Attitudes Towards The West
The autobiography gives us details of Muslim attitudes towards the Christian crusaders who went to the Middle East. His views of the Franks can reveal the impression Muslims had at the time about the nature of their own society compared to the Franks' society which was viewed as inferior, for example when he describes the lack of jealousy in sexual affairs. Hitti points out that to a conservative Muslim this must have seemed shocking.12 Another example is his ridicule of the Frankish system of justice. He gives a couple of examples; The first is a description of a duel to settle a dispute and the second is a man being dropped into a cask of water. If the man drowned he was innocent and if he floated he was guilty:
This man did his best to sink when they dropped him into the water, but he could not do it. So he had to submit to their sentence against him -may Allah's curse be upon them!
This would have contrasted dramatically with the contemporary Muslim judicial procedure. Usāmah views Islamic society and learning as superior to that of the Franks. For example, when a Frankish knight offers to take his son to his country to educate him in wisdom and chivalry, he refuses:
Thus there fell upon my ears words which would never come out of the head of a sensible man; for even if my son were to be taken captive, his captivity could not bring him a worse misfortune than carrying him into the lands of the Franks.
He also criticises their medicine, giving an example of an amputation, which killed a patient, however he follows this up with examples of some successful medical cures the Franks practiced.
Usāmah describes the Franks as 'animals possessing the virtues of courage and fighting, but nothing else'. Despite this however, Usāmah became friends with one Frankish knight who he describes as a:
Reverend knight who had just arrived from their land in order to make the holy pilgrimage and then return home. He was of my intimate fellowship and kept such constant company with me that he began to call me "my brother". Between us were mutual bonds of amity and friendship.
This attitude towards the Christians reflects Islamic society at the time. The Muslims were willing to co-operate with the Franks. Muslim rulers often made alliances with the Crusader states in their own internal struggles against fellow Muslims. There is a difference in the attitude to Franks who were new to the area and those who had been there for a long time. The Franks who have lived there a while have got used to the customs of Islamic society while the newcomers are more hostile:
Everyone who is a fresh emigrant from the Frankish lands is ruder in character than those who have become acclimatized and have held long associations with the Muslims
Read more about this topic: Kitab Al-I'tibar
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