A clash of civilisations? Yes, the crusades were marked by fanaticism and savagery. But, argues Suleiman A Mourad, they were also a time of collaboration and respect between Muslims and Christians Brothers in arms The Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II reaches an accord with the Muslim sultan al-Kamil in 1229 that saw Jerusalem handed to the crusaders. This is just one instance of cooperation between east and west in the era (though the two men never actually met in person) → GETTY IMAGES 62 63 Muslim-crusader interactions ying in his own blood When crusader history is treated as We have on the battlefield near ‘European’ history, it becomes easy to think Mansoura, his standard of it as a past extension of modern Europe, inadvertently covering his grievously tied to the national narratives of modern wounded body, Emir European countries (Italy, France and allowed modern Fakhr al-Din departed Germany, to name a few – none of which agendas to this world on 8 February existed as such in the Middle Ages). This also 1250. He had left his encampment with a tempts scholars and readers to reassess and determine the handfulL of guards to assess the army of King evaluate the crusades in terms of the values way we have Louis IX and devise a plan to defend Egypt they personally cherish. The Eurocentric from the onslaught of what became known agenda led some to imagine the crusaders reconstructed as the Seventh Crusade. But before he could as predecessors of those later colonialists make it back to safety, he was cut down in an whose duty was to ‘civilise’ the world – as crusader history ambush. This was a sad ending for someone in the French scholar Joseph-François who only a few months earlier had become Michaud’s 1840 Histoire des Croisades (‘The the de facto ruler of the Ayyubid sultanate. History of the Crusades’), a book that still Luck as well as talent had destined Fakhr exerts tremendous impact in Europe in al-Din for greatness. His mother had nursed general, and France in particular. Other the future Ayyubid sultan al-Kamil, which Europeans, influenced by the ideals of the strengthened the bond between the two Enlightenment or enraptured by oriental families. So when al-Kamil became sover- romanticism, were critical of the crusades eign in 1218, Fakhr al-Din was his closest and treated them as an ugly mix of religious confidant, and never left his side except on fanaticism and savagery – the Europe they important missions. wanted condemned. Two examples of this One of these missions was an embassy to trend are Sir Walter Scott’s 1825 novel Sicily to negotiate an alliance with Emperor The Talisman and the 1935 movie Frederick II of Hohenstaufen. Fakhr al-Din The Crusades by the great American achieved much more than that. In the short film-maker Cecil B DeMille. time he stayed in Palermo, he profoundly The Eurocentric reading of crusader A jeweller, herbalist, butcher Ian Keith (left) as Saladin and Henry Wilcoxon impressed the emperor. The two conversed history also gave medieval European sources and baker in a 13th-century (centre) as Richard the Lionheart in Cecil B about science, falconry and poetry (see box a place of dominance in writing the modern Turkish manuscript. DeMille’s 1935 filmThe Crusades, which on page 66), and before sailing back to narrative of the crusades. As such, non- Despite the wars, commerce delivered a damning verdict on Christian Egypt, Frederick held a ceremony to knight European medieval sources, which docu- moved freely between ALAMY Europe’s military campaigns in the near east his Muslim friend. ment the experiences of Greek-Byzantines, crusaders and Muslims GETTY IMAGES Armenians, Muslims and Arab-Christians, The two agendas are read according to the European sources. The story of Fakhr al-Din sums up the I do not mean to say that these other sources history of Muslim-crusader interactions furnish a more accurate history, but they are during the period. There were times for indispensable for a proper understanding of war – a lot of it. There were other times for the complexity of crusader history, and must diplomacy, alliances, friendships, commerce be given a central place in the rewriting of and the exchange of science and knowledge. the narrative, rather than a secondary role. There were also times when war and peace coincided. This complex legacy of the A humiliating fate crusader period in the Middle East is little Similarly, the Islamocentric reading of known. The reason is simple: many modern crusader history was shaped during the histories of the crusades have focussed on years of colonial subjugation of most the violence of the period – and, in doing so, Muslim-inhabited lands, starting in the have blurred our ability to see the other side. 19th century. Modern Muslim scholars This was no honest mishap. We have inad- have both imagined and used the crusades as vertently allowed modern agendas – one a predecessor of European colonialism; they Eurocentric, the other Islamocentric – to forewarn of the colonialists’ evil schemes determine the way we have reconstructed and augur that they will assuredly meet the crusader history. same humiliating fate as their medieval Indeed, since the 18th century, the ancestors. A great example of this trend is Eurocentric and Islamocentric agendas found in the popular survey Al-Haraka have imposed themselves on the historio- al-Salibiyya (‘The Crusader Movement’) by graphy of the crusades. They have shaped the Egyptian Said Ashour, which was first its narrative as a clash of civilisations. published in 1963. These Islamocentric In the process, all the evidence to the readings selectively employ Arab sources contr ary has been silenced or ignored; from the period, and champion specific if ­acknowledged at all, it has only been figures – such as Saladin and Baybars – seen as inconsequential marginalia. by exaggerating their anti- crusader → 64 65 Muslim-crusader interactions INFORMATION EXCHANGE ARCHITECTURE When Saladin took control of Egypt Muslim-crusader collaboration produced and ended the reign of the Fatimids innovations in several different areas in the 1170s, he constructed his palace on a promontory beneath the Muqattam hills in medieval Cairo, away from the alien Shia and Christian communities. Many of the artisans who worked there were captive crusaders, and employed techniques unknown to the Muslims and others in the Middle East. Crusader architecture was much stronger and more durable, and allowed for bigger structures than A c12th-century Fatimid ceramic bowl those the locals were used to. The featuring a mounted falconer. Emperor Muslims gradually learned these Frederick II drew on Arabic works when techniques of building and fortifica- writing his treatise on falconry tion, often by observing and studying the crusader castles that were spread all over the eastern Mediterranean. FALCONRY Emperor Frederick II developed such a passion for falconry that The Islamic world produced the first specially trained pharmacists, and attracted he once decided to author a book on Christian scholars hoping to improve the west’s understanding of medicine the subject. He first asked some scholars in his court to translate for A flock of sheep pictured in a 14th-century handbook of health. A dispute regarding ovine him the authoritative Arabic book ownership was the subject of a pioneering lawsuit brought about by Usama Ibn Munqidh on falconry, Kitab al-Mutawakkili, MEDICINE attributed to the ninth-century In the 1110s and 1120s, Stephen European scholars. It is thanks to Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil, and JUSTICE of Pisa journeyed to Antioch in the list Stephen composed as a other Arabic books as well. They During one of his many visits to of knights to adjudicate the case. search of Arabic knowledge, result of his translation of Ali ibn showed Frederick how to study crusader-occupied Acre, Usama Ibn After hearing both sides, the specifically philosophy. His desire al-Abbas’s The Complete Book falconry as a science, based on Munqidh, a nobleman who fought jury retreated to a room to deliber- for learning the superior sciences of on the Craft of Medicine that observations and tests. Together, many battles against the Christians, ate, and came back to deliver a the Muslims led him into other fields, many Arabic medical names they inspired Frederick’s De Arte A keystone from the 13th-century brought a case against the Lord of verdict in favour of Usama. The including medicine and astronomy. entered the medieval vocabulary Venandi cum a Vibus (‘On the Art of Montfort Castle in Israel. Muslims often Banias for seizing a flock of sheep king had no choice but to accept In Antioch, he led a team, including in Europe. Some, such as Hunting With Birds’), which scholars learned the techniques of fortification belonging to him. Usama presented their verdict. This was how the a Muslim convert to Christianity, to ‘cornea’ and ‘abdomen’, are still consider the first ‘scientific’ study by studying crusader strongholds his grievance there to the King of Muslims came to know about translate various works into Latin for in use today. on birds of prey. Jerusalem, who convened a jury jury justice. accomplishments, and ignoring their myriad shades in between. In other words, Acre, where he discovered countless farming at the court of the Muslim ruler of Mosul for several years. Al-Kamil’s son, Sultan The Islamic friendly interactions with certain groups there were never two camps. There were, villages inhabited by Muslims who seemed bearing a list of questions on astronomy for al-Salih Ayyub, delegated the logician and among the crusaders. however, many actors, with different agen- to him to live in complete harmony with a specific scholar, Kamal al-Din Ibn Yunus.