Usamah ibn munqidh biography examples
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Online Medieval Sources Bibliography
Born into a noble family in Shayzar, northern Syria, Usamah ibn-Munqidh was a prominent Muslim author, courtier, and warrior during the Crusader period, who served in the courts of Imad al-Din Zengi and Nur al-Din in Damascus and, later, of Saladin in Egypt. A celebrated and prolific author during his lifetime, Munqidh composed collections of poetry as well as topical anthologies, which often included autobiographical anecdotes and poems meditating on a single theme. He is best remembered for his anecdotal anthology, “The Book of Contemplation,” and his poetry collections, “Book of the Staff,” “Kernels of Refinement,” and “Dwellings and Abodes.” Munqidh is one of only two Syrian Muslim authors from the Crusading period with extant works, and his writing provides valuable insight into Muslim views and interactions with the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. FE
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- For a chronological overview of Usamah’s life, see: Paul M. Cobb, “Introduction,” in Usama Ibn Munqidh, The Book of Contemplation: Islam and the Crusades, (London: Penguin Classics, 2008), pp. xi-xlviii.
- Hitti, Philip K., trans.; Bulliet, Richard, An Arab-Syrian Gentle
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Usama ibn Munqidh
Banu Munqidh poetess and historian
Majd ad-Dīn Usāma ibn Murshid ibn ʿAlī ibn Munqidh al-Kināni al-Kalbī[1] (also Usamah, Ousama, etc.; Arabic: مجد الدّين اُسامة ابن مُرشد ابن على ابن مُنقذ الكنانى الكلبى) (4 July 1095 – 17 Nov 1188[2]) defender Ibn Munqidh was a medieval Arabian Muslim versemaker, author, faris (knight), streak diplomat disseminate the Banu Munqidh 1 of Shaizar in boreal Syria. His life coincided with depiction rise illustrate several nonmodern Muslim dynasties, the traveller of description First Holy war, and description establishment criticize the campaigner states.
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The Medieval Globe
Footnotes
1.Ibn Munqidh, Kitab, 66: "fa-innahum lā yutakallimūn ilá bi'l-Ifranjí mā nadrí mā yaqūlūn." Translations are my own, except when citations of other translations are noted. This incident has also been discussed by Wild, "Open Questions," 17.
2.Derenbourg, Ousâma, 50 and n. 2: "sa connaissance de la langue des Francs n'allait pas au delà de quelques mots." See also Derenbourg "Quelques mots," 453, 455, 462, and König, "The Unkempt Heritage," 443. Another major work on this topic is Hasan ʿAbbas, Usamah ibn Munqidh, ḥayatuhu wa-atharuh.
3.Murray, "National Identity," 107–30.
4. For studies of Old French in the Levant, see H. Kahane and R. Kahane, "Lingua Franca," 26, 29, 40; Mallette, "Lingua Franca," 331–32, 334, 339–40; Minervini, "What We Know;" Aslanov, Le Français, 43–51, 77–92. The earliest evidence cited by Henry and Renée Kahane for the "incipient stages" of the formation of Outremer French dates to the Fourth Crusade. Karla Mallette's conception of the medi eval Mediterranean lingua franca actually refers to the ChristianMediterranean lingua franca, Arabic, understood here as an umbrella term and functioning as a vehicular language, that also subsumed various dialects and served as a Mediterranean lingua franca t