Two Writings of al-Ṭurṭūshī as Evidence for Early Muslim Reactions to the Frankish Crusader Presence in the Levant

Abstract

Near-contemporaneous source material for the earliest Muslim responses to the arrival of the Frankish crusaders in the eastern Mediterranean at the end of the fifth/eleventh century is extremely scarce, with the result that modern attempts to reconstruct such reactions can be only very limited in scope. This article examines two writings by the Andalusī Muslim al-Ṭurṭūshī, who wrote in Alexandria at the beginning of the sixth/twelfth century, that have been almost completely ignored, and highlights his concern about the potential threat to Egypt, which was mainly caused by the Frankish advances in his homeland.