Ibn al-Khatib

Lisan al-Din ibn al-Khatib or Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Said ibn Ali ibn Ahmad al-Salmani (1313 (in Loja near Granada) -1374 (in Fez) was a poet, writer, historian, philosopher and politician from Al-Andalus. [Encyclopedia of Medieval Iberia, ed. Michael Gerli. (New York: Routledge, 2003), 416–417] Some of his poems decorate the walls ot the Alhambra in Granada.

al-Khatib spent most of his life as vizir at the court of Muhammed V, but was exiled from Granada twice and lived for some time in the Marinid empire in Morocco (the first time 1360-62 and the second time 1371-74 in Ceuta and Tlemcen and Fez). He was murdered in 1374 in revenge of a private feud.

He excelled as a historian and he wrote excellent poetry some of which was put to music as muwashshahat.

His autobiography, written in 1369, is to be found in part of his his 'al-Ihata fi akhbar Gharnata' (The Complete Source on the History of Granada) ed. Muhammad Abd Allah Inan (Cairo: Maktabat al-Khanji, 1978).

References

External links

*Poem by Ibn al-Khatib sung by Fairuz [http://www.awzan.com/3aroodh/jadakal.html] (click on the oval above the poem)
*Ibn al-Jatib (second part of the page is in English) [http://www.revistaair.net/cieleicwel3AlfredoLeyva.htm]
*Website Ibn Kahldun: Ibn al-Khatib, retrieved on feb. 2, 2008 [http://www.ibnjaldun.com/index.php?id=68&L=7]
*Encyclopedia of medieval Iberia, Ibn al-Khatib, retrieved on feb. 2, 2008 [http://users.ipfw.edu/JEHLE/deisenbe/Enc_of_Medieval_Iberia/ibnalkhatib.pdf]

Bibliography

*Jaysh Al-Tawshih of Lisan Al-Din Ibn Al-Khatib (Arabic), An Anthology of Andalusian Arabic Muwashshahat, Alan Jones (Editor), 1997 - ISBN 9780906094426
*Lisan Al Din Ibn Al Khatib, Tarikh Isbaniya Al Islamiya (history of Muslim Spain), ed. by Levi-Provencal, new edition, Cairo, 2004
*Lisan Al Din Ibn Al Khatib, Awsaf Al Nas (description of peoples), Cairo, 2002
*Lisan Al Din Ibn Al Khatib, Khaṭrat al-ṭayf : riḥlāt fī al-Maghrib wa-al-Andalus, 1347-1362, 2003
*Lisan Al Din Ibn Al Khatib, Nafadhat al-jirab (the Ashtray of the Socks)
*Lisan al-Din ibn al-Khatib homme de lettres et historien, by Abdelbaqui Benjamaa, (French) thesis, Universite de la Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris III, 1992 (microform).