Kingdom of Heaven: Propaganda Film?

Little Green Footballs ^ | May 1, 2005

[Minus_The_Bear]

The upcoming film Kingdom of Heaven seems to suffer from a heavy-handed pro-Muslim (if not an anti-Christian) slant. What book or books do you consider fair accounts of the Crusades (laying blame on both sides where is belongs and not solely blaming Christians). I've found Thomas F. Madden but wanted to find what Freepers had to say.

[Mount Athos]

A history of the Crusades, Steven Runciman.

[macbee]

I really enjoyed Barbara Tuchman's "A Distant Mirror", which, while not a history of the Crusades , places them within the social and historical context of the 14th century.

[airedale]

Crusades Through Arab Eyes by Amin Malouff. It deals with what was going on in the Arab world. Most of the other history I've read on the Crusades (good or ill) has all been written by a westerner. This book deals a lot with the Arab politics and customs. If you are serious about the Crusades then you'll need to read this book. It's a bit on the dull side and you should have a map. The place names are often not westernized.

A History of the Crusades by Steven Runciman all three volumes. This is a reference work not a fun narrative.

I've read a number of others but I can't remember the names.

Barbara Tuchman's Bible and the Sword while not entirely on the crusades is an good read. It covers Brittan's involvement in the area from the Bronze Age to the Balfour Declaration. It's not one of her best books but it's a good over view and she does cover the Crusades.

[Windsong]

"(if not an anti-Christian) slant."

It was?

[macbee]

Jonathan Riley-Smith is a Cambridge history professor who recently blasted "Kingdom of Heaven" as "rubbish" and "not historically accurate at all" in an interview for the Telegraph. By all accounts, he and Steven Runciman are two of of the world's leading authorities on the Crusades. Prof. Riley-Smith has a number of books out (as you might imagine) but for starters, you might want to read his "The Crusades : A Short History".

[Tamberlane]

I second the reco of Malouf. This is a man who understands that there are no good guys, with a few individual exceptions, in that whole story.

Re: seeing the crusades through Arab eyes, I find it incredible that A. Hourani's acclaimed A History of the Arab Peoples doesn't even mention the crusades. I think the author is an ethnic Arab of sorts. The book is otherwise very good.

[Major_Risktaker]

For the ultimate back stabbing crusade.
Try the 4th Crusade to understand how the Muslims finally invaded the Balkans.

What were the Crusades really about?

Author’s Note: HOLY SMOKE by JOAN ACOCELLA

[Hetty_Fauxvert]

Thanks for asking this question; I've wondered the same thing.

[guinnessman]

Warren Carroll's A history of Christendom covers the entire 2,000 year history of the Church, but volumes 2 and 3 give an accurate account of the Crusades

[timberlandko]

Among the best treatments of the first 3 Crusades is

The Crusades: Oldenburg, Z.

(New York: Pantheon Books, 1966)

Scholarly, authoritative, intricately detailed, yet very engagingly written. Get through the nearly 700 pages of text, and then the bibliography will keep you busy for a couple years.

[airedale]

I haven't read A. Hourani's book. I've added it to my reading list. One of the problems maybe that Sala ed-Din was a Kurd. The leadership on the Muslim side came out of the Turkish rulers not the Arabs. What ethnic group was Nur ed-Din (Zengi)? I can't remember. He proceeded Sala ed-Din. The 5th Crusade was mounted against the Egyptians. My memory is failing me but I think all the major generals and admirals were from ethnic groups other than Arabs.

What's your theory on why it was left out?

[Enterprise]

People get so bent just because a few Christians swept across the known western world on a rampage of murder and forced conversion."

Some people are bent at Christians because they hate Christians.

[Tamberlane]

Ed-Din and the other Zengis were Seljuk Turks. Your theory may well be right. That the book is systematic not chronological may also be a factor. But neither really justifies the strange omission.

[eclectic]

No surprise here

[A Balrog of Morgoth]

That Phillips book was an engaging read.

For your taste in books, I salute you, sirrah.

[A Balrog of Morgoth]

How did you like your ZOT?

[sheik yerbouty]

I've heard Cair is having a shi'ite hemmorhage over it..

[airedale]

I took a look at the reviews on Amazon.com Take a look at the review by Halla Yang. His/her comments are:

"This is not a book about wars, nations, or heroes: the Crusades are barely mentioned, Salah-al-Din gets scant mention, as do Timur, the Mongols, or other great conquerors mythologized in Western poetry and children's stories. Rather, this is a book about society, about urbanization, about economic migration, about the development of political and national consciousness, about the development of literatures, about the use of colloquial versus classical Arabic in poetry, about the rise of Ottoman bureaucracies, and the basis of their legitimacy and power. "