8vo. 526 pp., Arabic text edited by Muhammad Ahmad Shakir, 3 b/w plates from original manuscript, modern hard back binding, index, ink annotations in margins, occasional minor foxing, heavier on title page, closed tear to last leaf without any loss to text, copy in overall good condition, al-Matba’a al-Rahmaniyah, Cairo, 1935.

Synopsis

Usama ibn Munqidh (d. 584/1188) is best known for his “memoirs” entitled Kitāb al- I’tibar, which provides a personal and detailed window into the world of an aristocratic Syrian Muslim in the period of the Crusades. However, scholars have almost completely ignored a lesser-known work by Usāma called Lubāb al-Adāb or The Kernels of Refinement.
This anthology consists mostly of poetic excerpts relating to Adab, the ideal conduct of the male courtier, but also contains a handful of narrative anecdotes about Usāma and his times, very much akin to the material found in his “memoirs”: tales of admirable behaviour, of encounters with the Franks, of Usāma’s family, and the daily life of the elite of his day. This article presents these narrative extracts translated into English for the first time, with commentary, and with the intention that The Kernels of Refinement will attract the attention it deserves from both Arabists and non-Arabists.