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

Questions for Further Study

• 1. What historical circumstances gave rise to the Crusades?
• 2. If you had to base an assessment of the relationship between the Franks and the Muslim Arabs entirely on Usama ibn Munqidh’s “Muslim View of the Crusaders,” how would you characterize that relationship?
• 3. Clearly, the period of the Crusades was a time of cultural clash between Christian Western Europe and Muslim Arab Palestine. In what ways does Usama’s text illustrate that cultural clash? To what extent do you think the terms of that clash continue to exist in the twenty-first century?
• 4. Compare this document with Marco Polo’s Description of Hangzhou. Both deal with the cross-cultural observations of their writers. In what ways are they similar? How do they differ?
• 5. According to Usama, in what different ways did the Franks and the Arabs regard women and their position in society?
• 6. Examine Usama’s text in the context of Urban II’s Call to Crusade. How do you think Usama would have reacted if he had been listening to Pope Urban’s sermon urging European Christians to “liberate” Palestine?