Saladin and the Crusaders: Selected Annals from Masalik al-absar fi mamalik al-amsar by al-Umari.

• Author: Amitai-Preiss, Reuven

Ibn Fadlallah al-??Umari's 27-volume encyclopedia has long been recognized as a major source for the history of the Islamic world and beyond in the later Middle Ages. On the other hand, the annals comprising the "historical section," found at the end of this massive work, are largely taken in their entirety from the works of other historians (see, e.g., D. P. Little, An Introduction to Mamluk Historiography [Wiesbaden, 1970], 40). The editor herself admits that the annals edited and translated in her edition are little more than a copy of the parallel passages from Abu '1-Fida??'s Al Mukhtasar fi ta??rikh albashar, with some minor additions from the poetry of al-Qadi al-Fadil. This being the case, it is unclear what motivated the author and the publisher to bring out a text of clearly minor significance, particularly when so many important sources from the Ayyubid and early Mamluk period still need to be edited. Others, such as the above mentioned work of Abu '1-Fida??, could certainly stand being reedited. Finally, if an enterprising scholar wanted to try his hand at preparing an annotated translation of a text from Saladin's period, one can think of several decidedly more significant texts than the present work, such as the relevant part of Ibn Wasil's Mufarrij alkurub. Incidentally, this last-mentioned work is not cited in the notes or bibliography, an inexplicable omission considering Abu '1-Fida??s dependence on this source.

The present translation suffers from the misinterpretation of technical terms and idioms common to later medieval texts. For example, on p. 20 (Arabic text on p. 21), fa-sara salah al-din jaridatan fi saba?? mi??a faris cannot be translated "Saladin set out with a troop of seven hundred horsemen," but rather "Saladin set out in light order (i.e., without heavy baggage) with seven hundred horsemen" (see Dozy, Supplement aux dictionnaires arabes, 1:184b); khadim is "eunuch" and not "a man in the service of . . ." (see D. Ayalon, in JSAI 1 [1979]:64-124, and Studies in Memory of Gaston Wiet, ed. M. Rosen-Ayalon...