Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/551

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APPENDIX 529 Oriental Sources [Extracts from the writers mentioned below, and others, will be found in vol. iv. of Michaud's Ijibliotlieiiue des Croisades (1829), translated and arranged by M. Reinaud.] Imad ad-Din al-Katib al-Ispahaui was born at Ispahan in a.d. 1125, and studied at Baghdad. He obtained civil service appointments, but fell into disfavour and was imprisoned ; after which he went to Damascus, where Niir ad-DIu was ruling. He became the friend of prince Saladin, and was soon appointed secretary of state under Niir ad-Din, but after this potentate's death his position was precarious, and he set out to return to Baglidad. But hearing of Saladin' s successes in Eg^-pt he went back to Damascus and attached himself to his old friend. After Saladin's death (a.d. 1193) he withdrew into private life. He wrote a history of the Crusades with the affected title : Historia C'ossica [Coss was a contemporary of Mohammad] de expugnatione Codsica [that is, Hierosolymitana], of which extracts were pub- lished by Schultens ; he also wrote a HLstory of the Seljiiks. See Wiistenfeld, Arabische Geschichtschreiber, no. 284. '^ Baha ad-Din (the name is often corrujjted to Bohadin) was born in 1145 at Mosil, and became profes.sor there in 1174 in the college founded by Kamal ad- Din. In 1188 he made the pilgrimage to Mecca, and on his way back visited Damascus, where Saladin sent for him and offered him a professorship at Cairo. This he declined, but he afterwards took service under Saladin and was ap- pointed judge of the army and to a high official post at Jerusalem. After Sala- din's death he was made judge of Aleppo, where he founded a college and mosque, and a school for teaching the traditions of the Prophet. He died in 1234. His biograph}^ of Saladin is one of the most important sources for the Third Crusade, and the most important source for the life of Saladin. [Edited with French translation in vol. iii. of the Recueil des historiens des Croisades, Hist. Or. (Here too will be found a notice of the author's life bj- Ibn Khallikan.) Translation (imscholarly) published by the Palestine Exploration Fund, 1897.] Abu 1-Hasan AH Ibn al-Athir was born a.d. IIGO. He studied at Mosil and was there when Saladin besieged it in 1186. He was in Syria about 1189, so that he saw something of the Third Crusade. But he was a man of letters and took little part in public affairs. He wrote (1) a history of the Atabegs of Mosil and (2) a universal history from the creation of the world to a.d. 12.31. Tlie part of this second work bearing on the Crusades, from a.d. 1098 to 1190, will be found in the Recueil, Hist. Or. vol. i. p. 189 sriq. ; and on the author's life see ih. p. 752 sqq. The history of the Atabegs is published in the 2nd part of vol. ii. Kamal ad-Din ibn al-Adim, born c. a.d. 1192, belonged to the farailj- of the cadhis of Aleppo. Having studied at Baghdad and visitcil Dama.scus, Jerusa- lem, (tc. , he became judge of Aleppo himself, and afterwards vizier. When the Tartars destroyed the place in a. d. 1200, he fled to Egj^pt. He wrote a History of his native city, and part of this is the Recit de la jjremifere croisade et des quatorze annees suivantes, published in Defremery, Memoires d'histoire orientale, 18.54. [Recueil des hist, des Croisades, Hist. Or. vol. iii. p. 577 sqq.^ Abu-l-Kasim Aud ar-Rahman (called AbQ Sliama, "father of moles") was bom in Damascus a.d. 1202 and assassinated a.d. 1266. He wrote Liber duorum hortorum de historia duorum regnorurn, a history of the reigns of Niir ad-Din and Saladin, which is edited by Quatremfere in vol. ii. of the Recueil des hist, des Croisades, Hist. Or. Jal.al ad-Din {a.d. 1207-1298) was born at Hamah in Sjria and afterwards went to Egypt, where he was a witness of the invasion of Louis IX. He visited Italy VOL. VL 34