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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Galloglaich" data-source="post: 5038607" data-attributes="member: 77019">Yes this book is amazing, it reads like a series of "war stories" you would hear in a bar, except I know Usamah was a pious Muslim so I guess it would be more realistic to say, at the souk sitting around on pillows with tea and a hookah... anyway, lots of great, really surprising stories, very short anywhere from a couple of paragraphs to a page or two... more or less at random though he tries to string them all together to make some ideological points. Some of the more amusing ones I actually couldn't post on a family friendly site like this (lets just say, Usamuh was shocked by the behavior of the Franks in many respects, especially how liberal the Franks were with their wives and girlfriends... and they were not exactly shy about co-ed Public baths.... Medieval Europeans were a lot different than most people would think...) I'm unfamiliar with the series you mentioned, sounds like I should look for it if the journals of the Franks are half as interesting as this one I have some good reading ahead of me. I've been reading the Princeton University Press edition. Anyway a couple more which are appropriate to this thread: This is a good one, a lot of people don't realize the Arabs had the equivalent of incendiary hand-grenades and artillery available during the Crusades. The Franks of Outramer probably had them as well once they got established in the region since they picked up pretty much all the other local customs.... this scene is from the siege of a small Castle: "One of the Turks climbed, under our very eyes, and started walking towards the tower, in the face of death, until he approached the tower and hurles a bottle of naptha on those who were on top of it. The naptha flashed like a meteor falling upon those hard stones, while the men who were there threw themselves on the ground for fear of being burnt. The Turk then came back to us." Here is another one from the same siege, testament to the effectiveness of mail armor, in this case it sounds like it was 'doubled' mail or kings mail. "Another Turk now climbed and started walking on the same wall between the two bastions. He was carrying his sword and shield. There came out to meet him from the tower, at the door of which stood a knight, a Frank wearing double-linked mail and carrying a spear in his hand, but not eqquipped with a shield. The Turk, sword in hand, encountered him. The Frank smote him with the spear, but the Turk warded off the point of the spear with his shield and, notwithstanding the spear, advanced towards the frank. The latter took to flight and turned his back, leaning forward, like one who wanted to kneel, in order to protect hiss head. The urk dealt him a number of blows which had no effect whatsoever, and went on walking until he entered the tower."  Here is a greusome tale of a fight and the subsequent effective trauma medicine practiced by the arabs on a wounded warrior: "There was in my service a man named Nuamayr al-'Allaruzi. He was a footman, brave and strong. With a band of men from Shayzar, he set out to al-Ruj to attack the Franks. When still in our territory, they came across a caravan of the Franks hiding in a cavern, and each one began to say to the other, "Who should go in against them?" "I," said Nuuamyr. And as he said it, he went in against them. As he entered, one of them came to recieve him, but Numayr stabbed him immediately with the dagger, overthrew him and knelt upon him to slay him. Behind the Frank stood another one with a sword in his hand and he struck Numayr. The latter had on his back a knapsack containing bread, which protected him. Having killed the man under him, Numayr now turned to the man with the sword, intent upon attacking him. The Frank immediately struck him with the sword on the side of his face and cut through his eyebrow, eyelid, cheeck, nose and upper lip, making the whole side of his face hang down his chest. Numayr went out of the cavern to his companions, who bandaged his wound and brought him back during a cold rainy night. He arrived in Shayzar in that condition. there his face was stitched and his cut was treated until he was healed and returned to his former conidtion, with the exception of his eye was lost for good." Ouch!  Thats a bit nastier than the typical wound description in an RPG.  The cure sounds a bit more painful than a Cure Light Wounds spell too... but almost as effective apparently. I have several more but I'm fed up with this post editor, enough for tonight.  More to come later. G.</blockquote>

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