This article explores Arabic treatments, including translations, of Walter Scott's Talisman in the years 1890-1920, a span of time critical to the Nahḍa, or "Arab Renaissance." It argues that Arab authors and translators saw didactic potential in modern English literature about the Crusades, which scholarship on Arabic has tended to neglect. ya'qūb Ṣarrūf, Najīb al-Ḥaddād, and Faraḥ Anṭūn used Scott's literature of moral values and produced political, ethical instructions for a growing Arab public sphere. Their work with chivalry and the Crusades compels us to review the idea of Arabic adab, whose customary translation as belles-lettres proves insufficient.