I teach at a university with a strong health sciences focus. The narrative from Usama's autobiography about the treasurer Bernard's persistent wounds and a young boy's skin condition would make a good starting point to compare and contrast western and eastern medical practices at the time. Topics to consider might be the perceived causes of illness (manifestation of a person’s weaknesses, due to an external cause, etc.), the growing interest in medical guides, the ethics of treating those with whom one is at war, etc. It would also be illustrative for students in health sciences to analyze the various treatments for Bernard’s leg wounds and the anonymous boy’s scrofula. Are the treatments believable? Why or why not? Is this folk medicine or evidence-based treatment?