An Arab-Syrian Gentleman and Warrior in the Period of the Crusades

SECTION I
WARS, TRAVELS AND OTHER EXPERIENCES
i. FIGHTING AGAINST THE FRANKS 1
Zanki's victory near Qinnasrin? — ... .
3
In the course of
that combat the massacre was not great in the ranks of the Moslems.
Before the battle there had arrived ibn-Bishr, 4
an envoy from
the Imam 6 al-Rashid ibn-al-Mustarshid (may Allah's mercy rest
upon their two souls' 6 ), in order to summon the atabek 7 to appear
before him [the caliph].
gilden byrnie \jawshati].
Bishr took part in that battle clad in a
A Frankish knight, named ibn-al-Daqiq, s
smote and pierced him in the chest with a lance, making the lance
come out of his back (may Allah's mercy rest upon his soul!). The
slaughter was rather great in the lines of the Franks.
The atabek (may Allah's mercy rest upon his soul!) gave orders
according to which their heads were assembled in a field opposite
the castle, and they turned out to be about three thousand.
The Byzantines and Franks besiege Shayzar. — Later on in the
1
This and all other headings for sections, subsections and paragraphs are not in
the original but are added by the translator The word " Chapter," without a number,
at the beginning of Section II is in the original
* A reference to this battle by Usamah is preserved in al-Dhahabi, Ta'rikh al-
Islim, a section of which is appended to H Derenbourg, Vie d'Ousdma (Paris, 1889),
pp 594-605, and indicates (pp 601-2) that Usamah himself took part in the fight.
Qinnasrin, ancient Chains, lies southwest of Aleppo (ljalab) in northern Syria
* The first pages of the manuscript, forty-two in all, are missing
4
Abu-Bakr Bishr lbn-Karim ibn-Bishr, mentioned by Kamal-al-Din, Ta'rikh
fjolob in Recuetl des histortens des croisades: historitns orienlaux (Pans, 1884), vol. Ill,
p 670, and referred to by lbn-al-Athir, al-Kdmil, ibid , vol I, p 405
6
That is, the caliph Al-Rashid was a 'Abbasid caliph who ruled in Baghdad
September 7, 1135-August 8, 1136 a d
* The souls of al-Rashid and his father al-Mustarshid This formula is used by
Arab authors after the name of one already deceased
7 A Turco-Persian title (a/a - "father," plus bek = "prince" or "lord") meaning
"the lord father" and given originally to the guardian and tutor of Turkish princes
during the Seljuq period, but applied later to regents and other powerful amirs. The
reference here is to 'Imad-al-Dln Zanki of al-Mawsil, modem MQsul, who ruled September,
1127-Septeraber, 1147
* Literally "the son of flour" or "the son of the slender one," and possibly a
corruption of Benedutus, pronounced m the French of those days Benedeit. See
H. Derenbourg, Ousdma Ibn Mounkidh un trmr syrien au premier siicle des croisades,
premiere parhe, vie d'Ousdma (Paris, 1889), p. 15a, n. 3, and p. 47a, n. 4.