Amin Maalouf has sifted through the works of a score of contemporary Arab chronicles of the Crusades, eyewitnesses and often participants in the events. He retells their stories in their own vivacious style, giving us a vivid portrait of a society rent by internal conflicts and shaken by a traumatic encounter with an alien culture Sifts through the works of a score of contemporary Arab chroniclers of the Crusades, eyewitnesses and often participants in the events. This book retells their stories in their own style, giving us a vivid portrait of a society rent by internal conflicts, and shaken by a traumatic encounter with an alien culture.