12th century Arabs firsthand opinion of Crusaders

[Yazid]

I'm genuinely interested in this, and it's quite comedic in value.

http://medieval.ucdavis.edu/20B/Usamah.html

If anyone can like to more, please feel free.

[Leshma]

case illustrating their curious medicine is the following:
The lord of al-Munaytirah wrote to my uncle asking him to dispatch a physician to treat certain sick persons among his people. My uncle sent him a Christian physician named Thabit. Thabit was absent but ten days when he returned. So we said to him, "How quickly hast you healed your patients!" He said:
"They brought before me a knight in whose leg an abscess had grown; and a woman afflicted with imbecility. To the knight I applied a small poultice until the abscess opened and became well; and the woman I put on diet and made her humour wet. Then a Frankish physician came to them and said, 'This man knows nothing about treating them.' He then said to the knight 'Which wouldst you prefer, living with one leg or dying with two?' The latter replied, 'Living with one leg.' The physician said, 'Bring me a strong knight and a sharp axe.' A knight came with the axe. And I was standing by. Then the physician laid the leg of the patient on a block of wood and bade the knight strike his leg with the axe and chop it off at one blow. Accordingly he struck it--while I was looking on--one blow, but the leg was not severed. He dealt another blow, upon which the marrow of the leg flowed out and the patient died on the spot. He then examined the woman and said, 'This is a woman in whose head there is a devil which has possessed her. Shave off her hair.' Accordingly they shaved it off and the woman began once more to eat their ordinary diet--garlic and mustard. Her imbecility took a turn for the worse. The physician then said, 'The devil has penetrated through her head.' He therefore took a razor, made a deep cruciform incision on it, peeled off the skin at the middle of the incision until the bone of the skull was exposed and rubbed it with salt. The woman also expired instantly. Thereupon I asked them whether my services were needed any longer, and when they replied in the negative I returned home, having learned of their medicine what I knew not before."

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[Ronin]

Leshma, is that quote from Amin Maalouf's book? I remember reading it there.

Edit: Just checked the link. This is all from from Amin Maalouf's book. I suggest you to read it. It's a nice book.

[LordBerenger]

ALLAHU AKBAR!

[Utrakil]

nice piece of history. Thanks for sharing.

[Duster]

Nice find, very entertaining, especially the bit with the frank finding another man in his bed

[Yazid]

Nice find, very entertaining, especially the bit with the frank finding another man in his bed

seems like a frank alright!

[Zlisch_The_Butcher]

If Frank found another man in his bed Frank would fuck him.

[Ronin]

I was thinking the same and tried to find the english title of this book.

Read it like 4 times already in the last years, it's really, really nice.

Haha same, except the reading it for 4 times part.

I also suggest to read Erns W Heine's book, the one about Alamut and Hashashins. I can't say I know about it's historical accuracy but I really liked it. I couldn't find the English title of the book though, german titles everywhere.

Asha Atu As-Sirra, is my favourite chapter of course

[Kafein]

That eastward guy is hardcore

[Turkhammer]

So how did the Arabs get stuck in the 12th century?

[BASNAK]

So how did the Arabs get stuck in the 12th century?

Ottomans and then the western powers occupation after WW1 are to blame I'd say.

[Christo]

So how did the Arabs get stuck in the 12th century?

islam

[Kafein]

So how did the Arabs get stuck in the 12th century?

Pretty much the same way Europe got stuck in the 4th

[Kalam]

Some suggest it was the Mongol invasion of the Middle East.