The story of the crusades has been told and retold in Western histories-but invariable from Western perspectives. Carole Hillenbrand's fresh interpretation drew on Islamic sources that describe the crusades from a Muslim point of view. For the first time, a multitude of the era's Islamic voices are fully heard, and their accounts challenge narratives that have been accepted in both the West and the East. Hillenbrand's new perspectives on jihad, the often-friendly relations between Muslims and Crusaders, the widespread inter-Arab warfare of the period, and Muslims' frequent near indifference to the invaders' religious beliefs help us understand the modern Islamic world.
