Of the writers who flourished under the Berber dynasties few are sufficiently important to deserve mention in a work of Literature under the Almoravides and Almohades (1100-1250 a.d.). this kind. The philosophers, however, stand in a class by themselves. Ibn Bájja (Avempace), Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Ibn Ṭufayl, and Músá b. Maymún (Maimonides) made their influence felt far beyond the borders of Spain: they belong, in a sense, to Europe. We have noticed elsewhere the great mystic, Muḥyi ’l-Dín Ibnu ’l-‘Arabí (õ 1240 a.d.); his fellow-townsman, Ibn Sab‘ín (õ 1269 a.d.), a thinker of the same type, wrote letters on philosophical subjects to Frederick II of Hohenstaufen. Valuable works on the literary history of Spain were composed by Ibn Kháqán (õ 1134 a.d.), Ibn Bassám (õ 1147 a.d.), and Ibn Bashkuwál (õ 1183 a.d.). The geographer Idrísí (õ 1154 a.d.) was born at Ceuta, studied at Cordova, and found a patron in the Sicilian monarch, Roger II; Ibn Jubayr published an interesting account of his pilgrimage from Granada to Mecca and of his journey back to Granada during the years 1183-1185 a.d.; Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar), who became a Vizier under the Almoravides, was the first of a whole family of eminent physicians; and Ibnu ’l-Bayṭár of Malaga (õ 1248 a.d.), after visiting Egypt, Greece, and Asia Minor in order to extend his knowledge of botany, compiled a Materia Medica, which he dedicated to the Sultan of Egypt, Malik al-Kámil.
We have now taken a rapid survey of the Moslem empire in Spain from its rise in the eighth century of our era down Reconquest of Spain by Ferdinand III. to the last days of the Almohades, which saw the Christian arms everywhere triumphant. By 1230 a.d. the Almohades had been driven out of the peninsula, although they continued to rule Africa for about forty years after this date. Amidst the general wreck one spot remained where the Moors could find shelter. This was Granada. Here, in 1232 a.d., Muḥammad Ibnu ’l-Aḥmar assumed the proud title of 'Conqueror by Grace of God' ( Ghálib billáh) and founded the Naṣrid dynasty, which held the Christians at bay during two centuries and a half. The Naṣrids of Granada (1232-1492 a.d.). That the little Moslem kingdom survived so long was not due to its own strength, but rather to its almost impregnable situation and to the dissensions of the victors. The latest bloom of Arabic culture in Europe renewed, if it did not equal, the glorious memories of Cordova and Seville. In this period arose the world-renowned Alhambra, i.e., 'the Red Palace' (al-Ḥamrá) of the Naṣrid kings, and many other superb monuments of which the ruins are still visible. We must not, however, be led away into a digression even upon such a fascinating subject as Moorish architecture. Our information concerning literary matters is scantier than it might have been, on account of the vandalism practised by the Christians when they took Granada. It is no dubious legend (like the reputed burning of the Alexandrian Library by order of the Caliph ‘Umar),805 but a well-ascertained fact that the ruthless Archbishop Ximenez made a bonfire of all the Arabic manuscripts on which he could lay his hands. He wished to annihilate the record of seven centuries of Muḥammadan culture in a single day.
The names of Ibnu ’l-Khaṭíb and Ibn Khaldún represent the highest literary accomplishment and historical comprehension of which this age was capable. The latter, indeed, has no parallel among Oriental historians.
Lisánu ’l-Dín Ibnu ’l-Khaṭíb806 played a great figure in the politics of his time, and his career affords a conspicuous example of the intimate way in which Moslem poetry and literature are connected with public life. "The Arabs did not share the opinion widely spread nowadays, that poetical talent flourishes best in seclusion from the tumult of the world, or that it dims the clearness of vision which is required for the conduct of public affairs. On the contrary, their princes entrusted the chief offices of State to poets, and poetry often served as a means to obtain more brilliant results than diplomatic notes could have procured."807 A young Ibnu ’l-Khaṭíb (1313-1374 a.d.). man like Ibnu ’l-Khaṭíb, who had mastered the entire field of belles-lettres, who improvised odes and rhyming epistles with incomparable elegance and facility, was marked out to be the favourite of kings. He became Vizier at the Naṣrid court, a position which he held, with one brief interval of disgrace, until 1371 a.d., when the intrigues of his enemies forced him to flee from Granada. He sought refuge at Fez, and was honourably received by the reigning Sultan, ‘Abdu ’l-‘Azíz; but on the accession of Abu ’l-‘Abbás in 1374 a.d. the exiled minister was incarcerated and brought to trial on the charge of heresy ( zandaqa). While the inquisition was proceeding a fanatical mob broke into the gaol and murdered him. Maqqarí relates that Ibnu ’l-Khaṭib suffered from insomnia, and that most of his works were composed during the night, for which reason he got the nickname of Dhu ’l-‘Umrayn, or 'The man of two lives.'808 He was a prolific writer in various branches of literature, but, like so many of his countrymen, he excelled in History. His monographs on the sovereigns and savants of Granada (one of which includes an autobiography) supply interesting details concerning this obscure period.
Some apology may be thought necessary for placing Ibn Khaldún, the greatest historical thinker of Islam, in the Ibn Khaldún (1332-1406 a.d. present chapter, as though he were a Spaniard either by birth or residence. He descended, it is true, from a family, the Banú Khaldún, which had long been settled in Spain, first at Carmona and afterwards at Seville; but they migrated to Africa about the middle of the thirteenth century, and Ibn Khaldún was born at Tunis. Nearly the whole of his life, moreover, was passed in Africa—a circumstance due rather to accident than to predilection; for in 1362 a.d. he entered the service of the Sultan of Granada, Abú ‘Abdalláh Ibnu ’l-Aḥmar, and would probably have made that city his home had not the jealousy of his former friend, the Vizier Ibnu ’l-Khaṭíb, decided him to leave Spain behind. We cannot give any account of the agitated and eventful career which he ended, as Cadi of Cairo, in 1406 a.d. Ibn Khaldún lived with statesmen and kings: he was an ambassador to the court of Pedro of Castile, and an honoured guest of the mighty Tamerlane. The results of his ripe experience are marvellously displayed in the Prolegomena ( Muqaddima), which forms the first volume of a huge general history entitled the Kitábu ’l-‘Ibar('Book of Examples').809 He himself has stated his idea of the historian's function in the following words:—
"Know that the true purpose of history is to make us acquainted with human society, i.e., with the civilisation of the world, and with Ibn Khaldún as a philosophical historian. its natural phenomena, such as savage life, the softening of manners, attachment to the family and the tribe, the various kinds of superiority which one people gains over another, the kingdoms and diverse dynasties which arise in this way, the different trades and laborious occupations to which men devote themselves in order to earn their livelihood, the sciences and arts; in fine, all the manifold conditions which naturally occur in the development of civilisation."810
Ibn Khaldún argues that History, thus conceived, is subject to universal laws, and in these laws he finds the only sure criterion of historical truth.
"The rule for distinguishing what is true from what is false in history is based on its possibility or impossibility: that is to His canons of historical criticism. say, we must examine human society (civilisation) and discriminate between the characteristics which are essential and inherent in its nature and those which are accidental and need not be taken into account, recognising further those which cannot possibly belong to it. If we do this we have a rule for separating historical truth from error by means of a demonstrative method that admits of no doubt.... It is a genuine touchstone whereby historians may verify whatever they relate."811