The life of Us?mah ibn-Munqidh epitomizes the height of Arab civilization during the early Crusading period. These memoirs--which represent a rare first-hand account of medieval European manners, morals, politics, and medicine written by a non-European--offers new perspective and insight into an important point of military and cultural contact between the East and West. In his introduction, translator Philip Hitti writes, "Ancient Arabic literature has preserved for us other biographies, memoirs, and reminiscences by great men, but there is hardly anything superior to this one in its simplicity of narrative, dignity, and wealth of contents and general human interest.

The Description for this book, An Arab-Syrian Gentleman and Warrior in the Period of the Crusades: Memoirs of Usamah Ibn-Munqidh, will be forthcoming.

The Description for this book, An Arab-Syrian Gentleman and Warrior in the Period of the Crusades: Memoirs of Usamah Ibn-Munqidh, will be forthcoming.

The volume comprises lightly annotated translation of a key medieval Arabic text that bears directly on the Crusades and Crusader society and the Muslim experience of them.