[2] Despite a few journeys to regional courts, al-Athraibi remained a local talent, providing a unique perspective on the dynamic historical events and geographical context of his time.
His young adulthood saw the resurgence of Selju power under Malik-Shah (1086), and the establishment of Seljuk prince Ridwan in Aleppo in the 1090s.
As the Artuqids and ‘Imad al-Din Zengi took control of Aleppo in the 1110s and 1128, al-Atharibi, in his middle age and sixties respectively, experienced the shifting dynamics of northern Syria.
[2] Al-Atharibi's historical account detailing the Franks who ventured into Islamic lands, akin to William of Tyre's Historia Orientalium Principum—a Frankish attempt to chronicle the history of the Muslim East—has not survived.
Additionally, Ibn al-‘Adim had sections of al-Atharibi's writings in his possession and quoted them in the Bughyat al-talab.