Al-Muqtabis fi Akhbar Balad al-Andalus (Ibn Hayyan)

المقتبس في أخبار بلد الأندلس

The history of al-Andalus from the conquest to the author's own time by Abu Marwan Ibn Hayyan al-Qurtubi (377–469 AH), in ten parts, most of them lost. Ibn Hazm called it 'the Great History' and 'among the finest books written on the subject'. Surviving sections include one on the reign of the amir 'Abd Allah, an incomplete one on 'Abd al-Rahman II and the amir Muhammad, and one on five years of the reign of al-Hakam al-Mustansir (360–364 AH) ¹.

Summary

Al-Muqtabis is the most important work of Abu Marwan Ibn Hayyan al-Qurtubi (377–469 AH). It is a history of al-Andalus from the Islamic conquest to the author's own time in the age of the taifas, in ten parts. Ibn Hayyan's fame and what we know of him rest on it, since parts of it are what survive of his works. ² Ibn Hazm called it "the Great History" and "among the finest books written on the subject". ³

Its surviving parts

The editor 'Abd al-Rahman al-Hajji lists what remains: ⁴

Part three: the reign of the amir 'Abd Allah ibn Muhammad, 275–298 AH, published by Fr. Melchor Antuña in Paris in 1937 from the Bodleian manuscript in Oxford.
Part two, incomplete: the reign of 'Abd al-Rahman II and most of that of his son the amir Muhammad, in a manuscript at the Qarawiyyin library in Fez found by Lévi-Provençal.
A part said to have been found in Morocco, on the first thirty years of 'Abd al-Rahman al-Nasir.
A section on five incomplete years of the reign of al-Hakam al-Mustansir (360–364 AH/970–974 CE), the one al-Hajji published. He thinks it most likely the seventh of the ten parts. ⁵

The section on al-Hakam al-Mustansir

Its last page gives the title "al-Muqtabis fi Akhbar Balad al-Andalus". The editor says Ibn Hayyan's main sources in it are the Razi family, especially 'Isa. ⁶
It survives in a single copy in the Library of the Royal Academy of History in Madrid, in the Codera collection. A copyist named al-Makki al-Fakkun made it in 1300 AH/1888 from a manuscript in the library of the heirs of Sidi Hamuda in Constantine, when Codera led a mission to Tunisia and Algeria in search of Andalusi manuscripts. The original was later lost; its first ten leaves were damaged. ⁷
The copy has 135 leaves of 16 lines a page in Maghribi script, with words hard to read and blank gaps. ⁸
It records embassies from the Christian states of northern Spain to Cordoba, on which the editor comments at length. ⁹

His method

The editor stresses Ibn Hayyan's precision: he gives not only the day of an event but the hour, and sometimes both the Hijri and the Christian date. He also quotes great historians whose works are lost, such as al-Razi and Mu'awiya ibn Hisham al-Shabinsi. ¹⁰

This edition

'Abd al-Rahman 'Ali al-Hajji edited it directly from the Academy copy, and Dar al-Thaqafa in Beirut published it in the series al-Maktaba al-Andalusiyya. Ihsan 'Abbas wrote a foreword dated 20 May 1965. In it he explains that he reordered the manuscript's disordered leaves and added notes marked (s). ¹¹ ⁸

Sources

Abu Marwan Ibn Hayyan al-Qurtubi (377–469 AH), al-Muqtabis fi Akhbar Balad al-Andalus — ed. 'Abd al-Rahman 'Ali al-Hajji, Dar al-Thaqafa, Beirut (al-Maktaba al-Andalusiyya), with a foreword by Ihsan 'Abbas (May 1965) , p. 12-15

Al-Muqtabis fi Akhbar Balad al-Andalus (Ibn Hayyan)

At a glance

Summary

Its surviving parts

The section on al-Hakam al-Mustansir

His method

This edition

Connections

People and things also explored

Sources

Words

Ibn Hayyan, Abu Marwan