2020 - Once upon a time in Islamic Gibraltar
Ibn Habib (800)
Abd al-Malik ibn Habib (c 790-c853) was born in Elvira, Granada, and is recognised as one of the very first Spanish-born historians. His main contribution to an understanding of the Islamic conquest of Iberia is his Kitab al–ta’rikh or Book of History, of which I understand the only extant version is a single, revised copy, written during the years 888-893 by one of his pupils - Yusuf ibn Yahya l-Maghami (d901). The manuscript is held by the Bodleian Library of Oxford University.
To set the scene, perhaps a quote from José Ruiz Mata’s 2018 publication - Al Ándalus, la historia que no nos contaron - might be useful.
A visit to Cairo
"A principios del siglo IX unos jóvenes andalusíes emprendieron viaje al Cairo para tomar lecciones de renombrados maestros; uno de estos jóvenes era Ibn Habib.
A su vuelta escribió su obra Tarikh en la que, además de exponer los conocimientos adquiridos, explica cómo fue la conquista de la península Ibérica por los árabes; parece que en Alándalus no se sabía y tuvo que preguntarlo en un lugar tan lejano.
Es de suponer que estos maestros egipcios sabían poco de la conquista de Hispania pero tuvieron a bien conformar a sus discípulos con leyendas egipcias que más tenían que ver con los relatos de Las mil y una noches, que con la verdad histórica.
Así aparecieron en la Historia Muza y Taric, de los que parece que se habían olvidado en la península en tampoco espacio de tiempo. Sobre Musa no aclara quien lo informó, pero del desembarco de Taric dice que lo supo por el doctor egipcio Abd Allah ibn Wahb.
¿Cómo podían ignorar estos jóvenes unos hechos tan importantes que habían vivido sus abuelos?"
Notes:
“Muza” is Musa Ibn Nusayr
“Taric” is Tariq ibn Ziyad
“Abd Allah ibn Wahb” must have been Abu Muhammad Abdallah ibn Wahb ibn Muslim (743-813) – known as Ibn Wahb – was born in Cairo and was a prominent Egyptian Jurist. He may have been one of Ibn Habib’s teachers.
One difficulty between Yusuf ibn Yahya’s version and the original by Ibn Habib, is acknowledged by Ann Christy in her 2003 article, The History of Ibn Habib and Ethnogenesis in Al-Andalus:
As always with a late copy, it is impossible to be sure of the exact relationship between the manuscript and the original text, but it seems to be a version, perhaps incomplete, of a work dating from the second half of the ninth century. For the sake of simplicity, I will refer to the whole work as the “History” of Ibn Habib.
And, of course so will I.
Christy is of the opinion that Ibn Habib has tended to be ignored by modern historians because it was rejected by the Dutch Arabist Reinhart Dozy as pure nonsense. It was his opinion that the History was simply a series of myths and as useless to scholarship as the 1001 Nights – a comment also gleefully picked up by José Ruiz Mata as shown in my first quote.
I am sure he was right - but perhaps one should take a closer look.
After starting with the creation of the world, Ibn Habib gives a summary what the rest of his “History” will be all about. The quote is from Christy’s article.
I will begin with Adam . . . until the time of the Prophet, peace and blessings upon him. . . and how the caliphs followed after him and their history and stories about them . . . until the time of Walid ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan. . .Then I will come to the conquest of al-Andalus and the arrival there of Tariq, client of Musa ibn Nusayr. Then I will mention the number of her governors and those who will govern her until she is destroyed and what will happen after the destruction until the hour with the traditions and the signs if God wishes that it come.
Notes:
“Walid ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan” more commonly known as Walid I, was the Umayyad caliph in Damascus at the time of the conquest of Iberia.
Musa was appointed Governor in North Africa by Walid I and Tariq has been generally acknowledged as his client.
“The hour with the traditions and the signs!” is a reference to Judgement day and the end of the world.
Christy continues:
The section on al-Andalus is perfunctory. It consists merely of an improbable account of the conquest, and a list of the rulers up to Abd Allah (888-97) . . . the names of the governors listed by Ibn Habib are, however, similar to those appearing in the Chronicle of 754His account of the conquest . . . is largely a series of tales which stretch from the improbable to the fantastic. One of these tells how Rodrigo (Roderick) was the first of the Visigothic kings to break the taboo against entering the mysterious House of the Bolts in Toledo. . . There Rodrigo saw a picture of the people who would bring about his downfall . . . predictions of the fall of Cordoba, Seville, Toledo and Ecija, have further served to disqualify the "History" as a serious source.
Christy’s then quotes Ibn Habib’s account of the how the conquest began:.
Abd al–Malik ibn Habib said: Ibn Wahab told us: Musa ibn Nusayr sent his client Tariq (Tariq Ibn Ziyad) to Tlemcen and he ordered him to commission the seashores and anchorages and perhaps to maintain there an observation post to spy out the ships of the Rum and he found there a sheikh, a man of wisdom and action . . . and said to him:
“Do you know in your wisdom about the conquest of al–Andalus?” and he said, “A race called the Berbers of your religion (Islam) will conquer it with you”.
Tariq wrote to Musa ibn Nusayr about that and he (Musa) summoned the Berbers and he sent a thousand of them to him (Tariq) and Musa replied to Tariq: And he was one of the most learned of the people in knowledge of the stars:
“You will come to a rock on the seashore. Load your ships there and ask if there is any amongst your men who knows the names of the months in Syrian and when it is the 21st of Iyyar, which is May according to the cajam [non-Arab] reckoning."
Be heartened by the blessing of God and proceed with his help and power until you come to a red cliff with an eastern fountain at the bottom of it and by the side of it the statue of an idol in the shape of a bull. Then break that statue and . . . rely on] a tall fair–skinned man with a squint and paralysed hands and confer your leadership on him”.
And when the message reached Tariq, he wrote to Musa ibn Nusayr:
“Indeed, I will finish what I was commanded to do, and as for the qualities of the man about whom you commanded me, I did not discover his qualities except in myself”.
Notes:
A difficult to believe story – yet recounted more than once by several subsequent Islamic historians included in this series. Also, one would have to be quite imaginative to believe that the “Rock on the seashore” was meant to be Gibraltar.
The “Red cliff” however, ix an intriguing comment as the bottom area of the western side of the Rock is indeed made up mostly of red sand.
Copy of a early 17th century map of Gibraltar
“Rum” refers to Byzantines, Christians or foreigners generally.
The quote continues.
Then Tariq set off with 1,700 men and he summoned the Berbers until there were 10,000 Berbers except for 60 Arabs [but] this army did not reach him until after he had conquered al–Andalus. Tariq went off with the 1,700 . . . in the year . . . 714
Notes: That 714 looks like a typo – In an earlier Spanish translation the year is given as 711 and the number of Arabs as 16. (See below)
Christy then leaves out a section of the manuscript in which Habib describes how the Visigothic King Roderick learns of Tarik's landing in Iberia, gathers a large army and then sets out to meet him.
Christy then leaves out a section of the manuscript in which Habib describes how the Visigothic King Roderick learns of Tarik's landing in Iberia, gathers a large army and then sets out to meet him.
. . And when news of their advent (the Christian army) reached Tariq he stood before his men and thanked God and praised him that he spurred his people on to Holy War and awakened in them a desire for martyrdom ; then he said
"O men, where is your escape? The sea is behind you and the enemy before you and there is nothing for you, by God, but truth and steadfastness.”
Notes. Tariq’s well-known pep-talk can hardly be classified as hard fact but is nevertheless often quoted at length and in great detail by other historians. Page-long quotes by other medieval Islamic historians can be found in several other chapters in this series.
According to Anne Christy
This story (Solomon’s Table) and others equally improbable, were brought to al-Andalus from Egypt in the ninth century perhaps by Ibn Habib himself. Ibn Habib spent three years in Egypt, where he studied with the father of another historian, Ibn Abd al-Hakam, who told many of the same stories about the conquest of al-Andalus. The stories betray the Arab historians’ taste for the fantastic, but even though they are unlikely to be true, they may preserve the memory of inter-ethnic conflict between Arabs and Berbers.
Notes:
See chapter om Abd al Hakam which forms part of this series.
During the early 20th century, Melchor Martinez Antuña (1889-1936), Arabist and director at the Royal Library at the Escorial and a companion and friend of Évariste Lévi-Provençal, wrote an article to which he gave the title of “Notas de Ibn Abi Riqa de las lecciones de ibn Habib acerca de la conquista de España por los árabes.” It was published posthumously in 1944
Melchor Martinez Antuña
However, more recent research by the Spanish historian Jorge Aguadé has revealed that Antuña’s “Notas . . .” is actually a Spanish translation of Yusuf ibn Yahya version of the Ibn Habib manuscript held in Oxford. Antuña had presumably been influenced by Reinhart Dozy dismissal of Ibn Habib as a waste of time.
The following additional quotes from this version of Ibn Habib’s work are taken directly from Antuña’s “Notas de Ibn Abi Riga. . . “. For comparison purposes the opening paragraph shown below is a repeat of the equivalent English quote by Christy.
Después se puso en camino Tariq con mil setecientos hombres; sumáronse luego los bereberes; formando una suma de doce mil bereberes menos diez y seis hombres de los árabes. Pero estas tropas no se sumaron sino después de haber conquistado al-Andalus. Púsose pues en camino Tariq con los mil y setecientos, en el . . . 24 de abril de 711 – 23 de mayo de 711.
El rey de al-Andalus, cuando desembarcó en ella Tariq, había marchado en expedición contra un enemigo suyo y dejado de lugarteniente a uno de sus reyes llamado Todmir; dominaba éste a la sazón en toda la región de Todmir, que por esta causa se llamó así, recibiendo su nombre. Cuando se enteró Todmir de la llegada de Tariq y de los musulmanes que le acompañaban, escribió a Rodrigo, rey a la sazón de al-Andalus, diciéndole:
“Han caído por nuestro país unas gentes que no sé si bajaron del cielo o si salieron de la tierra.”
Notes:
“El Rey de al-Andalus” - was the Visigothic King Roderick.
“Todmir” is Teodomiro, Count of Orihuela and an ally of Roderick.
The Battle of Guadalete - possiblyDirigióse Tariq contra Rodrigo y éste contra aquél; tuvieron ambos un encuentro en el que se batieron con vigor uno y otro bando, pero después huyó derrotado todo el ejército del tirano Rodrigo. Las tropas se apoderaron de una cantidad incalculable y cuyo valor se ignora, de oro, plata, utensilios.
Se enriquecieron entonces las tropas; después atravesaron el mar con dirección a Tánger y al llegar a alta mar oyeron a un pregonero gritar ¡que los hundan en el mar! porque se enriquecieron. Entonces se lanzaron sobre sus libros y los colgaron de sus cuellos, después invocaron a Dios con humildes súplicas, gritó luego el pregonero y les volcó la nave. Sólo se salvó aquel a quién Dios quiso salvar.
Salió después en el . . . 12 de mayo de 712 Musa ibn Nusayr para al-Andalus a verse con Tariqcontra quien había concebido un odio terrible. Se encaminó al Andalus con 10.000 combatientes. Salió a su encuentro Tariq, que le dio satisfacciones, y quedó contento con él y más amigo.
The history then moves north as the Muslims complete their conquest.
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