IBN MUNQIDH, USAMAH

(1095–1188)

Usamah Ibn Munqidh was a Syrian nobleman and military leader who fought as the ally of the great Muslim leader Saladin in the Third Crusade against the European invaders. He was also a learned man of letters—a student of the KORAN and of Arabic poetry who wrote a book on rhetoric (al-Badi) and a book of his own poems (Diwan), but he is best known for his autobiography, Kitāb alI’tibār, which he wrote when he was nearly 90 years of age. Usamah was born into a noble family—his family castle still stands in the western part of Syria—in the year that Pope Urban II called for the First Crusade. He was raised to be a courtier and a warrior, and was admired in his time for his physical and mental prowess.He lived in the area around Palestine and so was acquainted with crusaders who had made a home there, and counted some among his friends. He also fought bravely alongside Saladin against both Frankish armies and against enemy Arabs.He witnessed the fall of the Fatimid caliphate in Egypt. In 1174, when Usamah was 79 years old, Saladin gave him a permanent residence in the palace in Damascus. It was during his residency there that Usama wrote his famous memoirs. For Western readers, the most interesting parts of the autobiography deal with Usamah’s encounters with, and views of, the Franks and other Europeans. Most interesting are his views of western medicine—at one point he is brought in to help two European patients (as a learned man he knew a good deal about Muslim medicine) and begins to treat them, only to be overruled by a Frankish doctor who quickly kills both patients. Usamah also comments on marital relations among the Franks, whom he sees as being strangely without jealousy regarding their spouses.

But in Usamah’s text, the Europeans are only a sidelight. He writes of his home life, of his military victories and defeats, and of military strategy. He includes anecdotes about hunting and about animals, as well as some poetry. Looking back at his life, Usamah does not understand all that has happened to him, but sees life and the world as governed by an overall divine plan.Usamah’s book makes fascinating reading for its picture of life in 12th-century Syria and its presentation of a Muslim view of the Crusades.

■ Hitti, Philip, trans.An Arab-Syrian Gentleman and Warrior in the Period of the Crusades: Memoirs of Usamah Ibn-Munqidh. Records of Western Civilization. 1929. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.