PrintThe following post is for correcting any typos and mistakes in my translation and study of Fath al-Andalus published earlier this year by Routledge. For page references, I am using the Google Play version. If any other mistakes are spotted, please contact me.
(i) "was of al-Andalus" (p. 60)- should read "was appointed governor of al-Andalus"
(ii) "came to al-Andal" (p. 61)- should read "came to al-Andalus"
(iii) "after the envoy mission came ashore" (p. 126)- should read "after giving an account of the envoy mission"
(iv) "woke pp. 219-234 up" (pp. 37-38)- delete "pp. 219-234"
(v) "Julian- or Yulian" (pp. 37-38)- should read "Julian/Bulyān"
(vi) "had sent Sulaymān to follow him" (p. 81)- should read "had been sent to fetch Sulaymān" [H/T: Nour Kourko].
(vii) "For your sake we will not accept this al-Fihrī's control over any of these domains that are your domains..." (p. 73)- on re-reading this passage and in its wider context, the meaning here could rather be, "For your sake, we would rather only accept for this al-Fihrī to have control of one of his domains that are your domains." This is because ʿAbd al-Raḥmān I's supporters also speak in the same passage about the need for al-Fihrī to return to his "original status"- i.e. as a subordinate of a governor acting on behalf of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān I's grandfather Hišām, whose authority has passed to ʿAbd al-Raḥmān I. That is, rather than al-Fihrī granting ʿAbd al-Raḥmān I a domain as his subordinate, it is actually al-Fihrī who should have a domain as a subordinate of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān I, thereby returning to his original status.
In her Spanish translation, Penelas gives this rendering: "We cannot accept this al-Fihrī giving you one of his provinces that are in fact your provinces..."
(viii) "Ibn ʿAbdullah decided to contrive a scheme whereby..." (p. 91): given that the plot was probably contrived with the owner of the government building, an alternative rendering would be: "The owner of the government building secretly communicated a scheme to Ibn ʿAbdullah whereby...". This is also the interpretation in Penelas' Spanish translation.
(ix) It is possible that the phrase "may God restore it [the peninsula] as an abode of faith" (p. 94) is a post-1492 CE insertion after the Muslims lost all sovereignty in the Iberian peninsula.
(x) ("At the end of that month")- (p. 70)- the original reads "وكانت خلف"- on reflection, this should be corrected to "and this year came after the preceding drought." For comparison, in al-Maqqari (v. 3, p. 30): "It was a year of khalaf in al-Andalus after it got out of the famine that had persisted among the people."
(xi) "This was the best and strongest stone in the entire world that could hold a bridge together" (p. 54)- A better rendering in my view would be: "With this stone, the bridge was built in the best and strongest way that a bridge could be built in the entire world."
(xii) "All the Arabs of the western region had mobilised to join his soldiers' ranks" (p. 84)- in light of what occurs later in the narrative about suppression and marginalisation of Arabs of western Iberia under ʿAbd al-Raḥmān I, it may be that the original Arabic text should be slightly corrected and thus the translation should be "All the Arabs of the western region had mobilised to join the ranks of the soldiers of Seville."