Al Marrakushi
Tuesday, 01 April 2008
Ibn Idhari al-Marrakushi wrote in 1312 a history of Africa and Spain, Kitab al-bayan al-mughrib, which includes the most detailed account of the Ummayads of Cordova.
Ibn Idhari al-Marrakushi did not see himself as a hahith (researcher) but as a jami' (compiler). He says in the introduction to his history that "I have collected in this book notices and anecdotes taken from the histories and accounts, which I have reunited and have chosen points of interest, uniting what is old with what is new."
He also quotes the sources he has used: among the twenty six books actually mentioned are included the Muqtabis, the Dhakhira of Ibn Bassam, and the Alkhbar al-Dawlat al-amiriya of Ibn Hayyan. There is no mention of the Matin but it is probable that he had access to information from the Ta'rikh al-kabir, even if second-hand. The Bayan, at least in its first three volumes which describe the events from 2I AH to the arrival of the Almoravids, is a ta'rikh ‘ala s-sinin majmu'a, a carefully selected collection of data from earlier writers, and its importance lies in the nature of that data, much of which would otherwise be unavailable today.
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