The People of Gibraltar

 2020 - Once upon a time in Islamic Gibraltar

Ibn Hayyan al-Qurtubi (1000)
Ibn Hayyan (987-1076) was born in Cordoba. He was an important official of the Andalusian ruler al-Mansur. He was a supporter of the Umayyad Dynasty and wrote some of the most important historical sources for the study of the history of al Andalus much of which has not survived - as can be deduced from the lack of any serious quotes shown below. 


The Mesquita of Cordoba – enlarged by al-Mansur possibly during Ibn Hayyan’s lifetime

A pity as he had much to say about the kings of the Taifa period – which he disapproved of - and gave early references to the Majus or Viking raiders of the period which would have proved interesting.

Virgilio Martínez Enamo in his 20th century article Ibn Hayyan, El Abanderado de la Historia de Al Andalus had this to say about one of his principle works.

El Muqtabis - el que toma la candela de otro, acerca de la historia de los hombres de al-Ándalus, no es otra cosa que una recopilación en la que Ibn Hayyan toma prestados pasajes de distintos autores que le precedieron, copiando las partes que le interesan, rechazando otras, proponiendo, ocasionalmente, distintas versiones sobre un mismo acontecimiento...

En definitiva, un brillantísimo quehacer compilatorio en el que se afanó a lo largo de 10 volúmenes, manejando toda la historiografía andalusí anterior, sepultada - o casi- por la titánica labor de Ibn Hayyan. De todo ello, lo conservado es manifiestamente incompleto, pero mucho más que testimonial. P32

Samuel G. Armistead describes this historian as follows. 

For his contemporaries Ibn-Hayyan was “the master of scholarship and of the historians of this land” and for modern critics he is “without doubt the greatest historian of the Middle ages in all Spain, both Muslim and Christian.”

Tito Benady in his Biografía Musulmán writes that:

La sección de la importante obra de Ibn Hayyan (siglo XI) que trata sobre la conquista de España ha desaparecido, pero al-Makkarí, escribiendo a principios del siglo XVI, utilizo esta y otras fuentes que no existen hoy, y concreta:

Habiendo completado sus preparaciones, una división del ejército cruzo aquel brazo del mar que separa Andalus de África y desembarco con Tariq al pie de la montaña que después recibió su nombre. p141

Pascual de Gayangos in his translation of Al-Makkarí states that:

Abi Merwan Hayyan . . . was born at Cordova in the year three hundred and ninety-seven (I006-7). His ancestor, Hayyan, had been a mauli of Abdu-r-rahman I, King of Cordova. He was an eloquent, learned, and judicious writer; he composed a history of Andalus . . . Ibnu Hayyan died on a Sunday . . . of the year four hundred and sixty-nine (Oct. 30 I076), and was buried the next day. Vol 1 - Notes p310

Other considerably later Islamic writers such as Al Makkarí  do sometimes refer to ibn Hayyan - for example:

Introducing Julian 
. . . Ibn Hayyan, and other writers, agree in saying that the first man who entered Andalus with hostile intentions and deeds was Tarif, the Berber, a freedman of Musa Ibn Nusayr, the same who afterwards gave his name to the Island of Tarifa, situate on the strait. He was helped in that expedition by Ilyan (Julian) the Christian, Lord of Ceuta, who had conceived some animosity towards Roderic, King of Andalus . . . . V I p250

Ibnu Hayyan’s account does not materially differ from those of the historians from whom we have quoted. He agrees in saying that Ilyan, Lord of Ceuta, incited Musa Ibn Nusayr to make the conquest of Andalus; and that this he did out of revenge, and moved by the personal enmity and hatred he had conceived against Roderic. p267


Gibraltar from the North African coast – Julian’s Ceuta would lie more or less behind the mountain of Abyla later known as Jabal Musa in honour of Musa Ibn Nusayr
(1668 - Wenceslaus Hollar – cropped and adapted)

He (Hayyan) makes Tariq’s army amount only to seven thousand,” mostly Berbers, which, he says, crossed in four vessels provided by Ilyan. According to his account Tariq landed on a Saturday, in the month of Sha’ban of the year ninety-two, and the vessels that brought him and his men on shore were immediately sent back to Africa, and never ceased going backwards and forwards until the whole of the army was safely landed on the shores of Andalus. 

The precise date of Tariq’s invasion has been differently stated . . . Ibnu Hayyan on a Saturday of the month of Sha’ban: p268

Musa and Tariq 
After this Musa is represented as having cast Tariq into prison, and as meditating his death, which he would have accomplished had not a messenger of the Khalif arrived in Andalus with orders to set him at liberty, and restore him to the command of the troops. However, it appears by Ibnu Hayyan’s narrative that he soon restored to him his confidence and friendship; when, uniting their forces, they both proceeded to new conquests, and speedily subdued the remainder of Andalus. p287

 

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