AN ARAB-SYRIAN GENTLEMAN AND WARRIOR IN THE PERIOD OF THE CRUSADES MEMOIRS OF USAMAH IBN-MUNQIDH

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, an envoy from the Imam al-Rashid ibn-al-Mustarshid (may Allah’s mercy rest upon their two souls!), in order to summon the atabek to appear before him [the caliph].

Bishr took part in that battle clad in a gilden byrnie [jawshan]. A Frankish knight, named ibn-al-Daqiq, 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.

Later on in the year 532, the emperor of the Byzantines once more set out against the land of Syria and made an alliance with the Franks (may Allah render them helpless!) to go conjointly against Shayzar and attack it.

Salah-al-Din thereupon said to me, “Dost thou not see what this timorous fellow has done?” referring to his own son Shihab-al-Din Ahmad.

“And what has he done?” said I. “He sent me word,” replied Salah-al-Din, “saying, ‘Find someone else to take charge of thy town.’” “And what didst thou do then?” asked I.

“Well,” replied Salah-al-Din, “I sent word to the atabek, saying, ‘Take back thy place.’” I then remarked, “What an awful thing thou hast done! Will not now the atabek say to thee, ‘When it was meat he ate it, but now that it has become bone he threw it away to me.’”

“What shall I do then?” asked he. To this I replied, “I shall establish myself in it [Shayzar]. If Allah (exalted is he!) vouchsafes its safety, it will be to thy future welfare and will redound to thy glory with thy lord. If, on the other hand, the town is taken and we are killed, that will be our fate and thou wilt not be to blame.” To this he replied, “No other man has ever said such a thing to me!”

Believing that he would act accordingly, I brought together sheep, a large quantity of flour, butter and other provisions needed during a siege. But as I was in my home at sunset time, his messenger came to me, saying, “Salah-al-Din wants thee to know that the day after tomorrow we shall be on the march to al-Mawsil. Prepare thyself, therefore, for the march.”