Ibn al-Athir had a point. Yet we must be cautious about following too closely. For generations, historians have been trying to fight the idea that the medieval Crusades were at root a “clash of civilizations” between the Christian and Islamic worlds. For one thing, such a stark and binary reading of medieval history plays uncomfortably into the narratives of extremist factions today, ranging from white supremacists and neofascists in America and Europe to Islamist fanatics and followers of al-Qaeda and ISIS.* For another, to characterize the Crusades as a simple faith war between Islam and
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