Ibn Munqidh - The Book of Contemplation: Islam and the Crusades

THE BOOK OF CONTEMPLATION

USAMA IBN MUNQIDH was born on 4 July 1095 at his familys castle at Shayzar, on the banks of the Orontes River in northern Syria. His clan, the Banu Munqidh, was an established aristocratic Muslim Arab family who had gained political prominence locally and elsewhere in the medieval Near East at a time when the Muslim world was adjusting to the Turkish invasions of the eleventh century, and still reeling from the Crusades of the twelfth. Exiled from Shayzar by an uncle who saw him as a rival, Usama took up service with many of the most prominent courts of the region, in Iraq, Syria and Egypt, giving him ample opportunity to hone his skills as a warrior, diplomat and man of letters, and to observe the strange customs of his new Frankish neighbours. Usama was a political schemer of the first order, and much of his wandering can be attributed to his involvement in numerous failed adventures. In 1157, most members of his family were killed in an earthquake that left Shayzar in ruins and Usama and his ambitions wrecked. In the last decades of his life, he retired from active service and concentrated on writing, collecting his scattered poems into a much-praised Diwan, but specializing in topical anthologies of poetry and prose like the Book of the Staff or Kernels of Refinement, both excerpted here. Usamas last patron was the mighty sultan Saladin, for whom he intended his most famous work, translated here in full, his charming and heavily autobiographical meditation on Fate, The Book of Contemplation. He died in Damascus in 1188.

PAUL MICHAEL COBB is a native of Amherst, Massachusetts. He is Professor of Islamic History in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania. He studied Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and then Near Eastern Languages at the University of Chicago, where he took a PhD in Islamic history in 1997. His publications include White Banners: Contention in Abbasid Syria (2001) and Usama ibn Munqidh: Warrior-Poet of the Age of Crusades (2005). His work has been supported by (among others) the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright Foundation and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

USAMA IBN MUNQIDH

Islam and the Crusades

Translated with an Introduction and Notes by
PAUL M. COBB

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First published in Penguin Classics 2008
1

Copyright Paul M. Cobb, 2008
All rights reserved

The moral right of the translator and editor has been asserted

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

ISBN:978-0-14-191917-1

Chronology of Events in the Life of
Usama ibn Munqidh

Lost Fragments from The Book of
Contemplation

Much of this book was written with the support of an utterly undeserved Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. The History department of the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Notre Dame rather too gleefully provided me with the semesters off to enjoy the honour, and Notre Dames Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts provided the administrative help in dealing with it all.

Many individuals had some role to play in the final form of this book, though I can name only a few of them here. Any faults that remain are of course entirely my own. Niall Christie, Don-John Dugas, Anne Lester and John Meloy were valued sounding-boards for some of my editorial decisions at an early stage. Andrew Dimock and Megan Reid read more mature and lengthy versions of the text, and their comments were correspondingly crucial. Drs Meloy and Reid in particular gave generously of their time to help me hunt down and bag superfluities of prose. Many others provided key moments of clarity and assistance, including Remie Constable, Bruce Craig, Michael Driscoll, Steve Humphreys, Hilary Kilpatrick, Yaacov Lev, Alexander Martin, Megan Montague, Carl Petry, Nasser Rabbat, Warren Schultz, Daniella Talmon-Heller and Cristina Tonghini. My parents and siblings provided the usual chorus of warm approval. The people at Penguin made the writing of the book a true pleasure, especially Charlene Davis at the very beginning and Mariateresa Boffo, Elisabeth Merriman and Monica Schmoller at the very end.

I also thank the publisher Taylor and Francis for granting me permission to print slightly amended versions of translations that originally appeared in two articles by me: Usama ibn Munqidhs Book of the Staff (Kitab al-Asa): Autobiographical and Historical Excerpts, Al-Masaq: Islam and the Medieval Mediterranean 17 (2005), pp. 10923, and Usama ibn Munqidhs Kernels of Refinement (Lubab al-Adab): Autobiographical and Historical Excerpts, Al-Masaq: Islam and the Medieval Mediterranean 18 (2006), pp. 6778. For further details see www.informaworld.com. The family tree of the Banu Munqidh included in this book is based upon that found in Andr Miquels translation, Des Enseignements de la Vie (Paris, 1983), pp. 789, with some emendations.

A few people gave me special gifts. David Nicolle kept me honest about my translations of medieval military technical terms and helped me crack the vexing mystery of the chisel-headed arrow. Qasim al-Samarrai, in a gesture that Usama would have found min al-ajaib, sent me from Leiden his personal copy of his hard-to-find edition of the Kitab al-Itibar so that I might make my own copy for use in this translation. Ella Almagor greatly helped this translation through gentle correction over the years and sheer inspiration as we spent a memorable Jerusalem evening swapping stories like a couple of old Munqidhites. Her own labour of love, a Hebrew translation of Usamas work, is eagerly expected. Finally, L. M. Harteker waited with beauty, wit and patience while I finally found the good sense to dedicate a book to her.