ABSTRACT
The extracts from Ibn al-Qalānisi that follow give a vivid first-hand account of the fall of the Syrian coastal cities (Tripoli, Beirūt, Sidon, and later, Tyre), and of the effect on Islām’s spiritual capital of the influx of Frankish invaders into the empire. Muslim public opinion, alarmed by the tales of the Syrian refugees, demanded substantial military action by the central authorities; the Caliph and the Seljuqid Sultan, who, as usual, ‘promised to provide’.
