Usama ibn Munqidh

Usama ibn Munqidh ( Arabic أسامة بن منقذ, DMG Usāma b. Munqiḏ , also: Ussama ibn Munqidh, * July 4, 1095 ; † November 16, 1188 ), Arab writer and poet , politician and diplomat , was one of the most important contemporary chroniclers of the Crusades on the Arab side. He comes from the family of the small, independent emirate of 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 personalities, both on the Arab and Christian side, personally. His memories give a good insight into the living conditions of the time and the relationship between Christians and Muslims.

In 1138 he traveled to the Kingdom of Jerusalem on behalf of Mu'inuddin Unur , the governor of Damascus , to discuss the possibility of an alliance against the Emir Zengi with King Fulko . Usama was warmly welcomed and a pact of assistance between the Franks and Unur against Zengi was concluded, through which the fortress of Banyas fell to the Franks. Usama also accompanied Unur on a later state visit to Jerusalem.

The short period of Franconian-Damascus cooperation gave Usama the opportunity to get to know the Franks better. With a mixture of mockery and horror, he reported their barbaric customs. Growing up with the sophisticated and precisely regulated Islamic jurisprudence, he was particularly alienated by the practice of the divine judgment practiced by Christians . The ignorance of the Franks in the field of medicine also appalled him. The bravery of the Christian warriors, however, made him admire. However, he politely refused an offer from a French knight to take his son to Europe to educate him in the knightly virtues.

He later switched to the service of Zengi and to the court of the Egyptian Fatimids . They sent him to Nur ad-Din in the Damascus camp to negotiate a joint attack. However, the negotiations failed. On the return journey to Egypt, Usama stayed for two years in Askalon , which was besieged by the Franks, and organized its defense.

In the earthquake wave that hit Syria in 1156 and 1157, Usama, who was in Damascus at the time, lost almost his entire family. The earthquakes caused severe damage across Syria, the cities of Aleppo , Tripoli , Beirut and Homs , but the cities of Hama and Shayzar were the worst hit . His cousin, the Emir Muhammad Ibn Sultan , was celebrating the circumcision of his son with his family and dignitaries of the Emirate of Shaizar when the walls of the citadel collapsed. Only the Princess of Shaizar could be saved 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 by the Franks in 1157.

Usama became known in Europe through the orientalist Hartwig Derenbourg , who discovered his autobiography in the Escorial library around 1880 .

Works

• kitab al-i'tibar ("book of instruction by examples"), autobiography
• kitab al-'asa ("Book of the Stick"), collection of anecdotes and proverbs about sticks.

literature

• Hartwig Derenbourg : Ousma Ibn Mounḳidh. Un émir syria au premier siècle des Croisades. (1095-1188). Part 1: Vie d'Ousâma (= Publications de l'Ecole des Langues Orientales Vivantes. Series 2, Volume 12, Part 1, ZDB -ID 991531-x ). Leroux, Paris 1893, online .
• An Arab-Syrian Gentleman and Warrior in the Period of the Crusades. Memoirs of Usāmah Ibn-Munqidh [Kitāb al-I'tabar] (= Records of Civilization. Sources and Studies. 10, ZDB -ID 846505-8 ). Translated from the original manuscript Philip K. Hitti . Columbia University Press, New York NY 1929.
• Usāma Ibn-Munqiḏ: The experiences of the Syrian knight Usāma Ibn-Munqiḏ. Entertaining and instructive things from the time of the Crusades. Translated from the Arabic and edited by Holger Preißler . License issue. Beck, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-406-30379-X .
• Alexander Schauer: Muslims and Franks. Ethnic, social and religious groups in the Kitāb al-Iʾtibār of Usāma ibn Munqiḏ (= Islamic studies . Vol. 230). Klaus Schwarz, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-87997-282-6 (At the same time: Bonn, University, Master's thesis, 1999).
• Usma Ibn Munqidh: A life fighting against crusader armies . Translated from Arabic and edited by Gernot Rotter . Edition Erdmann, Lenningen 2004, ISBN 3-86503-016-5 (German translation of the kitab al-i'tibar ).

Web links

• Literature by and about Usama ibn Munqidh in the catalog of the German National Library