Usama ibn Munqidh Majd ad - Dīn Usāma ibn Murshid ibn ʿAlī ibn Munqidh al - Kināni al - Kalbi ( also Usamah , Ousama , etc . ; ) ( July 4 , 1095 – November 17 , 1188 ) was a medieval Muslim poet , author , faris ( professional warrior ) , and diplomat from the Banu Munqidh dynasty of Shaizar in northern Syria . His life coincided with the rise of several medieval Muslim dynasties , as well as the arrival of the First Crusade and the establishment of the crusader states . He was the nephew of the emir of Shaizar and probably expected to rule Shaizar himself , but he was exiled in 1131 and spent the rest of his life serving other leaders . He was a courtier to the Burids , Zengids , and Ayyubids in Damascus , serving the famous Zengi , Nur ad - Din , and Saladin over a period of almost fifty years . He also served the Fatimid court in Cairo , as well as the Artuqids in Hisn Kayfa . He often meddled in the politics of the courts in which he served , and he was exiled from both Damascus and Cairo . During and immediately after his life he was most famous as a poet and " adib " ( a " man of letters " ) . He wrote many poetry anthologies , such as the " Kitab al - ' Asa " ( " Book of the Staff " ) , " Lubab al - Adab " ( " Kernels of Refinement " ) , and " al - Manazil wa ' l - Diyar " ( " Dwellings and Abodes " ) , and collections of his own original poetry . For modern readers , however , he is most well known for his " Kitab al - I ' tibar " ( " Book of Learning by Example " or " Book of Contemplation " ) , which contains lengthy descriptions of the crusade rs , whom he interacted with on many occasions , and some of whom he considered friends , although he generally saw them as ignorant foreigners . Most of his family was killed in an earthquake at Shaizar in 1157 . He died in Damascus in 1188 , at the age of 93 , a remarkably advanced age for the time . Early life . Usama was the son of Murshid , and the nephew of Nasr , emir of Shaizar . The Banu Munqidh had taken control of Shaizar from the Byzantine Empire in 1080 , and Nasr became its first emir . When Nasr died in 1098 , Usama ' s other uncle , Sultan , succeeded him , rather than Murshid , who was the older sibling . Murshid was noted for his piety and he refused to take up such a worldly position . As a child , Usama was raised by his nurse , Lu ' lu ' a , who had also raised his father and would later raise Usama ' s own children . He was encouraged by his father to memorize the Qur ' an , and was also tutored by scholars such as Ibn Munira of Kafartab and Abu Abdullah al - Tulaytuli of Toledo . He spent much of his youth hunting with his family , partly as recreation and certainly as warrior ( faris ) training for battle as part of furusiyya . He also had much direct experience of battle , against the neighbouring crusader County of Tripoli and Principality of Antioch , hostile Muslim neighbours in Hama , Homs , and elsewhere , and Hashshashin who had established a base near Shaizar . Sultan did not initially have any male heirs and it is possible that Usama expected to succeed him . However , after Sultan had his own son , he no longer appreciated the presence of Usama and Murshid ' s other sons , who could have taken Shaizar for themselves if they wanted it ; according to Usama , Sultan was jealous after a particularly successful lion - hunt in 1131 , although Sultan probably considered Usama an arrogant nuisance . Sultan therefore exiled Usama on June 6 of that year . Damascus and Egypt . Usama went to Homs , where he was taken captive in a battle against Zengi , the atabeg of Mosul and Aleppo , who had just captured nearby Hama . After his capture he entered Zengi ' s service , and travelled throughout northern Syria , Iraq , and Armenia fighting against Zengi ' s enemies , including the Abbasid caliph outside Baghdad in 1132 . In 1135 he returned to the south , to Hama , where one of Zengi ' s generals , al - Yaghisiyani , was appointed governor . He returned to Shaizar when his father died in May 1137 , and again in April 1138 when Byzantine emperor John II Comnenus besieged the city . The emperor ' s siege of Shaizar was unsuccessful , but Shaizar was heavily damaged . After the siege , Usama left Zengi ' s service and went to Damascus , which was ruled by Mu ' in ad - Din Unur , the atabeg of the Burid dynasty . Zengi was determined to conquer Damascus , so Usama and Unur turned to the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem for help . Usama was sent on a preliminary visit to Jerusalem in 1138 , and in 1139 Zengi captured Baalbek in Damascene territory . In 1140 Unur sent Usama back to Jerusalem to conclude a treaty with the crusaders , and both he and Unur visited their new allies numerous times between 1140 and 1143 . Afterwards , Usama was suspected of being involved in a plot against Unur , and he fled Damascus for Fatimid Cairo in November , 1144 . In Cairo he became a wealthy courtier , but he was involved in plots and conspiracies there as well . The young az - Zafir became caliph in 1149 , and Ibn as - Sallar became vizier , with Usama as one of his advisors . As - Sallar sent Usama to negotiate an alliance against the crusaders with Zengi ' s son Nur ad - Din , but the negotiations failed . Usama took part in battles with the crusaders outside of Ascalon on his way back to Egypt , and after he left , his brother ' Ali was killed at Gaza . Back in Egypt , as - Sallar was assassinated in 1153 by his son Abbas , Abbas ' s son Nasr , and caliph az - Zafir , who , according to Usama , was Nasr ' s lover . Thirteenth - century historian Ibn al - Athir says that Usama was the instigator of this plot . Usama may also have been behind the assassination of az - Zafir by Abbas , in 1154 . Az - Zafir ' s relatives called upon a supporter , Ibn Ruzzik , who chased Abbas out of Cairo , and Usama followed him . He lost his possessions in Cairo , and on the way to Damascus his retinue was attacked by the crusaders and Bedouin nomads , but in June 1154 he safely reached Damascus , which had recently been captured by Nur ad - Din . Ibn Ruzzik tried to persuade him to come back , as the rest of his family was still in Cairo , but Usama was able to bring them to Damascus , through crusader territory , in 1156 . The crusaders promised to transport them safely , but they were attacked and pillaged , and Usama lost his entire library . Later years . In 1157 , Shaizar was destroyed by an earthquake , killing almost all of Usama ' s relatives . They were there for the circumcision of the son of his cousin Muhammad , who had recently succeeded Sultan as emir . The only survivor was Muhammad ' s wife . Usama had remained in Damascus , and after the destruction of his homeland he remained there in semi - retirement . He went on pilgrimage to Mecca in 1160 , then went on campaign against the crusaders with Nur ad - Din in 1162 , and was at the Battle of Harim in 1164 . That year , Usama left Nur ad - Din ' s service and went north to the court of Kara Arslan , the Artuqid emir of Hisn Kayfa . Usama ' s life in Hisn Kayfa is obscure , but he travelled throughout the region , and probably wrote most of his works there . In 1174 Usama was invited to Damascus to serve Saladin , who had succeeded Nur ad - Din earlier that year and was a friend of Usama ' s son Murhaf . Usama lived in semi - retirement , as he did in Hisn Kayfa , and often met with Saladin to discuss literature and warfare . He may have also taught poetry and hadith in Damascus , and held poetry salons for Saladin and his chief men , including al - Qadi al - Fadl and Imad ad - Din al - Isfahani . He died on November 17 , 1188 . He was buried in Damascus on Mount Qasiyun , although the tomb is now lost . Family . Usama had three brothers , Muhammad , ' Ali , and Munqidh ; his cousin , also named Muhammad , succeeded Usama ' s uncle Sultan as emir of Shaizar . He had a son , Murhaf , in 1126 , and another son , Abu Bakr , who died as a child . He had a daughter , Umm Farwa , in Hisn Kayfa in 1166 . He mentions other children , but their names , and the name of his wife or wives , are unknown . Religion . It is sometimes assumed that Usama was Shi ' ite , because he often writes about ' Ali , his family cooperated with the Fatimids and other Shi ' ite dynasties , and he himself served the Fatimids in Egypt . Philip K . Hitti thought he had a " secret sympathy " with the Shi ' ites . Paul M . Cobb does not think there is enough evidence one way or the other , but believes he was probably Sunni with " acceptable Shi ' ite tendencies . " Robert Irwin thinks the Banu Munqidh were Twelver Shi ' ites ( unlike the Fatimids who were Sevener s ) , and that another clue to Usama ' s Shi ' ism is his dislike of jihad , which was not a Shi ' ite doctrine . Usama also admired Christian monks and holy men , and was disturbed that Muslims were not as pious as Christians . He was very fond of Sufis when he first learned about them late in his life in Damascus . Works . Around 1171 in Hisn Kayfa , Usama wrote the " Kitab al - ' Asa " ( " Book of the Staff " ) , a poetry anthology about famous walking sticks and other staffs , and " al - Manazil wa ' l - Diyar " ( " Dwellings and Abodes " ) . In Damascus in the early 1180s he wrote another anthology , the " Lubab al - Adab " ( " Kernels of Refinement " ) , instructions on living a properly cultured life . He is most famous for the " Kitab al - I ' tibar " ( translated various ways , most recently as " the Book of Contemplation " ) , which was written as a gift to Saladin around 1183 . It is not exactly a " memoir " , as Philip Hitti translated the title , although it does include many autobiographical details that are incidental to the main point . It was meant to be " a book of examples ( " ' ibar " ) from which to draw lessons . " In 1880 , Hartwig Derenbourg was the first to discover the " Kitab al - I ' tibar " , which survived in only one manuscript , in the possession of the Escurial in Madrid . Derenbourg was also the first to produce an Arabic edition ( 1886 ) , a biography of Usama ( 1889 ) , and a French translation ( 1895 ) . In 1930 , Hitti produced an improved Arabic edition , and an English translation . Qasim as - Samarrai produced another Arabic edition in 1987 . Usama wrote in " Middle Arabic " , a less formal style of classical Arabic . Reputation . Usama was known for meddling in the business of others , rather than commanding any power of his own . As the Encyclopaedia of Islam says , " his career was a troubled one , and for this his own actions were surely responsible in large part . " To contemporary and later medieval Muslims , however , he was best remembered for his poetry and his poetry anthologies . Ibn Khallikan , author of a fourteenth - century biographical dictionary , calls him " one of the most powerful , learned , and intrepid members of the [ Munqidh ] family " and speaks at great length about his poetry . He was also known for his military and hunting exploits . Ibn al - Athir described him as " the ultimate of bravery " , regarding his presence at the Battle of Harim . For modern readers he is most famous for the " Kitab al - I ' tibar " and his descriptions of life in Syria during the early crusades . The disjointed nature of the work has given him a reputation as a senile rambler , although it is actually written with an anthological structure , with humorous or moralistic tales that are not meant to proceed chronologically , as a true autobiography would . Since this style of literature , " adab " in Arabic , does not necessarily have to be factual , historians are quick to point out that Usama ' s historical material cannot always be trusted . Usama ' s anecdotes about the crusades are sometimes obvious jokes , exaggerating their " other ness " to entertain his Muslim audience . As Carole Hillenbrand wrote , it would be " dangerously misleading to take the evidence of his book at its face value . "