Abū Bakr ibn Sadrāy, a politician and writer during the period of the taifas (party kingdoms) in the eleventh century, was secretary and vizier of Abū Marwān ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Razīn, king of the small taifa of Albarracin or al-Sahla (r. 1045–1103) in Aragon, who became a tributary of El Cid. Ibn Sadrāy was considered one of the best viziers of al-Andalus. Henri Pérès suggested that he was Jewish, based on his name, but this is not fully confirmed in the sources (Wasserstein). Although none of his writings has been preserved, the Nafḥ al-Ṭīb by the North African anthologist al-Maqqarī (1…