Usama ibn Munqidh: “A Muslim View of the Crusaders”

Audience

As implied by the title The Book of Contemplation, the reader is meant to absorb moral and religious wisdom and to apply it to life, much in the way that Usama learned by the examples of his father and his uncle. Readers can assume that Usama projected the image he desired, and therefore he was perhaps not overly concerned with proof and accuracy. Because of the multitude of favorable references to Saladin, it is possible that Usama dedicated the memoir to the ruler. However, because the first few dozen pages of the manuscript are missing, the intended recipient can only be guessed. Furthermore, the fact that there is but one remaining copy of the manuscript suggests that the memoir was not widely circulated.