[Abū ʾAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn al-Khālaf Ibn ʾAlqāmā]
428-509 ah (1036/37-1116 ad). Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain). Born in Valencia, he was a bureaucrat and wrote a local history of his native city which describes the capture of Valencia by El Cid and his rule over this city. This work, which bears the title "The clear exposition of the disastrous tragedy", seems to finish before the death of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (el Cid) in 1099. The original text is lost, but a great part has come down to us by the later historian Ibn ʿIdhārī, who is considered a reliable transmitter of the sources he used…