Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Part 1 Sources
- 1 Hamdan al-Atharibi’s History of the Franks Revisited, Again
- 2 Legitimate Authority in the Kitab al-Jihad of ‘Ali b. Tahir al-Sulami
- 3 Politics, Religion and the Occult in the Works of Kamal al-Din Ibn Talha, a Vizier, ‘Alim and Author in Thirteenthcentury Syria
- Part 2 Christians
- 4 Adapting to Muslim Rule: the Syrian Orthodox Community in Twelfth-century Northern Syria and the Jazira
- 5 The Afterlife of Edessa: Remembering Frankish Rule, 1144 and After
- Part 3 Convivencia
- 6 Diplomatic Relations and Coinage among the Turcomans, the Ayyubids and the Crusaders: Pragmatism and Change of Identity
- 7 Symbolic Conflict and Cooperation in the Neglected Chronicle of a Syrian Prince
- 8 A Critique of the Scholarly Outlook of the Crusades: the Case for Tolerance and Coexistence
- Part 4 War and Peace
- 9 The Portrayal of Violence in Walter the Chancellor’s Bella Antiochena
- 10 Infernalising the Enemy: Images of Hell in Muslim Descriptions of the Franks during the Crusading Period
- Part 5 Cities
- 11 Sunnites et Chiites à Alep sous le règne d’al-Salih Isma‘il (569–77/1174–81): entre conflits et réconciliations
- 12 The War of Towers: Venice and Genoa at War in Crusader Syria, 1256–8
- 13 Gaza in the Frankish and Ayyubid Periods: the Run-up to 1260 CE
- Part 6 Saladin’s Men
- 14 Picture-poems for Saladin: ‘Abd al-Mun‘im al-Jilyani’s Mudabbajat
- 15 Ayyubid Realpolitik and Political–Military Vicissitudes versus Counter-crusading Ideology in the Memoirist–Chronicler al-Katib al-Isfahani
- 16 Assessing the Evidence for a Turning Point in Ayyubid– Frankish Relations in a Letter by al-Qadi al-Fadil
- Part 7 Key Personalities
- 17 Saladin, Generosity and Gift-giving
- 18 Hülegü: the New Constantine?
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index of Names
- Index of Places
- Index of Terms/Concepts
1 - Hamdan al-Atharibi’s History of the Franks Revisited, Again
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 October 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Part 1 Sources
- 1 Hamdan al-Atharibi’s History of the Franks Revisited, Again
- 2 Legitimate Authority in the Kitab al-Jihad of ‘Ali b. Tahir al-Sulami
- 3 Politics, Religion and the Occult in the Works of Kamal al-Din Ibn Talha, a Vizier, ‘Alim and Author in Thirteenthcentury Syria
- Part 2 Christians
- 4 Adapting to Muslim Rule: the Syrian Orthodox Community in Twelfth-century Northern Syria and the Jazira
- 5 The Afterlife of Edessa: Remembering Frankish Rule, 1144 and After
- Part 3 Convivencia
- 6 Diplomatic Relations and Coinage among the Turcomans, the Ayyubids and the Crusaders: Pragmatism and Change of Identity
- 7 Symbolic Conflict and Cooperation in the Neglected Chronicle of a Syrian Prince
- 8 A Critique of the Scholarly Outlook of the Crusades: the Case for Tolerance and Coexistence
- Part 4 War and Peace
- 9 The Portrayal of Violence in Walter the Chancellor’s Bella Antiochena
- 10 Infernalising the Enemy: Images of Hell in Muslim Descriptions of the Franks during the Crusading Period
- Part 5 Cities
- 11 Sunnites et Chiites à Alep sous le règne d’al-Salih Isma‘il (569–77/1174–81): entre conflits et réconciliations
- 12 The War of Towers: Venice and Genoa at War in Crusader Syria, 1256–8
- 13 Gaza in the Frankish and Ayyubid Periods: the Run-up to 1260 CE
- Part 6 Saladin’s Men
- 14 Picture-poems for Saladin: ‘Abd al-Mun‘im al-Jilyani’s Mudabbajat
- 15 Ayyubid Realpolitik and Political–Military Vicissitudes versus Counter-crusading Ideology in the Memoirist–Chronicler al-Katib al-Isfahani
- 16 Assessing the Evidence for a Turning Point in Ayyubid– Frankish Relations in a Letter by al-Qadi al-Fadil
- Part 7 Key Personalities
- 17 Saladin, Generosity and Gift-giving
- 18 Hülegü: the New Constantine?
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index of Names
- Index of Places
- Index of Terms/Concepts
Summary
Introduction
This chapter has two minor goals: to clarify and to speculate. The subject of both of these goals is the twelfth-century Syrian Muslim historian and man of letters Hamdan b. ‘Abd al-Rahim al-Atharibi (d. 1147). For many scholars of the Crusades in Syria, his name and the few details we have about him will already be familiar: what follows is thus not so much anything that is radically new, as it is a clarification of the details we do have about him (and which, to my mind, have not received adequate scrutiny) and an opportunity to speculate about some details that we, frankly, do not have. But, for all that, I do hope it will at least stimulate some new thought on the worlds – political, economic and literary – that he inhabited. My clarification and speculation will be spread over three broad areas: first, Hamdan's context and career in northern Syria in the era of the First Crusade; second, his literary production, in particular his History of the Franks, which I feel is a somewhat misunderstood work; and finally, some thoughts about his place in the constellation of Syrian historiography so that we all might gain a better understanding of what Hamdan wrote, and what, therefore, we have lost.
The Syrian Context
As no complete works of his own survive, what little we know about Hamdan comes from the biographical entry (tarjama) devoted to him in Ibn al-‘Adim's biographical dictionary of Aleppo, the Bughyat al-talab fi ta’rikh Halab. This entry offers some important details about Hamdan's career, his prose writings and samples of his poetry. Moreover, Ibn al-‘Adim (d. 1262) knew some of Hamdan's descendants personally and they served as direct sources for him for some family lore that he reported in his own historical works. He also had in his possession some sections of Hamdan's writings, and he quoted them here and there in the Bughya. Ibn al-‘Adim also made use of Hamdan in compiling his chronicle, the Zubdat al-halab min ta’rikh Halab, but – as was usually the case in that work – he is nowhere acknowledged by name.
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- Syria in Crusader TimesConflict and Co-Existence, pp. 3 - 20Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2020