Abu Shamah, Historian of the Crusades 599-665 AH / 1202-1267 AD

Abstract

The study examines the life and scientific career of Abu Shamah, the role of his father in his education, and the legal school that he followed. Abu Shamah was known as the most important of the sheikhs and students of his legal school, and he avoided senior positions in the state and remained in teaching positions. Abu Shama recorded the history of the Crusades from 491 AH / 1098 AD until 665 AH / 1267 AD, the year of his death. This study focuses on his approach to the history of the Crusades, the image of the Franks he had through the texts he cited, and the sources from which he derived his information. The study shows that Abu Shamah provided an abundance of information about the Crusades. To give a clear and complete picture of the content of these narratives, it is necessary to subject them to quantitative study that breaks up the historical material and arranges and analyizes it in a way that enables the study to reach accurate results, identical to the information provideed by other historical sources, and to show the political conditions of the Muslim countries, and the results of the campaigns launched by the Franks.