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ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad b. Abī ʿĀmir (Sanchuelo) (d. 399/1009) was an unpopular Andalusian governor whose brief rule was characterised by excess and ended with his execution. Born about 374/984, he was the youngest son of al-Manṣūr b. Abī ʿĀmir and ʿAbda, daughter of the king of Pamplona, Sancho Garcés II Abarca. His mother called him Sanchuelo (Sanjūl), a diminutive of Sancho, in memory of his grandfather. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān was designated ḥājib (chamberlain) by the caliph Hishām II (r. 366–99/976–1009) in 399/1008 after his elder brother al-Muẓaffar died from an ap…

Beja (Ar. Bāja), a district in and the capital city of the present-day Portuguese sub-region (formerly province) of Baixo Alentejo, was described by Arabic geographers variously as a madīna (city), kūra (province), or iqlīm (district) of western al-Andalus (Gharb). According to al-Rāzī, it was one of the oldest cities in al-Andalus, having been elevated to the status of provincial capital by Julius Caesar, who named it Pax Julia (lit., the Julian peace), the source of the Arabic name, Bāja. Al-Rāzī states that the land was suit…

Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Baqī b. Makhlad b. Yazīd (201–76/817–89) was a Córdoban traditionist and pioneer in the introduction of the study of ḥadīth in al-Andalus. He was a descendant of the mawlā (client) of a woman from Jaén (Jayyān), and the sources emphasise that he made no attempt to invent a more prestigious genealogy. He travelled to the Mashriq twice, where he completed the studies that he had begun in Córdoba. His first riḥla (journey) lasted about twenty years and his second fourteen. The extensive biography by Ibn Ḥārith al-Khushanī (d. 371/981?) provides substa…

Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā b. Aḥmad b. ʿAmīra al-Ḍabbī was an Andalusī scholar well known as the author of Bughyat al-multamis fī taʾrīkh rijāl ahl al-Andalus, a biographical dictionary of scholars that complements Jadhwat al-muqtabis by al-Ḥumaydī (d. 488/1095). Al-Ḍabbī was born in Vélez (in the present-day province of Almería) in about 550/1155 and lived most of his life in Murcia. He died in that city when a wall fell on him in one of his vegetable gardens, in 599/1203. He came early to the world of knowledge: he was not yet ten when he attended lessons by Abū ʿAbdallāh b…

Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh b. Abī Bakr b. ʿAbdallāh b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Aḥmad b. Abī Bakr al-Quḍāʿī, known as Ibn al-Abbār (596–658/1198–1260), was an Andalusī historian, writer, poet, politician, and author of al-Takmila li-Kitāb al-Ṣila, among other works. He was secretary (kātib) to the last Almohad governors of Valencia, Muḥammad b. Abī Ḥafṣ b. ʿAbd al-Muʾmin (r. 581–94/1186–98 and 607–15/1210–19) and his son, the well-known Abū Zayd (Ceyt Abu Ceyt in the Christian chronicles, d. 662–6/1264–8), and later to Zayyān b. Mardan…

Abū l-Walīd ʿAbdallāh b. Muḥammad b. Yūsuf b. Naṣr al-Azdī al-Ḥāfiẓ (351–403/962–1013), called Ibn al-Faraḍī, was an Andalusī historian known principally for his Taʾrīkh ʿulamāʾ al-Andalus, a biographical dictionary of Andalusī religious scholars. Born in Córdoba on 21 Dhū l-Qaʿda 351/21 December 962, he began his studies there under such prestigious scholars as Ibn ʿAwn Allāh (d. 378/988), Abū ʿAbdallāh b. Mufarrij (d. 380/990), ʿAbdallāh b. Qāsim al-Thagrī (d. 383/993), and Abū Zakariyyā b. ʿĀʾidh (d. 375/985) and com…

Abū l-Qāsim Khalaf b. ʿAbd al-Malik b. Masʿūd b. Mūsà b. Bashkuwāl (b. Yūsuf) b. Dāḥa b. Dāka b. Naṣr b. ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Wāqid al-Anṣārī, known as Ibn Bashkuwāl (494–578/1101–1183), was born in Córdoba. He was a historian and traditionist, renowned mainly for his Kitāb al-ṣila, a biographic dictionary of Andalusī scholars from the era of the Taifas (400–79/1010–86), the Almoravids (r. 454–541/1062–1147), and the advent of Almohad rule (524–668/1130–1269). Little is known of his life, and what is known is limited to a single biography by the Andalusī author Ibn al-…

ʿĪsā b. Saʿīd al-Yaḥṣubī Ibn al-Qaṭṭāʿ (d. 397/1006) was a secretary and Andalusī wazīr during the reign of the Umayyad Hishām II al-Muʾayyad bi-llāh (r. 366–99/976–1009 and 400–3/1010–3), when al-Manṣūr (Almanzor, d. 392/1002) and then his son al-Muẓaffar (r. 392–9/1002–8) served as ḥājibs (chamberlains) and held actual power. Ibn al-Qaṭṭāʿ had no distinguished ancestors, nor did he belong to a renowned family. He was an Arab from al-Najjār, belonging to a clan known as Banū l-Jazīrī from the region (kūra) of Priego, in the present-day province of Córdoba. His father was a teacher (muʿ…

Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. Asad Ibn Ḥārith al-Khushanī (d. 361/971 or 371/981) was an Andalusian jurist of Islamic law (faqīh), historian, and poet. Born in al-Qayrawān in what is now Tunisia, he moved to al-Andalus when still a young man. He is especially remembered for three biographical compilations: Ṭabaqāt ʿulamāʾ Ifrīqiya, Quḍāt Qurṭuba, and Akhbār al-fuqahāʾ wa-l-muḥaddithīn. Although he is now often referred to by his nisba, al-Khushanī, his contemporaries generally knew him as Ibn Ḥārith. Al-Khushanī’s education began in his home town of al-Qayrawān, where he st…

Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. Abī Naṣr Fuṭūh/Fattūḥ b. ʿAbdallāh b. Futūḥ b. Ḥumayd b. Yaṣil al-Azdī (d. 488/1095), called al-Ḥumaydī, was an Andalusī traditionist, jurist (faqīh, pl. fuqahāʾ), historian, and poet, best known for his biographical dictionary of Andalusī scholars Jadhwat al-muqtabis fī dhikr wulāt al-Andalus wa-asmāʾ ruwāt al-ḥadīth wa-ahl al-fiqh wa-l-adab wa-dhawī l-nabāha wa-l-shiʿr (“Fire from the embers on the governors, ḥadīth transmitters, faqīhs, men of letters, notables and poets of al-Andalus”). Although his father was from the Córdoban suburb of…