PrintThe following post consists of some traditions and stories about the Muslim conquest of Spain as related in an interesting seventeenth century work entitled "Rihlat al-Wazir fi Iftikak al-Asir," written by Muhammad bin 'Abd al-Wahhab al-Ghassani (Morocco's ambassador to Spain), who performed a diplomatic mission to free some prisoners and recover some Arabic manuscripts. Ghassani's book is primarily a work of travel writing about Spain, but as an appendix to his book he includes an account of various interesting traditions about the original Muslim conquest of Spain, primarily focused on the exploits of the Muslim generals Tariq bin Ziyad and Musa bin Nusayr (Tariq said in this account to have been a client of Musa- referring to the patron-client system that was prevalent in the Umayyad caliphate at the time), the tensions between Tariq and Musa, how the lands of al-Andalus were initially divided and subjected to different kinds of taxation, and the legend of Solomon's table.
The account given by Ghassani bears striking similarity to the earlier parts of the anonymous work Fath al-Andalus ('The Conquest of al-Andalus') that is dated to the around the beginning of the twelfth century CE. In general however, the account given in the Rihla tends to be more detailed, and a closer comparison between the two shows some interesting omissions and suppressions on the part of Fath al-Andalus. While it has been supposed that the Rihla might have made use of an earlier, lengthier version of Fath al-Andalus that has not survived, another arguably more plausible explanation is that the Rihla and Fath al-Andalus were relying on a now lost common source.
Below is a translation of the Rihla's historical appendix, together with my annotations of it. The edition of the Arabic text is taken from Alfredo Bustani's edition and Spanish translation (Tangier, 1940).
{Click here to continue reading}:
https://www.aymennaltamimi.com/p/stories-of-the-conquest-of-al-andalus