Facing the Franks Again: The Crusades in Arab Social and Political Thought (1914–48)

Abstract Recalling the Crusades emerges as a very signficant aspect of the image of the West in the Arab thought of the second half of the twentieth and the first decades of the twenty-first centuries. This article explores the roots of the this modern anti-Crusader rhetoric in the period between the world wars, both of which drastically altered the imaginary and self-perception of the populations of the Middle East and North Africa. It traces the main patterns of using the Crusades in Arab social thought and politics in this period, analyses why such references were used in various contexts and demonstrates their connections with the heritage of the major intellectuals, littérateurs, and public figures of the Arab cultural revival ( al-nahḍa ).