Ibn al-Qutiyya

Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz ibn Ibrahim ibn Isa ibn Muzahim
Born	10th century Seville, Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba (now Spain)
Died	6 November 977 Córdoba, Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba (now Spain)
Occupation(s)	Historian, Philologist
Academic work
Era	Islamic Golden Age
Main interests	History, Philology
Notable works	Ta'rikh iftitāḥ al-Andalus (History of the Conquest of al-Andalus)
Notable ideas	Detailed accounts of the Islamic conquest of Spain

Ibn al-Qūṭiyya (ابن القوطية, died 6 November 977), born Muḥammad Ibn ʿUmar Ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʾIbrāhīm ibn ʿIsā ibn Muzāḥim (محمد ابن عمر ابن عبد العزيز ابن إبراهيم ابن عيسى ابن مزاحم), also known as Abu Bakr or al-Qurtubi ("the Córdoban"), was an Andalusian historian and considered the greatest philologist at the Umayyad court of caliph Al-Hakam II. His magnum opus, the History of the Conquest of al-Andalus, is one of the earliest Arabic Muslim accounts of the Islamic conquest of Spain.

Life

Ibn al-Qūṭiyya, whose name means "son of the Gothic woman", claimed descent from Wittiza, the last king of the united Visigoths in Spain, through a granddaughter, Sara al-Qutiyya, who travelled to Damascus and married ʿĪsā ibn Muzāḥim, an Arab client of the 10th Umayyad caliph Hisham. Sara and ʿĪsā then returned to Al-Andalus.

Ibn al-Qūṭiyya was born and raised in Seville. His family was under the patronage of the Qurayshi tribe, and his father was a qāḍī (judge) in Seville and Écija. The Banu Hajjaj, also of Seville, were close relatives of his family, also claiming descent from Visigothic royalty. Ibn al-Qūṭiyya's student al-Faraḍī composed a short sketch of his master for his biographical dictionary, preserved in a late medieval manuscript discovered in Tunis in 1887. Al-Faraḍī tells us Ibn al-Qūṭiyya studied first in Seville, then in Córdoba. Al-Faraḍī cautions that Qūṭiyya's histories were tales(akhbār), and not serious history(ta'rīkh). Under Saʿīd ibn Qāhir he studied, memorized and transmitted the great work of history known as Al-Kāmil (The Complete) by the famous Baṣriyyan philologist, al-Mubarrad. He died in old age at Córdoba.

Al-Qūṭiyya's highly anecdotal history is unusual among the Arab chronicles. The influence of his royal ancestry probably lies behind his defense of treaties between the Arab Muslim conquerors and the Gothic aristocracy—both secular and ecclesiastical— that preserved them on their estates. Al-Qūṭiyya contests criticisms by historians such as Rhazes, arguing that these treaties bolstered Islamic hegemony at minimal military cost. He refutes a claim that the Umayyad emirs of Córdoba retained the fifth (quinto or khums, a tax) for the Caliph of Damascus. His history retells the legend of the part played by "the sons of Wittiza" at the Battle of Guadalete.

Works

• Ta'rikh iftitāḥ al-Andalus (تاريخ افتتاح الأندلس), 'History of the Conquest of al-Andalus'; found in only a single extant manuscript, Bibliothèque Nationale de France No. 1867. Speculation about a copy's existence among the rich manuscript collection at Constantine, Algeria, of Si Hamouda ben Cheikh el-Fakoun, seems unlikely according to recent scholarship. The 18-volume history was written at the height of the Umayyad Caliphate of al-Andalus and spans its first 250 years. Ibn al-Quṭīyya treats of lives of Christians, Jews and Muslim converts, and in addition to accounts of rulers are intrigues among servants, minor officials, poets, judges, concubines and physicians.
  • Taʼrīj iftitāḥ al-Andalus, critical transcript of the unique manuscript edited by P. de Gayangos (with collaboration by E. Saavedra and F. Codera), 1868.
  • Historia de la conquista de España de Aben al-Cotia el cordobés, seguida de fragmentos históricos de Abencotaiba (y la noble carta dirigida a las comarcas españolas del wazīr al-Gassānī), Spanish translation by Julián Ribera, Madrid, 1926.
  • Early Islamic Spain: the History of Ibn al-Qūṭīya, English translation by David James, Routledge, 2009.
• Kitāb Taṣārīf al-af’āl, ('Book on the Conjugation of Verbs')—The oldest MS of an Arabic dictionary extant.
• Kitāb al-Maqṣūr wa 'l-Mamdūd ('Book on the Shortened and Extended Alif').—This title is mentioned by al-Faraḍī but no copy survives.

Bibliography

• Barton, Simon (2015). Conquerors, Brides, and Concubines: Interfaith Relations and Social Power in Medieval Iberia. University of Pennsylvania Press.
• Christys, Ann (2002). Christians in al-Andalus (711–1000). London: Routledge. ISBN 9780700715640. OCLC 474323475.
• Collins, Roger (1989). The Arab Conquest of Spain, 710–97. London: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 9780631159230. OCLC 898276874.
• James, David; Ibn 'Umar Ibn al-Qūṭīyah, Muhammad (2009). Early Islamic Spain: The History of Ibn al-Qutiya: A Study of the Unique Arabic Manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris. London: Routledge. ISBN 9780415475525. OCLC 241304594.
• Nichols, James Manfield (1975). The History of the Conquest of Al-Andulus by Ibn al Qútiyya. PhD dissertation. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Further reading

• Ben Cheneb, Muhammad (1907). Et. sur les personnages mentionnes dans I'Idjdza du Cheikh 'Abd al-Qādir al-Fāsi (in French). E. Leroux. pp. 259-260 (§231).
• Bosch Vilá, Jacinto (1971), "IBN AL-ḲŪṬIYYA", Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. III, Leiden: E. J. Brill, pp. 847–8, ISBN 90-04-08118-6
• Brockelmann, Carl (1898). Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (in German). Vol. I. Weimar: Emil Felber. pp. 150–151.
• Dhabbī (al-), Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Aḥmad ibn 'Amirah (1884). Codera Zaidín, Francisco; Ribera, J (eds.). Bughyat al-multamis fī ta'rīkh rijāl al-Andalus (in Arabic). Baghdād: Maktabat al-mathnā. p. 102 (§223).
• Dozy, Reinhart (1851) [1848]. Histoire de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne, Intitulée al-Bayano 'l-Mogrib par Ibn Adhari (De Maroc) (in French). Vol. I. Leyden: E. J. Brill. pp. 28–30.
• Faraḍī (Ibn al-), ʻAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad (2008). Tārīkh cUlamā al-Andalus (in Arabic). Vol. ii. Tunis: Dār Gharib al-Islāmī. pp. 102–3 (§1316).
• Khallikān (Ibn), Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad (1978). Wafayāt al-A'yān wa-Anbā' Abnā' al-Zamān (The Obituaries of Eminent Men) (in Arabic). Vol. IV. Beirut: Dār Ṣādar. pp. 368–71 (§650).
• Khallikān (Ibn), Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad (1868). Ibn Khallikān's Biographical Dictionary (translation of Wafayāt al-A'yān wa-Anbā'). Vol. III. Translated by MacGuckin de Slane. London: Oriental Translation Fund of Britain and Ireland. pp. 79–82.
• Khāqān (Fatḥ ibn), Abū Naṣr al-Qaysī al-Ishbīlī (1983). Maṭmaḥ al-anfus wa-masraḥ al-taʼannus fī mulaḥ ahl al-Andalus (in Arabic). Beirut: Shar Suriyya. pp. 58–59.
• Pons Boigues, Francisco (1898). Ensayo bio-bibliográfico sobre los historiadores y geógrafos arábigo-españoles (in Spanish). San Francisco de Sales. pp. 83-87 (§45).
• Qūṭīyah (al-), Muḥammad ibn ʻUmar (1894). Guidi, Ignazio (ed.). Sifr fīhi jamīʻ kitāb al-Afʻāl al-thalāthīyah wa-al-rubāʻīyah bi-ittifāq (Libro dei verbi by Muḥammad ibn ʻUmar Ibn al-Qūṭīyah) (in Arabic and Italian). Leiden: E.J. Brill.
• Qūṭīyah (al-), Muḥammad ibn ʻUmar (1868). Gayangos (de), Pascual; Saavedra, Eduardo; Codera, Francisco (eds.). Historia de la conquista de España de Abenalcotía el cordobés (in Spanish). Translated by Ribera, Julián. Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia.
• Qūṭīyah (al-), Muḥammad ibn ʻUmar (1889). Histoire de la conquite de I'Andalousie (in Arabic and French). Translated by Houdas, Octave. Paris: Ernest Leroux. OCLC 978480462.
• Sánchez Albornoz, Claudio (1942). Fuentes de la historia Hispano-Musulmana del siglo VIII (in Spanish). Vol. ii. p. 684.
• Suyūṭī (al-), Jalāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (1965). Bughyat al-Wuʻāh fī Ṭabaqāt al-Lughawīyīn wa-al-Nuḥāh (in Arabic). Vol. 1. al-Qāhirah: Ṭubiʻa bi-mạṭbaʻat ʻĪsa al-Bābī al-Halabī. p. 198.
• Tha’ālibī (al-), ʻAbd al-Malik ibn Muḥammad (1983). Yatīmat al-dahr fī shuʻarāʼ ahl al-ʻaṣr (in Arabic). Vol. ii. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyah. pp. 84–85 (§101).
• Wüstenfeld, Ferdinand (1882). Die Geschichtschreiber der Araber und ihre Werke (in German). Wein. pp. 46-7 (§141).