Usama ibn Munqidh

Usama ibn Munqidh (Arabic أسامة بن منقذ, DMG Usama ibn Munqiḏ, also: Osama bin Munqidh, * July 4, 1095, † November 16, 1188 ), Arabic writer and poet, politician and diplomat, was one of the most important contemporary chroniclers of the Crusades on the Arab side. He comes from a family of small, independent emirate Shaizar in central Syria and was the nephew of the Emir Sultan ibn Munqidh.

Life

Due to his work as a diplomat, he knew the most important people, both Arab and Christian side, personally. His memoirs give a good insight into the living conditions of the time and on the relationship between Christians and Muslims.

In 1138 he traveled on behalf of Mu'inuddin Unur, the governor of Damascus, to the Kingdom of Jerusalem to discuss with King Fulk the possibility of an alliance against the Emir Zengi. Usama was warmly welcomed and a mutual assistance pact with the Franks Unur against Zengi was closed by the Franks, the fortress fell to Banias. Usama accompanied Unur on a later state visit to Jerusalem.

The short period of Frankish- damaszenischer cooperation gave Usama the opportunity to meet the Franks detail. With a mixture of scorn and horror, he reported on their barbaric customs. Having grown up with the sophisticated and highly regulated Islamic jurisprudence, alienated him especially the practice of practiced by Christians ordeal. The ignorance of the Franks in the field of medicine horrified him. The bravery of the Christian warriors, however, urged him from admiration. The offer of a French knight to take his son to Europe to educate him there in the knightly virtues, but he suggested politely.

Later he moved into the service Zengis and to the court of the Egyptian Fatimids. This sent him to the camp of Damascus to Nur ad -Din to negotiate a joint attack. The negotiations failed, however. On the journey to Egypt Usama remained for two years in besieged by the Franks Ashkelon and organized its defense.

In the earthquake- wave, which Syria in 1156 and 1157 shook the years, lost Osama, who was at that time in Damascus, almost his entire family. In the whole of Syria, the cities of Aleppo, Tripoli, Beirut and Homs earthquake serious damage directed at, but in the hardest hit cities Hama and Shaizar. His cousin, the Emir Muhammad ibn Sultan, celebrated with the family and dignitaries of the emirate Shaizar the circumcision of his son, as the walls of the citadel collapsed back. Only the Princess of Shaizar was rescued from the rubble. This earthquake also marked the end of the independence of the emirate, which initially fell into the hands of the Assassins and was conquered in 1157 by the Franks.

Works

• Kitab al - i'tibar ( "Book of teaching by examples " ), autobiography
• Kitab al-' asa ( "Book of the stick " ), anecdotes and proverbs collection on sticks.