[During the middle ages his work was current in a French translation, known as the _Chronique d'outre-mer_, or the _Livre_ or _Roman d'Éracles_ (so called from the reference at the beginning to the emperor Heraclius). This translation also contained a continuation by various hands down to 1277; while besides the continuation embedded in the _Livre d'Éracles_, there are separate continuations, of the nature of independent works, by Ernoul and Bernard the Treasurer. These latter cover the period from 1183 to 1228; and of the two Ernoul's account seems primary, while that of Bernard is in large part a mere copy of Ernoul. But the whole subject of the continuators of William of Tyre is dubious.]
To the Western authorities for the First Crusade must be added the Eastern--Byzantine, Arabic and Armenian. Of these the Byzantine authority, the _Alexiad_ of Anna Comnena, is most important, partly from the position of the authoress, partly from the many points of contact between the Byzantine empire and the crusaders. Anna's narrative both furnishes a useful corrective of the prejudiced Western accounts of Alexius, and serves to bring Bohemund forward into his proper prominence. The Armenian view of the First Crusade and of Baldwin's principality of Edessa is presented in the _Armenian Chronicle_ of Matthew of Edessa. There is little in Arabic bearing on the First Crusade: the Arabic authorities only begin to be of value with the rise of the atabegs of Mosul (c. 1127). But Kemal-ud-din's _History of Aleppo_ (composed in the 13th century) contains some details on the history of the First Crusade; and the _Vie d'Ousama_ (the autobiography of a sheik at Caesarea in northern Syria, edited and paraphrased by Derenbourg in the _Publications de l'École des langues orientales vivantes_) presents the point of view of an Arab whose life covered the first century of the Crusades (1095-1188).
For the _Second Crusade_ the primary authority in the West is the work of Odo de Deuil, _De profectione Ludovici VII regis Francorum in Orientem_. Odo was a monk attached by Suger to Louis VII. during the Second Crusade; and he wrote home to Suger during the Crusade seven short letters, afterwards pieced together in a single work. The _Gesta Friderici Primi_ of Otto of Freising (who joined in the Second Crusade) gives some details from the German point of view (i. c. 44 sqq.). The former is supplemented by the letters of Louis VII. to Suger; the latter by the letters of Conrad III. to Wibald, abbot of Stablo and Corvey. The Byzantine point of view is presented in the [Greek: 'Epitomê] of Cinnamus, the private secretary of Manuel, who continued the _Alexiad_ of Anna Comnena in a work describing the reigns of John and Manuel. It is from the Second Crusade that William of Tyre, representing the attitude of the Franks of Jerusalem, begins to be a primary authority; while on the Mahommedan side a considerable authority emerges in Ibn Athir. His history of the Atabegs was written about 1200, and it presents in a light favourable to Zengi and Nureddin, but unfavourable to Saladin (who thrust Nureddin's descendants aside), the history of the great Mahommedan power which finally crushed the kingdom of Jerusalem.[68]