather like the proverbial London bus, having waited for one political history of the “Counter-Crusade”, three arrive almost simultaneously. In 2013 came the English translation of M.A. Köhler's important work (Alliances and Treaties, Leiden, 2013), followed by two more: N. Christie, Muslims and Crusaders (London, 2014), and Cobb's book under review here, which presents an essentially narrative history of the events of the crusading period from the Muslim perspective.
Cobb's book opens with a brief introduction on modern historiography of the crusading period, Muslim views of Europe before the Crusades, and a description of the Islamic world in the late eleventh century. It then highlights how the Crusades in Syria were seen by contemporary Muslims as being simply one more Frankish invasion of a Muslim land, and that the Muslims themselves were to blame for this through their political and religious in-fighting and the weakness this caused. There is then an account of the initial stages of the crusading period as Cobb defines it: the Norman conquest of Sicily and Christian victories in al-Andalus. This is then followed by an account of the march of the “First Crusade” from Byzantium to Antioch.
The third chapter offers an assessment of the situation in Muslim Syria immediately before the arrival of the Franks, and highlights internecine squabbles amongst the Seljuqs. There then follows an account of the course of the First Crusade from Antioch to the battle of Ascalon, highlighting how Muslim disunity permitted this. The fourth chapter looks at Muslim responses during the first two decades of the Frankish presence, and shows that no Muslim ruler had the power to resist. Chapter 5 highlights the life of Zengi, including his capture of Edessa in 1144; the Second Crusade; and the unification and “Sunnification” of Syria under Nur al-Din in the 1150s and 1160s. This chapter also contains an account of the Second Crusade in Iberia, and the short-lived Norman state in North Africa, as well as Nur al-Din's takeover of Egypt.
Chapter 6 takes a detour from political narratives to discuss commercial, economic, cultural and social interaction and exchange between Latins and Muslims during the crusading period. It then presents a brief assessment of events in Iberia from the 1150s to the 1220s, in which the Muslims scored some notable successes against the Christians powers, before describing Saladin's reign and his famous victory over the Franks at Hattin and capture of Jerusalem. Chapter 7 has a detailed account of the Third Crusade in the Levant, a brief sketch of the period of Ayyubid rule up to 1250, and more detailed assessments of the Fifth Crusade, and the Crusades of Frederick II and Louis IX.
The eighth chapter starts with the impact of the Mongols on the Islamic world, before recounting their defeat at the hands of the Mamluks in Syria, the series of treaties and campaigns in the second half of the thirteenth century which culminated in the Mamluk capture of Acre in 1291 and the final expulsion of the Franks, and Mamluk campaigns against the Franks after that, particularly against the Latin kingdom of Cyprus in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The final chapter details the Ottoman conquests up to 1500, including the capture of Constantinople in 1453, before moving back to Sicily and Spain to examine the end of Muslim rule – and life – there.
A couple of points about the narrative should be noted. The main criticism one might make is the lack of assessment of the source material employed; this is clearest during the presentation of the Crusades in Syria as part of a wider Frankish campaign and in the emphasis placed on the importance of jihad in the careers of some early leaders – Cobb seems simply to accept the comments of the medieval Muslim writers, with little attempt at analysis or criticism of their stance. One other issue is that some events of great significance are not given the space they perhaps deserve; this is particularly true for the description of the scramble for Egypt in the 1160s, which is too brief, and the account of the Ottoman conquests, which comes as something of an afterthought.
Despite these issues, this book is an exceptional example of what it sets out to be: an introduction to the Muslim side of the Crusades. It is extremely well written throughout, the prose is lively and lucid, and it brings long-overdue alternative perspectives to the events of the Crusades. This is particularly clear, for example, during the account of the battle outside Antioch in 1098, which has up to now been seen almost exclusively from the Latin perspective; Cobb's account opens up a much-needed alternative point of view in the reader's mind on this event. It brings valuable new perspectives on a number of important events, such as the choice of Damascus in Second Crusade. It also, very importantly, highlights that there was not one “Counter-Crusade”, but many different Muslims reactions to the Frankish presence, and consequently that it was not the epochal clash of religions it is often seen to be. This is a necessary and welcome addition to the corpus of material on the Crusades, and will be useful for those studying Islamic history and Christian–Muslim relations as well. Its breadth, intelligence, and accessibility mean it should be a basic text for every course on the Crusades.
