11 March 2008
MN12 | Forgetting Osama bin Munqidh Remembering Osama bin Laden: The Crusades in Modern Muslim Memory
RSIS Monograph No. 12
This is an excellent piece of work on all counts … [t]he thesis makes a number of original contributions. Mr. Bhatia is able to combine his knowledge of the crusades with a knowledge of Arabic that allows his access to the modem sources – a rare combination. He is able to show how complex, nuanced, and far from universally negative the medieval Muslim view of the crusaders is. He shows the use by Al Qaeda of stories related in a medieval chronicle, and the use made of the towering figure of Saladin by a number of modem Muslim rulers. The treatment … is inventive and innovative.
RSIS Monograph No. 12
This is an excellent piece of work on all counts … [t]he thesis makes a number of original contributions. Mr. Bhatia is able to combine his knowledge of the crusades with a knowledge of Arabic that allows his access to the modem sources – a rare combination. He is able to show how complex, nuanced, and far from universally negative the medieval Muslim view of the crusaders is. He shows the use by Al Qaeda of stories related in a medieval chronicle, and the use made of the towering figure of Saladin by a number of modem Muslim rulers. The treatment … is inventive and innovative.
