Search

, name denoting, in Arabic texts, the former Ilerda, an episcopal see, currently Lérida, provincial capital in Spain, to the west of Barcelona, on the Segre. It was a district ( ʿamal ) centre of the Upper March ( al-T̲h̲ag̲h̲r al-alʿā ) to which other towns and a large number of fortified strongholds were subordinate. Situated on a fertile plain, it is surrounded by numerous gardens and orchards. One of its main sources of wealth was constituted by the plantations of fine quality flax which were farmed commercial…

, Abū Bakr b. ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Ibrāhīm b. ʿĪsā b. Muzāḥim , a grammarian ands, in particular, historian of Muslim Spain, who owes his appellation “son of the Gothic woman” to the fact that one of his ancestors, ʿĪsā b. Muzāḥim, a freedman of ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, had married Sara, daughter of Olmundo and grand-daughter of the penultimate Visigothic king, Vitiza. Leaving Seville where her family was living, Sara had gone to Damascus to complain to the caliph His̲h̲ām b. ʿAbd al…

, now Calatayud, a fortress town in the Upper March ( al-T̲h̲ag̲h̲r al-aʿlā ) to the south-west of Saragossa, built near the site of the ancient Bilbilis (Labia in Yāḳūt); it took its name from the tābiʿ Ayyūb b. Ḥabīb al-Lak̲h̲mī, a wālī who succeeded ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Mūsā b. Nuṣayr. Situated 25 miles from Tudela and 50 miles from Medinaceli and Saragossa, the town possessed fertile, well-watered lands with orchards of figs and many fruit trees, yielding à wide variety of produce which was sold at moderate prices. According to al-Bakrī, the local mountains produced a gum-resin ( murr …

, name given to the kūra of Morón, currently Morón de la Frontera, in the province of Seville, to the south-east of the latter and of Carmona and to the south-west of Cordova. The Arabo-Islamic conquest of the territory occupied today by Morón and its dependencies must have taken place in 92/714 shortly after that of S̲h̲adūna [ q.v.] by Ṭāriḳ b. Ziyād [ q.v.]. Mawrūr is also the name of a ḥiṣn of the province of Málaga (see J. Valvé, De nuevo sobre Bobastro , in al-And ., xxx [1965], 142, no. 11) and of one (known by the name of el-Mauror) of the hills at the foot of which Granada is situated [see g̲h̲arnāṭ…

, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Saʿd b. Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-D̲j̲ud̲h̲āmī or al-Tud̲j̲ībī , mentioned in the Christian chronicles under the name Rey Lobo or Lope , was a Spanish Muslim leader who was active in political and military affairs in the S̲h̲arḳ al-Andalus on the fall of the Almoravid empire, made himself master of Valencia and Murcia, and for 25 years contended with the new North African rulers, the Almohads, for the territories in the centre of al-Andalus. In regard to his name Ibn Mardanīs̲…

1. A district, and originally, the chef-lieu of the kūra of Ilbīra in Muslim Spain, which should not be identified and confounded with Granada (Ilbīra). The Arab authors who describe Granada, Ilbīra and Ḳasṭīliya ( ḥāḍirat Ilbīra ) stress the fertility of its soil, comparing it to the G̲h̲ūṭa of Damascus and mentioning the existence of marble quarries; these descriptions all apply to the zone including Granada and its vega , bounded on the north by the Sierra Elvira. The exact identification of Ḳasṭīliya, the ḥāḍirat Ilbīra of Ibn Ḥayyān, Ibn al-K̲h̲aṭīb, and before them, probabl…

, Arabic form of the name of Málaga (in ancient times Malaca), which is today a major city of southern Spain, on the Mediterranean coast between Algéciras and Alméria, and regional centre of the province of the same name. It is situated in the centre of a bay and lies at the foot of a hill known as Gibralfaro (D̲j̲abal Fāruh). The town is divided from north to south by a ravine which, at times of heavy rainfall, carries the waters of the Guadelmedina (Wādī ’l-Madīna). To the west stretches the H…

, the name of two places in al-Andalus. The first, which has now disappeared, was situated some 60 km. to the south of Mārida [ q.v.] in the district where la Fuente de Cantos is at present to be found, on or near to the road connecting Mérida with Seville and followed by Mūsā b. Nuṣayr, and on the left bank of the Guadiana (see F. Hernandez Jiménez, Ragwāl y el itinerario de Mūsā , de Algeciras a Mérida , in al-And ., xxvi [1961], 106-13, and La kūra de Mérida en el siglo X , in ibid., xxv [1960], 320, 361, 368). Yāḳūt (iv, 363) speaks of two fortresses dependent on Mérida, Laḳant al-Kubrā…

b. muḥammad b. yūsuf b. nāṣiḥ b. ʿaṭāʾ al-bayyānī , abū muḥammad , famous traditionist, philologist, historian and genealogist, mawlā of the Spanish Umayyads, ¶ who was born at Baena (Bayyāna) in the kūra of Cordova in 244/859 or 247/862 and died in the capital in 340/951-2. At Cordova, he was the pupil of Muḥammad b. Waḍḍāḥ, al-K̲h̲us̲h̲ānī and other noted scholars. In 274/887, he made an extended trip to the Orient, and in Mecca, Bag̲h̲dād, Egypt, Ḳayrawān and other cities acquired an education in tradit…

, the name given by Arabic authors to Niebla , ancient Ilipla, which was the seat of a bishop in the Visigothic period and which is situated about 40 miles to the west of Seville in the right bank of the Rio Tin to (in the modern province of Huelva). Certain authors, notably Yāḳūt, also call it al-Ḥamrāʾ because of the reddish colour of its walls and of its environs. It was the main town of one of the kūras of the G̲h̲arb al-Andalus [ q.v.]; it must have been integrated within the great division of Is̲h̲bīliya [ q.v.], and separated from it in the course of the administrative reorganisation. The kūra …

, Majorca or Mallorca , name of the largest ( umm ) of the Balearic islands (or eastern islands of al-Andalus: al-d̲j̲azāʾir al-s̲h̲arḳiyya ), the others being Minūrḳa (Minorca or Menorca) and Yābisa (Ibiza). Its name figures as early as the Crónica del Moro Rasis , ed. D. Catalán, 13. At approximately the same distance from Ibiza to the west and from Minorca to the east, it is situated four days’ sailing time from Sardinia (Sardāniya) according to al-Idrīsī ( Mag̲h̲rib , text 214, tr. 266) and lies opposite Bougie (al-Ḥimyarī, al-Rawḍ al-miʿṭār , text 188-91, tr. …

, Abu ’l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. ʿId̲h̲ārī al-Marrākus̲h̲ī , Mag̲h̲ribī historian, of whom all that is known is that he lived in the second half of the 7th/13th century and the first decades of the 8th/14th, that he was ḳāʾid of Fez, and that in the year 712/1312-3 he was still writing his chronicle. To judge from his works, he must have possessed a good knowledge of the history of the caliphs, imām s and amīr s of the East, about whom he wrote in a work which he himself quotes but which has not survived. The extant chronicle of this historian is entitled al-Bayān al-mug̲h̲rib fī ( ik̲h̲tiṣār ) ak̲h̲…

, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Saʿīd b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Saʿīd b. ʿAlī b. Aḥmad al-Salmānī , vizier and historian of Granada, who bore the laḳabs of Lisān al-Dīn and D̲h̲u ’l-wizāratayn, apart from those by which he was designated after his death. Of Arab descent through the sub-tribe of the Salmān, a clan of the Murād of the Yemen, he came from a family which was established in Syria and which arrived in the Iberian peninsula in the 2nd/8th century, took up residence in Cordova, and then move…

(today carmona), town in Spain situated 40 km. to the North-East of Seville and numbering 24,738 inhabitants. The ancient Roman Carmo was conquered by Mūsā b. Nuṣayr in 93/712 (Ibn al-S̲h̲abbāṭ and others say that it was occupied by Ṭāriḳ b. Ziyād), and Ḳarmūna was the name given to a madīna and a kūra adjacent to those of Is̲h̲bīliya and Ḳurṭuba. Of ancient construction, Ḳarmūna was endowed with strong, stone walls, and its fortress was almost impregnable. According to al-Ḳimyarī ( Rawḍ al-miʿṭār , text 158-9, tr. 190), it possessed an arsenal, public ba…

is the Arab name for the Spanish town of Almeria. According to some authors, it was originally called Mariyyat Bad̲j̲d̲j̲āna, for it had been the port or maritime suburb of Pechina (Bad̲j̲d̲j̲āna) [ q.v.], the ancient Roman Urci. Today, Almeria is the chief town of the province (which has the same name) in the most easterly part of Andalusia on the Mediterranean coast. It is surrounded by bare mountains with steppe-like vegetation, and this means that its countryside is very similar to that of some parts of the North African co…

, nom sous lequel les auteurs arabes désignent Niebla, l’antique Ilipla, qui était un siège épiscopal durant la période visigothique, à 70 km environ à l’Ouest de Séville, sur la rive droite du Tinto (province de Huelva). Certains auteurs (notamment Yāḳūt) l’appellent aussi al-Ḥamrāʾ, à cause de la couleur rougeâtre de ses murailles et de ses alentours. Chef-lieu de l’une des kūras du G̲h̲arb al-Andalus [ q.v.], elle dut être intégrée dans la grande division d’Is̲h̲bīliya [ q.v.] dont elle fut séparée au cours de la réorganisation administrative. La kūra était limitée, à 40 milles à…

, nom arabe de la ville espagnole d’Almería. Initialement désignée, selon certains auteurs, sous le nom de Mariyyat Bad̲j̲d̲j̲āna, parce qu’elle avait été le port ou le faubourg maritime de Pechina (Bad̲j̲d̲j̲āna [ q.v.]), l’antique Urci romaine, Almería est aujourd’hui le chef-lieu de la province du même nom, dans la partie la plus orientale de l’Andalousie, sur la côte méditerranéenne; elle est entourée de montagnes dénudées dont la végétation en partie steppique fait ressembler son paysage à celui de certaines villes de la c…

, localité et, à l’origine, cheflieu de la kūra d’Ilbīra, en Espagne musulmane, qu’il convient de ne pas confondre et identifier avec Grenade (Ilbīra). Les auteurs arabes qui décrivent Grenade, Ilbīra et Ḳasṭīliya ( ḥāḍirat Ilbīra) mettent l’accent sur la fertilité de son sol, la comparent à la G̲h̲ūṭa de Damas et y signalent l’existence de carrières de marbre blanc; ces descriptions s’appliquent toutes à la zone comprenant Grenade et sa vega et limitée au Nord par la Sierra Elvira. L’identification exacte de Ḳasṭīliya/ ḥāḍirat Ilbīra ainsi mentionnée par Ibn Ḥayyān, Ibn al-Ḵh̲a…

b. Muḥ. b. Yūsuf b. Nāṣiḥ b. ʿAṭāʾ al-Bayyānī, Abū Muḥ., célèbre traditionniste, philologue, historien et généalogiste, mawlā des Umayyades, qui naquit à Baena (Bayyāna), dans la kūra de Cordoue, en 244 ou 247/859-62 et mourut dans la capitale d’al-Andalus en 340/951-2. A Cordoue, il fut l’élève de Muḥammad Ibn Waḍḍāh, d’al-Ḵh̲us̲h̲anī et d’autres maîtres illustres. En 274/887, il accomplit un grand voyage en Orient et, à La Mekke, à Bag̲h̲dād, en Égypte, à Kairouan et dans d’autres villes, il recueillit auprès de maîtres…

, nom de deux localités d’al-Andalus. La première, disparue, était située à une soixantaine de km au Sud de Mārida [ q.v.] dans le secteur où se trouve aujourd’hui la Fuente de Cantos, sur (ou près de) la route de Séville à Mérida que suivit Mūsā b. Nuṣayr, et sur la rive gauche du Guadiana (voir F. Hernández Jiménez, Ragwāl y el itinerario de Mūsā, de Algeciras a Mérida, dans al-And., XXVI (1961), 106-13 et La kūra de Mérida en el siglo X, ibid., XXV (1960), 320, 361, 368). Yāḳūt (IV, 363) parle de deux châteaux dépendant de Mérida: Laḳant al-Kubrā et Laḳant al-Ṣug̲h̲rā, mais…