Analysis Of Usama Ibn Manqidh A Muslim Warrior And Writer...

Usama ibn Manqidh a Muslim warrior and writer who lived during 1095-1188 in Shayzar, Syria. The First Crusade happened in 1096 and the Crusaders seized Jerusalem, Usama would grow up among the Christians infiltrating the Holy Land. In the year before Usama dies, Jerusalem is recaptured by Muslim general Saladin. Usama lived during a time of great tension and dislike between Muslims and Christians, giving the reader his perspective of the invading Christians in his home land. He was also a tremendous story teller and would sometimes exaggerate details in his memoirs to make a better story, even though some details are exaggerated his insight of the Crusades is important. Usama ibn Manqidh’s perspective of the Crusades is valuable, he expresses in his memoirs the distinctions between Muslims and Christians through their cross cultural interactions that took place during the Crusades. A distinction that Usama finds among the Muslims and the Christians is their use of medicine and how they treat people. He recalls of a story of a Muslim physician treating a knight with a leg wound and a woman with a mental illness. After a few days of treatment from the Muslim doctor both patients are getting better, however a Christian doctor arrives and disregards everything that the Muslim doctor has done and begins his own treatment for the patients. His form of treatment is far more brutal he has the knights leg chopped off but then the knight bleeds to death. As for the woman he believes