==The Crusades Through Arab Eyes== 
 Transcribing factoids: 
 * p. 253: The fortress of Marqab was held by the Knights Hospitallers, called al-osbitar by the Arabs. "These monk-knigts had supported the Mongols wholeheartedly, going so far as to fight alongside them during a fresh attempted invasion in 1281." 
 * p. 254: Arghun, grandon of Hulegu, "had resurrected the most cherished dream of his predecessors: to form an alliance with the Occidentals and thus to trap the Mamluk sultanate in a pincer movement.  Regular contacts were established between Tabriz and Rome with a view to organizing a joint expedition, or at least a concerted one." 
 * p. 256: Qalawun decided to renew the truce at Acre for another ten years from July 1989.  "The Palestinian port became the scene of intense activity.  Damascene merchants flocked there by the hundreds, renting rooms in the inns near the souks and engaging in profitable transactions with the Venetian traders or the rich Templars, who had now become the principal bankers of Syria.''"