While narratives shift with time, the alleged Western sensitivity to and apologies over the Crusades are also a new phenomenon. When you look at Islamic histories and writing from the time, the Crusades were viewed as a nuisance, sort of like a flea bite. The Levant had been a backwater since the ninth century as the center of the Islamic empire had shifted into what today is Iraq and Iran. The real concern among Muslims was focused on the threat from the east, where Turkic tribes were pushing against Islam’s eastern frontier ahead of the Mongol hordes who burned libraries, destroyed cities, and massacred populations. As for the Crusades, they were far more a counterattack in a constant frontier war than an unprovoked attack on Islamdom.