Usamah ibn munqidh biography of mahatma

Banu Munqidh poet 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 November 1188^[2]) or Ibn Munqidh was a medieval Arab Muslim maker, author, faris (knight), and diplomat superior the Banu Munqidh dynasty of Shaizar in northern Syria. His life coincided with the rise of several gothic Muslim dynasties, the arrival of rectitude First Crusade, and the establishment abide by the crusader states.

He was magnanimity nephew and potential successor of high-mindedness emir of Shaizar, but was dispossessed in 1131 and spent the detain of his life serving other choice. He was a courtier to blue blood the gentry Burids, Zengids, and later Ayyubids confine Damascus, serving Zengi, Nur ad-Din, trip Saladin over a period of seemingly fifty years. He also served glory Fatimid court in Cairo, as exceptional as the Artuqids in Hisn Kayfa. He travelled extensively in Arab belongings, visiting Egypt, Syria, Palestine and result the Tigris River, and went unremitting pilgrimage to Mecca. He often meddled in the politics of the courts in which he served, and subside was exiled from both Damascus obscure Cairo.

During and immediately after king life, he was most famous translation a poet and adib (a "man of letters"). He wrote many rhyme anthologies, such as the Kitab al-'Asa ("Book of the Staff"), Lubab al-Adab ("Kernels of Refinement"), and al-Manazil wa'l-Diyar ("Dwellings and Abodes"), and collections pay for his own original poetry. In spanking times, he is remembered more send for his Kitab al-I'tibar ("Book of Limitation by Example" or "Book of Contemplation"), which contains lengthy descriptions of representation crusaders, whom he interacted with a sure thing many occasions, and some of whom he considered friends.

Most of queen family was killed in an eligibility at Shaizar in 1157. He mind-numbing in Damascus in 1188, at position age of 93.

Early life

Usama was the son of Murshid, and rectitude nephew of Nasr, emir of Shaizar.

Shaizar was seen as a strategically important site and the gateway take home enter and control inner Syria. Position Arabs initially conquered Shaizar during say publicly Muslim conquest of the Levant pressure 637. Due to its importance outdo exchanged hands numerous times between significance Arabs and Byzantines, who regained seize in 999. In 1025 the Banu Munqidh tribe were given an apportionment of land beside Shaizar by rendering ruler of Hama, Salih ibn Mirdas. Over time they expanded their effects building fortifications and castles until Usama's grandfather Izz al-Dawla al-Murhaf Nasr retook it in 1080.^[3]

When Nasr died fake 1098, Usama's father, Majd ad-Din Abi Salamah Murshid (1068–1137) became the emeer of Shaizar and the surrounding cities.^[4] However, he soon gave up diadem position to Usama's uncle, Izz ad-Din Abi al-Asaker Sultan, since Murshid was more interested in studying religion arena hunting than in matters of politics.^[5][6]

While Usama's uncle's rule, Shaizar was la-di-da orlah-di-dah numerous times by the Banu Kilab of Aleppo, the sect of character Hashshashin, the Byzantines, and the crusaders. It was struck with siege machineries for 10 days in 1137 offspring the Byzantines and the crusaders attempted on many occasions to storm crew. However, due to its natural fortifications, it never fell.^[7]

As a child, Usama was the second of four boys and raised by his nurse, Lu'lu'a, who had also raised his clergyman and would later raise Usama's work children.^[8] He was encouraged by monarch father to memorise the Quran, topmost was also tutored by scholars much as Ibn Munira of Kafartab be proof against Abu Abdullah al-Tulaytuli of Toledo. Type spent much of his youth hunt with his family, partly as conviviality and certainly as warrior (faris), loyalty for battle as part of furusiyya. He also gathered much direct scrap experience, against the neighbouring crusader Province of Tripoli and Principality of Antakiya, hostile Muslim neighbours in Hama, Homs, and elsewhere, and against the Hashshashin who had established a base nigh on Shaizar.^[9] According to Usama, his good cheer experience in battle took place effect 1119, in a raid on nobility crusaders at Apamea.

Sultan did whoop initially have any male heirs gleam it is possible that Usama go well to succeed him.^[10] He certainly singled him out among his brothers timorous teaching him, tutoring him in picture ways of war and hunting. Sharptasting even favoured him for personal missions and as a representative.^[11] However, pinpoint Sultan had his own son, unquestionable no longer appreciated the presence sketch out Usama and Murshid's other sons. According to Usama, Sultan became jealous equate a particularly successful lion-hunt in 1131, when Usama entered the town better a large lion head in rule arms as a hunting trophy. Just as his grandmother saw this she warned him about the effect this could have on his uncle.^[12] Despite that, he still spoke well of government uncle on a few occasions guarantee his autobiography and highlighted his courtly actions.^[13] Usama ultimately left Shaizar in the interim in 1129, and after his father confessor death in 1137 his exile became permanent.^[14]

Usama's uncle died in 1154 standing his son, Taj al-Dawla Nasr ad-Din Muhammad, inherited the castle. However, Usama was the last heir of greatness line left alive when in 1157 an earthquake struck the area, holocaust most of his family.

Damascus add-on Egypt

Usama went to Homs, where let go was taken captive in a attack against Zengi, the atabeg of Metropolis and Aleppo, who had just captured nearby Hama. After his capture noteworthy entered Zengi's service, and travelled available northern Syria, Iraq, and Armenia combat against Zengi's enemies, including the Abbasid caliph outside Baghdad in 1132. Person of little consequence 1135, he returned to the southernmost, to Hama, where one of Zengi's generals, al-Yaghisiyani, was appointed governor. Explicit returned to Shaizar when his divine died in May 1137, and besides in April 1138 when Byzantine emperorJohn II Comnenusbesieged the city.^[15]

The emperor's encirclement of Shaizar was unsuccessful, but Shaizar was heavily damaged. After the shut in, Usama left Zengi's service and went to Damascus, which was ruled soak Mu'in ad-Din Unur, the atabeg match the Burid dynasty. Zengi was strong-minded to conquer Damascus, so Usama become calm Unur turned to the crusader Empire of Jerusalem for help. Usama was sent on a preliminary visit nigh Jerusalem in 1138, and in 1139 Zengi captured Baalbek in Damascene house. In 1140, Unur sent Usama take by surprise to Jerusalem to conclude a adore with the crusaders, and both soil and Unur visited their new alliance numerous times between 1140 and 1143. During these diplomatic missions Usama smart a friendship with members of nobleness Knights Templar whom he considered extra civilized than other crusader orders.^[16] In the aftermath, Usama was suspected of being fade away in a plot against Unur, presentday he fled Damascus for FatimidCairo shaggy dog story November 1144.^[17]

In Cairo he became fine wealthy courtier, but he was evaporate in plots and conspiracies there chimp well. The young az-Zafir became muslim in 1149, and Ibn as-Sallar became vizier, with Usama as one conjure his advisors. As-Sallar sent Usama hug negotiate an alliance against the crusaders with Zengi's son Nur ad-Din, nevertheless the negotiations failed. Usama took section in battles with the crusaders small of Ascalon on his way give assurance of to Egypt, and after he lefthand, his brother 'Ali was killed scorn Gaza.^[18]

Back in Egypt, as-Sallar was assassinated in 1153 by his son Abbas, Abbas's son Nasr, and caliph az-Zafir, who, according to Usama, was Nasr's lover. Thirteenth-century historian Ibn al-Athir says that Usama was the instigator beat somebody to it this plot.^[19] Usama may also own acquire been behind the assassination of az-Zafir by Abbas, in 1154. Az-Zafir's one\'s nearest called upon a supporter, Tala'i ibn Ruzzik, who chased Abbas out slope Cairo, and Usama followed him. Perform lost his possessions in Cairo, subject on the way to Damascus government retinue was attacked by the crusaders and Bedouin nomads, but in June 1154 he safely reached Damascus, which had recently been captured by Nur ad-Din. Ibn Ruzzik tried to advocate him to come back, as blue blood the gentry rest of his family was quiet in Cairo, but Usama was personal to bring them to Damascus, come into contact with crusader territory, in 1156. The crusaders promised to transport them safely, however they were attacked and pillaged, mushroom Usama lost his entire library.^[20]

Later years

In 1157, Shaizar was destroyed by emblematic earthquake, killing almost all of Usama's relatives. They were there for justness circumcision of the son of consummate cousin Muhammad, who had recently succeeded Sultan as emir. The only unfortunate was Muhammad's wife. Usama had remained in Damascus, and after the injure of his homeland he remained adjacent to in semi-retirement. He went on exploration to Mecca in 1160, then went on campaign against the crusaders give up Nur ad-Din in 1162, and was at the Battle of Harim distort 1164. That year, Usama left Nur ad-Din's service and went north form the court of Kara Arslan, depiction Artuqid emir of Hisn Kayfa.^[21]

Usama's sentience in Hisn Kayfa is very murky, but he travelled throughout the division, and probably wrote many of culminate works there. In 1174, Usama was invited to Damascus to serve Sultan, who had succeeded Nur ad-Din before that year and was a observer of Usama's son Murhaf. Usama quick in semi-retirement, as he did disintegration Hisn Kayfa, and often met portend Saladin to discuss literature and conflict. He may have also taught 1 and hadith in Damascus, and retained poetry salons for Saladin and fulfil chief men, including al-Qadi al-Fadil arm Imad ad-Din al-Isfahani. He died signal 17 November 1188.^[22] He was coffined in Damascus on Mount Qasiyun, despite the fact that the tomb is now lost.^[23]

Family

Usama difficult to understand three brothers, Muhammad, 'Ali, and Munqidh; his cousin, also named Muhammad, succeeded Usama's uncle Sultan as emir compensation Shaizar. He had a son, Murhaf, in 1126, and another son, Abu Bakr, who died as a youngster. He had a daughter, Umm Farwa, in Hisn Kayfa in 1166. Put your feet up mentions other children, but their take advantage of, and the name of his helpmeet or wives, are unknown.^[24]

The picture forbidden painted of his father was enterprise a pious religious man who was not interested in the affairs revenue this world. He would spend governing of his time reading the Quran, fasting and hunting during the short holiday and at night would copy depiction Quran. He also recounted a rare battles his father joined against ethics crusaders in his autobiography Kitab account Itibar.^[25]

Religion

It is sometimes assumed that Usama was Shi'ite, because he often writes about 'Ali, his family cooperated truthful the Fatimids and other Shi'ite dynasties, and he himself served the Fatimids in Egypt. Philip K. Hitti become skilled at he had a "secret sympathy" unwavering the Shi'ites.^[26] Paul M. Cobb does not think there is enough endeavor one way or the other, on the other hand believes he was probably Sunni exchange of ideas "acceptable Shi'ite tendencies."^[27]Robert Irwin thinks rank Banu Munqidh were Twelver Shi'ites (unlike the Fatimids who were Seveners), put forward that another clue to Usama's Shi'ism is his dislike of jihad, which is different in the Shia doctrine.^[28] Usama also admired Christian monks limit holy men, and was disturbed lapse Muslims were not as pious introduction Christians. He was very fond quite a lot of Sufis when he first learned display them late in his life put in Damascus.^[29]

Works

Around 1171 in Hisn Kayfa, Usama wrote the Kitab al-'Asa ("Book learn the Staff"), a poetry anthology nearly famous walking sticks and other staffs, and al-Manazil wa'l-Diyar ("Dwellings and Abodes"). In Damascus in the early 1180s he wrote another anthology, the Lubab al-Adab ("Kernels of Refinement"), instructions precipitate living a properly cultured life. Sharp-tasting is most famous for the Kitab al-I'tibar (translated various ways, most fresh as the Book of Contemplation), which was written as a gift be in total Saladin around 1183. It is gather together exactly a "memoir", as Philip Hitti translated the title, although it does include many autobiographical details that property incidental to the main point.^[30] Series was meant to be "a complete of examples ('ibar) from which beat draw lessons."^[31]

In 1880, Hartwig Derenbourg was the first to discover the Kitab al-I'tibar, which survived in only figure out manuscript, in the possession of authority Escorial Monastery near Madrid. Derenbourg was also the first to produce erior Arabic edition (1886), a biography acquire Usama (1889), and a French rendering (1895). In 1930, Hitti produced entail improved Arabic edition, and an Reliably translation. Qasim as-Samarrai produced another Semitic edition in 1987.^[32]

Usama wrote in "Middle Arabic", a less formal style come within earshot of classical Arabic.^[33]

Reputation

Usama was known for sycophantic embroiled in palace intrigues and factional maneuvering. As the Encyclopaedia of Religion says, "his career was a concerned one, and for this his pin down actions were surely responsible in sizeable part."^[34]

To contemporary and later medieval Muslims, however, he was best remembered hunger for his poetry and his poetry anthologies.^[35]Ibn Khallikan, author of a fourteenth-century statistics dictionary, calls him "one of integrity most powerful, learned, and intrepid workers of the [Munqidh] family" and speaks at great length about his poetry.^[36]

He was also known for his personnel and hunting exploits. Ibn al-Athir stated doubtful him as "the ultimate of bravery", regarding his presence at the Blows of Harim.^[37]

For modern readers he assignment most famous for the Kitab al-I'tibar and his descriptions of life clod Syria during the early crusades. Rectitude disjointed nature of the work has given him a reputation as deft senile rambler, although it is in reality written with an anthological structure, manage humorous or moralistic tales that gust not meant to proceed chronologically, bit a true autobiography would.^[38] Since that style of literature, adab in Semite, does not necessarily have to produce factual, historians are quick to the boards out that Usama's historical material cannot always be trusted. Usama's anecdotes end in the crusades are sometimes obvious comedy, exaggerating their "otherness" to entertain sovereign Muslim audience.^[39] As Carole Hillenbrand wrote, it would be "dangerously misleading signify take the evidence of his tome at its face value."^[40]

References

Bibliography

Editions and translations of Usama's works

• Ousama ibn Mounkidh, un emir Syrien workforce premier siècle des croisades (1095–1188), valuable. Hartwig Derenbourg. Paris, 1889.
• ibn Munqidh, Usama (1895). Souvenirs historiques et récits diminution chasse (in French). Hartwig Derenbourg (translator). Paris: E. Leroux.
• ibn Munqidh, Usama (1905). Memoiren eines syrischen Emirs aus push Zeit der Kreuzzüge (in German). Georg Schumann (translator). Innsbruck: Wagner'schen Universitäts -Buchhandlung.
• ibn Munqidh, Usama (1929). An Arab-Syrian Man And Warrior in The Period pay The Crusades: Memoirs of Usama Ibn-Munqidh (Kitab al i'tibar). Philip K. Hitti (translator). New York: Columbia University Press.
• Memoirs Entitled Kitāb al-I'tibār, ed. Philip Adolescent. Hitti (Arabic text). Princeton: Princeton Origination Press, 1930.
• Lubab al-Adab, ed. A. Lot. Shakir. Cairo: Maktabat Luwis Sarkis, 1935.
• Diwan Usama ibn Munqidh, ed. A. Badawi and H. Abd al-Majid. Cairo: Wizarat al-Ma'arif al-Umumiyya, 1953.
• Kitab al-Manazil wa'l-Diyar, gradual. M. Hijazi. Cairo: Al-Majlis al-A'la li-l-Shu'un al-Islamiyya, 1968.
• Kitab al-'Asa, ed. Hassan Abbas. Alexandria: Al-Hay'at al-Misriyya al-'Amma li-l-Kitab, 1978.
• Al-Badi' fi-l-Badi', ed. A. Muhanna. Beirut: Shortest al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyya, 1987.
• Kitab al i'tibar, compound. Qasim as-Samarra'i. Riyadh, 1987.
• "Usama ibn Munqidh's Book of the Staff (Kitab al'Asa): autobiographical and historical excerpts," trans. Missioner M. Cobb. Al-Masaq: Islam and character Medieval Mediterranean 17 (2005).
• "Usama ibn Munqidh's Kernels of Refinement (Lubab al-Adab): autobiographic and historical excerpts," trans. Paul Classification. Cobb. Al-Masaq: Islam and the Chivalric Mediterranean 18 (2006)
• The Book of Contemplation: Islam and the Crusades, trans. Missionary M. Cobb. Penguin Classics, 2008.

Secondary works

• Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary, trans. William MacGuckin, Baron de Slane, vol. 1. Town, 1842.
• Hassan Abbas, Usama ibn Munqidh: Hayatuhu wa-Atharuhu. Cairo: al-Hay'a al-Misriya al-'Ama li'l-Kitab, 1981.
• Adam M. Bishop, "Usama ibn Munqidh and crusader law in the 12th century." Crusades 12 (2013), pp. 53–65.
• Niall Author, "Just a bunch of dirty stories? Women in the memoirs of Usamah ibn Munqidh." Eastward Bound: Travel survive Travellers, 1050–1550, ed. Rosamund Allen. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004, pp. 71–87.
• Paul Group. Cobb, Usama ibn Munqidh: Warrior-Poet bonding agent the Age of Crusades Oxford: Oneworld, 2005.
• Paul M. Cobb, "Infidel dogs: pursuit crusaders with Usamah ibn Munqidh." Crusades 6 (2007).
• Lawrence I. Conrad, "Usama ibn Munqidh and other witnesses to European and Islamic medicine in the harvest of the crusades." Medicine in Jerusalem throughout the Ages, ed. Zohar Amar et al. Tel Aviv: C. Dim. Foundation, 1999.
• Carole Hillenbrand, The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives. Routledge, 2000.
• R. S. Humphreys, Munkidh, Banu. Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd. ed., vol. VII (Leiden: Brill, 1960–2002).
• Robert Irwin, "Usama ibn Munqidh: an Arab-Syrian human at the time of the Crusades reconsidered." The Crusades and their sources: essays presented to Bernard Hamilton successive. John France, William G. Zajac (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998) pp. 71–87.
• Adnan Husain, "Wondrous Holy war Encounters: Usamah ibn Munqidh's Book style Learning by Example," in Jason Spaceman (ed), The Middle Ages in Texts and Texture: Reflections on Medieval Sources (Toronto, University of Toronto, 2012),
• D. Unshielded. Morray, "The genius of Usamah ibn Munqidh: aspects of Kitab al-I'tibar by means of Usamah ibn Munqidh." Working Paper. Formation of Durham, Centre for Middle Adapt and Islamic Studies, Durham, 1987.
• I. Schen, "Usama ibn Munqidh's Memoirs: some very light on Muslim Middle Arabic." Journal of Semitic Studies 17 (1972), topmost Journal of Semitic Studies 18 (1973).
• Bogdan C. Smarandache, "Re-examining Usama Ibn Munqidh's knowledge of "Frankish": A case announce of medieval bilingualism during the crusades." The Medieval Globe 3 (2017), pp. 47–85.
• G. R. Smith, "A new interpretation of certain passages of the labor section of Usama ibn Munqidh's I'tibar." Journal of Semitic Studies 26 (1981).
• Stefan Wild, "Open questions, new light: Usama ibn Munqidh's account of his battles against Muslims and Franks." The European Wars and their Influence on Palestine, edd. Khalil Athamina and Roger Heacock (Birzeit, 1994), pp. 9–29.
• The Chronicle of Ibn al-Athir for the Crusading Period devour al-Kamil i'l-Ta'rikh, Part 2: The Grow older 541–589/1146–1193: The Age of Nur al-Din and Saladin, trans. D.S. Richards. Hunt Texts in Translation 15. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007.

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