Accounts in Ibn Jubayr’s Travels and in Usamah Ibn Munqidh’s Memoirs, present the perspective of the Muslim community. The writer, diplomat and politician Usamah (487–583 / 1095–1188), who lived at Shayzar Castle, was personally acquainted with Nur al-Din and Saladin, as well as their Frankish opponents. He describes a visit to Jerusalem: ‘When I used to enter the Aqsa Mosque, which was occupied by the Templars, who were my friends, the Templars would evacuate the little adjoining mosque so that I might pray in it.’ One day as Usamah stood to pray a Frank interrupted his prayers and forced him to pray towards the east. Usamah’s Templar friends repelled the Frank and apologised to him saying ‘“This is a stranger who has only recently arrived from the land of the Franks and he has never before seen anyone praying except eastward.”’