If you have any questions, please email me (ggolden@ric.edu), and I will do my best to answer them. Primary Source Material: Sourcebook note: Usamah (1095-1188), was a Muslim warrior and courtier, who fought against the Crusaders with Saladin. Yet as a resident of the area around Palestine, he also had a chance to befriend a number of them. His autobiography dates from around 1175. Read the following excerpts: Mysterious are the works of the Creator, the author of all things! When one comes to recount cases regarding the Franks, he cannot but glorify Allah (exalted is he!) and sanctify him, for he sees them as animals possessing the virtues of courage and fighting, but nothing else; just as animals have only the virtues of strength and carrying loads. I shall now give some instances of their doings and their curious mentality. In the army of King Fulk, son of Fulk, was a Frankish reverend knight who had just arrived from their land in order to make the holy pilgrimage and then return home. He was of my intimate fellowship and kept such constant company with me that he began to call me “my brother." Between us were mutual bonds of amity and friendship. When he resolved to return by sea to his homeland, he said to me: "My brother, I am leaving for my country and I want you to send with me thy son (my son, who was then fourteen years old, was at that time in my company) to our country, where he can see the knights and learn wisdom and chivalry. When he returns, be will be like a wise man." Thus there fell upon my ears words which would never come out of the head of a sensible man: for even if my son were to be taken captive, his captivity could not bring him a worse misfortune than carrying him into the lands of the Franks. However, I said to the man: "By thy life, this has exactly been my idea. But the only thing that prevented me from carrying it out was the fact that his grandmother, my mother, is so fond of him and did not this time let him come out with me until she exacted an oath from me to the effect that I would return him to her." Thereupon he asked, "Is thy mother still alive?" "Yes." I replied. "Well," said he, "disobey her not." *** A case illustrating their curious medicine is the following: The lord of al-Munaytirah wrote to my uncle asking him to dispatch a physician to treat certain sick persons among his people. My uncle sent him a Christian physician named Thabit. Thabit was absent but ten days when be returned. So we said to him, "How quickly has thou healed thy patients!" He said: "They brought before me a knight in whose leg an abscess had grown; and a woman afflicted with imbecility. To the knight I applied a small poultice until the abscess opened and became well; and the woman I put on diet and made her humor wet. Then a Frankish physician came to them and said, “This man knows nothing about treating them.' He then said to the knight, 'Which wouldst thou prefer, living with one leg or dying with two?" The latter replied, Living with one leg.' The physician said, 'Bring me a strong knight and a With one leg. The e with the ax. And I w sharp ax.' A knight came with the ax. And I was standing by. Then the physician laid the SD: Then thế physician laid. leg of the patient on a block of wood and bade the knight strike his leg with the ax and chop with the ax an it off at one blow. Accordingly he struck it-while I was looking on-one blow, but the leg was , upon which the marrow of the leg flowed out and the patient died on the spot. He then examined the woman and said, "This is a woman in whose head there is a devil which has possessed her. Shave off her hair.' Accordingly they shaved it off and the woman began once more to eat their ordinary diet-garlic and mustard. Her imbecility took a turn for the worse. The physician then said, “The devil has penetrated through her head.' He therefore took a razor, made a deep cruciform incision on it, peeled off the skin at the middle of the incision until the bone of the skull was exposed and rubbed not severed. He dealt another blow. it with salt. The woman al I hem whether my services were needed any longer, and when they replied in the negative I returned home, I have, however, witnessed a case of their medicine which was quite different from that. The king of the Franks had for treasurer a knight named Bernard, who (may Allah's curse be upon him!) was one of the most accursed and wicked among the Franks. him in the leg, which was subsequently infected and which opened in fourteen different places. Every time one of these cuts would close in one place, another would open in another place. All this happened while I was praying for his perdition. Then came to him a Frankish physician and removed from the leg all the ointments which were on it and began to wash it with very strong vinegar. By this treatment all the cuts were healed and the man became well again. He was up again like a devil. Another case illustrating their curious medicine the following: In Shayzar we had an artisan named abu-al-Fath, who had a boy whose neck was afflicted with scrofula. Every time a part of it would close, another part would open. This man happened to go to Antioch on business of his, accompanied by his son. A Frank noticed the boy and asked his father about him. Abu-al-Fath replied, This is my son.' The Frank said to him, 'Wilt thou swear by thy religion that if I prescribe to you a medicine which will cure thy boy, thou wilt charge nobody fees for prescribing it thyself? In that case, I shall prescribe to you a medicine which will cure the boy.' The man took the oath and the horse kicked Frank said: Take uncrushed leaves of glasswort, burn them, then soak the ashes in olive oil and sharp vinegar. Treat the scrofula with them until the spot on which it is growing is eaten up. Then take burnt lead, soak it in ghee butter and treat him with it. That will cure him.' The father treated the boy accordingly, and the boy was cured. The sores closed and the boy returned to his normal condition of health. I have myself treated with this medicine many who were afflicted with such disease, and the treatment was successful in removing the cause of the complaint." Among the Franks are those who have become acclimatized and have associated long with the Muslims. These are much better than the recent comers from the Frankish lands. But they constitute the exception and cannot be treated as a rule. Here is an illustration. I dispatched one of my men to Antioch on business. There was in Antioch at that time al-Ra'is Theodoros Sophianos, to whom I was bound by mutual ties of amity. His influence in Antioch was supreme. One day he said to my man, "I am invited by a friend of mine who is a Frank. Thou shouldst come with me so that thou mayest see their fashions." My man related the story in the following words: I went along with him and we came to the home of a knight who belonged to the old category of knights who came with the early expeditions of the Franks. He had been by that time stricken off the register and exempted from service, and possessed in Antioch an estate on the income of which he lived. The knight presented an excellent table, with food extraordinarily clean and delicious. Seeing me abstaining from food, he said, "Eat, be of good cheer! I never eat Frankish dishes, but I have Egyptian women cooks and never eat except their cooking. Besides, pork never enters my home." I ate, but guardedly, and after that we departed. As I was passing in the market place, a Frankish woman all of a sudden hung to my clothes and began to mutter words in their language, and I could not understand what she was saying. This made me immediately the center of a big crowd of Franks. I was convinced that death was at hand. But all of a sudden that same knight approached. On seeing me, he came and said to that woman, "What is the matter between you and this Muslim?" She replied, "This is he who has killed my brother Hurso." This Hurso was a knight in Afiimiyah who was killed by someone of the army of Hamah. The Christian knight shouted at her, saying, "This is a bourgeois (i.e., a merchant) who neither fights nor attends a fight." He also yelled at the people who had assembled, and they all dispersed. Then he took me by the hand and went away. Thus the effect of that meal was my deliverance from certain death. Source: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/Usamah2.asp
If you have any questions, please email me (ggolden@ric.edu), and I will do my best to answer them. Primary Source Material: Sourcebook note: Usamah (1095-1188), was a Muslim warrior and courtier, who fought against the Crusaders with Saladin. Yet as a resident of the area around Palestine, he also had a chance to befriend a number of them. His autobiography dates from around 1175. Read the following excerpts: Mysterious are the works of the Creator, the author of all things! When one comes to recount cases regarding the Franks, he cannot but glorify Allah (exalted is he!) and sanctify him, for he sees them as animals possessing the virtues of courage and fighting, but nothing else; just as animals have only the virtues of strength and carrying loads. I shall now give some instances of their doings and their curious mentality. In the army of King Fulk, son of Fulk, was a Frankish reverend knight who had just arrived from their land in order to make the holy pilgrimage and then return home. He was of my intimate fellowship and kept such constant company with me that he began to call me “my brother." Between us were mutual bonds of amity and friendship. When he resolved to return by sea to his homeland, he said to me: "My brother, I am leaving for my country and I want you to send with me thy son (my son, who was then fourteen years old, was at that time in my company) to our country, where he can see the knights and learn wisdom and chivalry. When he returns, be will be like a wise man." Thus there fell upon my ears words which would never come out of the head of a sensible man: for even if my son were to be taken captive, his captivity could not bring him a worse misfortune than carrying him into the lands of the Franks. However, I said to the man: "By thy life, this has exactly been my idea. But the only thing that prevented me from carrying it out was the fact that his grandmother, my mother, is so fond of him and did not this time let him come out with me until she exacted an oath from me to the effect that I would return him to her." Thereupon he asked, "Is thy mother still alive?" "Yes." I replied. "Well," said he, "disobey her not." *** A case illustrating their curious medicine is the following: The lord of al-Munaytirah wrote to my uncle asking him to dispatch a physician to treat certain sick persons among his people. My uncle sent him a Christian physician named Thabit. Thabit was absent but ten days when be returned. So we said to him, "How quickly has thou healed thy patients!" He said: "They brought before me a knight in whose leg an abscess had grown; and a woman afflicted with imbecility. To the knight I applied a small poultice until the abscess opened and became well; and the woman I put on diet and made her humor wet. Then a Frankish physician came to them and said, “This man knows nothing about treating them.' He then said to the knight, 'Which wouldst thou prefer, living with one leg or dying with two?" The latter replied, Living with one leg.' The physician said, 'Bring me a strong knight and a With one leg. The e with the ax. And I w sharp ax.' A knight came with the ax. And I was standing by. Then the physician laid the SD: Then thế physician laid. leg of the patient on a block of wood and bade the knight strike his leg with the ax and chop with the ax an it off at one blow. Accordingly he struck it-while I was looking on-one blow, but the leg was , upon which the marrow of the leg flowed out and the patient died on the spot. He then examined the woman and said, "This is a woman in whose head there is a devil which has possessed her. Shave off her hair.' Accordingly they shaved it off and the woman began once more to eat their ordinary diet-garlic and mustard. Her imbecility took a turn for the worse. The physician then said, “The devil has penetrated through her head.' He therefore took a razor, made a deep cruciform incision on it, peeled off the skin at the middle of the incision until the bone of the skull was exposed and rubbed not severed. He dealt another blow. it with salt. The woman al I hem whether my services were needed any longer, and when they replied in the negative I returned home, I have, however, witnessed a case of their medicine which was quite different from that. The king of the Franks had for treasurer a knight named Bernard, who (may Allah's curse be upon him!) was one of the most accursed and wicked among the Franks. him in the leg, which was subsequently infected and which opened in fourteen different places. Every time one of these cuts would close in one place, another would open in another place. All this happened while I was praying for his perdition. Then came to him a Frankish physician and removed from the leg all the ointments which were on it and began to wash it with very strong vinegar. By this treatment all the cuts were healed and the man became well again. He was up again like a devil. Another case illustrating their curious medicine the following: In Shayzar we had an artisan named abu-al-Fath, who had a boy whose neck was afflicted with scrofula. Every time a part of it would close, another part would open. This man happened to go to Antioch on business of his, accompanied by his son. A Frank noticed the boy and asked his father about him. Abu-al-Fath replied, This is my son.' The Frank said to him, 'Wilt thou swear by thy religion that if I prescribe to you a medicine which will cure thy boy, thou wilt charge nobody fees for prescribing it thyself? In that case, I shall prescribe to you a medicine which will cure the boy.' The man took the oath and the horse kicked Frank said: Take uncrushed leaves of glasswort, burn them, then soak the ashes in olive oil and sharp vinegar. Treat the scrofula with them until the spot on which it is growing is eaten up. Then take burnt lead, soak it in ghee butter and treat him with it. That will cure him.' The father treated the boy accordingly, and the boy was cured. The sores closed and the boy returned to his normal condition of health. I have myself treated with this medicine many who were afflicted with such disease, and the treatment was successful in removing the cause of the complaint." Among the Franks are those who have become acclimatized and have associated long with the Muslims. These are much better than the recent comers from the Frankish lands. But they constitute the exception and cannot be treated as a rule. Here is an illustration. I dispatched one of my men to Antioch on business. There was in Antioch at that time al-Ra'is Theodoros Sophianos, to whom I was bound by mutual ties of amity. His influence in Antioch was supreme. One day he said to my man, "I am invited by a friend of mine who is a Frank. Thou shouldst come with me so that thou mayest see their fashions." My man related the story in the following words: I went along with him and we came to the home of a knight who belonged to the old category of knights who came with the early expeditions of the Franks. He had been by that time stricken off the register and exempted from service, and possessed in Antioch an estate on the income of which he lived. The knight presented an excellent table, with food extraordinarily clean and delicious. Seeing me abstaining from food, he said, "Eat, be of good cheer! I never eat Frankish dishes, but I have Egyptian women cooks and never eat except their cooking. Besides, pork never enters my home." I ate, but guardedly, and after that we departed. As I was passing in the market place, a Frankish woman all of a sudden hung to my clothes and began to mutter words in their language, and I could not understand what she was saying. This made me immediately the center of a big crowd of Franks. I was convinced that death was at hand. But all of a sudden that same knight approached. On seeing me, he came and said to that woman, "What is the matter between you and this Muslim?" She replied, "This is he who has killed my brother Hurso." This Hurso was a knight in Afiimiyah who was killed by someone of the army of Hamah. The Christian knight shouted at her, saying, "This is a bourgeois (i.e., a merchant) who neither fights nor attends a fight." He also yelled at the people who had assembled, and they all dispersed. Then he took me by the hand and went away. Thus the effect of that meal was my deliverance from certain death. Source: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/Usamah2.asp
Related questions
Question
Why Do you think Ibn Munqidh had a negative view of the Franks? Quotes and reasons why Please don’t reject the question allow someone else to answer
Transcribed Image Text:If you have any questions, please email me (ggolden@ric.edu), and I will do my best to answer
them.
Primary Source Material:
Sourcebook note: Usamah (1095-1188), was a Muslim warrior and courtier, who fought against
the Crusaders with Saladin. Yet as a resident of the area around Palestine, he also had a chance
to befriend a number of them. His autobiography dates from around 1175.
Read the following excerpts:
Mysterious are the works of the Creator, the author of all things! When one comes to
recount cases regarding the Franks, he cannot but glorify Allah (exalted is he!) and sanctify
him, for he sees them as animals possessing the virtues of courage and fighting, but
nothing else; just as animals have only the virtues of strength and carrying loads. I shall
now give some instances of their doings and their curious mentality.
In the army of King Fulk, son of Fulk, was a Frankish reverend knight who had just
arrived from their land in order to make the holy pilgrimage and then return home. He was
of my intimate fellowship and kept such constant company with me that he began to call
me “my brother." Between us were mutual bonds of amity and friendship. When he resolved
to return by sea to his homeland, he said to me:
"My brother, I am leaving for my country and I want you to send with me thy son (my son,
who was then fourteen years old, was at that time in my company) to our country, where he
can see the knights and learn wisdom and chivalry. When he returns, be will be like a wise
man."
Thus there fell upon my ears words which would never come out of the head of a sensible
man: for even if my son were to be taken captive, his captivity could not bring him a worse
misfortune than carrying him into the lands of the Franks. However, I said to the man:
"By thy life, this has exactly been my idea. But the only thing that prevented me from
carrying it out was the fact that his grandmother, my mother, is so fond of him and did not
this time let him come out with me until she exacted an oath from me to the effect that I
would return him to her."
Thereupon he asked, "Is thy mother still alive?" "Yes." I replied. "Well," said he, "disobey
her not."
***
A case illustrating their curious medicine is the following:
The lord of al-Munaytirah wrote to my uncle asking him to dispatch a physician to treat
certain sick persons among his people. My uncle sent him a Christian physician named
Thabit. Thabit was absent but ten days when be returned. So we said to him, "How quickly
has thou healed thy patients!" He said:
"They brought before me a knight in whose leg an abscess had grown; and a woman
afflicted with imbecility. To the knight I applied a small poultice until the abscess opened
and became well; and the woman I put on diet and made her humor wet. Then a Frankish
physician came to them and said, “This man knows nothing about treating them.' He then
said to the knight, 'Which wouldst thou prefer, living with one leg or dying with two?" The
latter replied, Living with one leg.' The physician said, 'Bring me a strong knight and a
With one leg. The
e with the ax. And I w
sharp ax.' A knight came with the ax. And I was standing by. Then the physician laid the
SD: Then thế physician laid.
leg of the patient on a block of wood and bade the knight strike his leg with the ax and chop
with the ax an
it off at one blow. Accordingly he struck it-while I was looking on-one blow, but the leg was
, upon which the marrow of the leg flowed out and the
patient died on the spot. He then examined the woman and said, "This is a woman in whose
head there is a devil which has possessed her. Shave off her hair.' Accordingly they shaved
it off and the woman began once more to eat their ordinary diet-garlic and mustard. Her
imbecility took a turn for the worse. The physician then said, “The devil has penetrated
through her head.' He therefore took a razor, made a deep cruciform incision on it, peeled
off the skin at the middle of the incision until the bone of the skull was exposed and rubbed
not severed. He dealt another blow.
it with salt. The woman al
I hem whether my
services were needed any longer, and when they replied in the negative I returned home,
Transcribed Image Text:I have, however, witnessed a case of their medicine which was quite different from that.
The king of the Franks had for treasurer a knight named Bernard, who (may Allah's curse
be upon him!) was one of the most accursed and wicked among the Franks.
him in the leg, which was subsequently infected and which opened in fourteen different
places. Every time one of these cuts would close in one place, another would open in another
place. All this happened while I was praying for his perdition. Then came to him a Frankish
physician and removed from the leg all the ointments which were on it and began to wash it
with very strong vinegar. By this treatment all the cuts were healed and the man became
well again. He was up again like a devil. Another case illustrating their curious medicine
the following: In Shayzar we had an artisan named abu-al-Fath, who had a boy whose neck
was afflicted with scrofula. Every time a part of it would close, another part would open.
This man happened to go to Antioch on business of his, accompanied by his son. A Frank
noticed the boy and asked his father about him. Abu-al-Fath replied, This is my son.' The
Frank said to him, 'Wilt thou swear by thy religion that if I prescribe to you a medicine
which will cure thy boy, thou wilt charge nobody fees for prescribing it thyself? In that case,
I shall prescribe to you a medicine which will cure the boy.' The man took the oath and the
horse kicked
Frank said:
Take uncrushed leaves of glasswort, burn them, then soak the ashes in olive oil and sharp
vinegar. Treat the scrofula with them until the spot on which it is growing is eaten up.
Then take burnt lead, soak it in ghee butter and treat him with it. That will cure him.'
The father treated the boy accordingly, and the boy was cured. The sores closed and the boy
returned to his normal condition of health.
I have myself treated with this medicine many who were afflicted with such disease, and
the treatment was successful in removing the cause of the complaint."
Among the Franks are those who have become acclimatized and have associated long with
the Muslims. These are much better than the recent comers from the Frankish lands. But
they constitute the exception and cannot be treated as a rule.
Here is an illustration. I dispatched one of my men to Antioch on business. There was in
Antioch at that time al-Ra'is Theodoros Sophianos, to whom I was bound by mutual ties of
amity. His influence in Antioch was supreme. One day he said to my man, "I am invited by
a friend of mine who is a Frank. Thou shouldst come with me so that thou mayest see their
fashions." My man related the story in the following words:
I went along with him and we came to the home of a knight who belonged to the old
category of knights who came with the early expeditions of the Franks. He had been by that
time stricken off the register and exempted from service, and possessed in Antioch an
estate on the income of which he lived. The knight presented an excellent table, with food
extraordinarily clean and delicious. Seeing me abstaining from food, he said, "Eat, be of
good cheer! I never eat Frankish dishes, but I have Egyptian women cooks and never eat
except their cooking. Besides, pork never enters my home." I ate, but guardedly, and after
that we departed.
As I was passing in the market place, a Frankish woman all of a sudden hung to my clothes
and began to mutter words in their language, and I could not understand what she was
saying. This made me immediately the center of a big crowd of Franks. I was convinced that
death was at hand. But all of a sudden that same knight approached. On seeing me, he
came and said to that woman, "What is the matter between you and this Muslim?" She
replied, "This is he who has killed my brother Hurso." This Hurso was a knight in
Afiimiyah who was killed by someone of the army of Hamah. The Christian knight shouted
at her, saying, "This is a bourgeois (i.e., a merchant) who neither fights nor attends a fight."
He also yelled at the people who had assembled, and they all dispersed. Then he took me by
the hand and went away. Thus the effect of that meal was my deliverance from certain
death.
Source: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/Usamah2.asp
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