ABSTRACT
The most significant episode of the inconclusive Second Crusade, which was begun under the shadow of the loss of Edessa, was the short and ineffective siege of Damascus (1148). Ibn al-Qalānisi was an eye-witness, and his account completes and complements that of Ibn al-Athīr. Sibt Ibn al-Jauzi adds some picturesque details. The heroic death for his Faith and his country of the old faqīh al-Findalawi could be taken as a symbol of the most noble and austere aspects of the Muslim resistance.
