Ibn al-Khatib


Lisan Al-Din Ibn Al-Khatib was an Arab Andalusian polymath poet, writer, historian, philosopher, physician and politician from Emirate of Granada. Some of his poems decorate the walls of the palace of Alhambra in Granada. He is known for composing the muwashah "Jadaka Al-Ghaithu" جادك الغيث.
Ibn al-Khatib was born at Loja, near Granada. For much of his life he was vizir at the court of the Sultan of Granada, Muhammed V. He spent two periods in exile in the Marinid empire;. In 1374, he was imprisoned for 'Zandaqa' and atheism. He was sentenced to death by suffocation. Earlier and modern historians have speculated that his many private and political feuds in Granada with the Nasrid Kings of Granada, were probably the main factors in his treatment and execution. His body was burned before being buried at "Bab Mahruq", a city gate in Fes.
He is highly esteemed both as an historian and as a poet. Some of his poems were put to music as muwashshah. He was a contemporary and acquaintance of Ibn Khaldun.
His great historical work, al-Ihata fi akhbar Gharnata الإحاطة في أخبار غرناطة, written in 1369, includes his autobiography. This work has yet to be translated into English.

''On the Plague''

In his treatise about the plague,, Ibn al-Khatib explores the idea of transmission of disease through contagion, centuries before Louis Pasteur conducted his experiments in Europe. The original Arabic text is preserved in the Zaydani Collection at the Biblioteca del Real Monasterio de El Escorial, MS Arabic 1785. Of the estimated deaths due to the outbreak of bubonic plague, known as the Black Death, that swept through al-Andalus in the 14th century, the numbers range to as high as a third of the Muslim population worldwide.
In his treatise On the Plague, Ibn al-Khatib writes:
"The existence of contagion is established by experience by trustworthy reports on transmission by garments, vessels, ear-rings; by the spread of it by persons from one house, by infection of a healthy sea-port by an arrival from an infected land by the immunity of isolated individuals."

While the plague hadith indicated that the Prophet suggested otherwise,
"a proof taken from the traditions has to undergo modification when in manifest contradiction with the evidence of the perception of the senses."

Death

A detailed account of his demise was written down by Ibn Khaldun, a friend and admirer of his. As a loyal courtier of Muhammed V of Granada, Ibn al-Khatib was arrested in the wake of a 1359 coup by Muhammed's half-brother Ismail, and had his property confiscated. He was soon released due to interference by the Marinid sultan of Morocco and joined a host of Andalusian refugees in Morocco, where he settled in the Atlantic town of Salé. Here, he immersed himself in Sufi mysticism and writing. It was during this stay in Morocco that he first met Ibn Khaldun, as well as other important North African intellectuals, such as Ibn Marzuq.
In 1362, the former emir of Granada, Muhammed V, was able to regain the throne with help from the Moroccan sultan. This allowed Ibn al-Khatib to return to Granada and resume the office of Great Vizir. He soon ran afoul of severe political intrigue. He was eventually able to strengthen his own position while organizing the expulsion of a number of his North African political rivals from Granada. His political successes caused friction within Granada between supporters of the expelled North Africans and the politically savvy Ibn al-Khatib. When Ibn Khaldun had some diplomatic success at Granada's court, Ibn al-Khatib, fearing him as a rival, organized his expulsion.
His intrigues had made him an unpopular figure in some circles, causing two of his own students, Ibn Zamrak and Ibn Farkun, to join hands with his most powerful enemy in Granada, the Grand Qadi al-Nubahi, a man who had long held a grudge against Ibn al-Khatib. More importantly, emir Muhammed V had grown distrustful of Ibn al-Khatib for his overbearing control of the Granadan state and his strict loyalty to the Marinids of Morocco. Feeling the heat rise, in 1371 Ibn al-Khatib left for North Africa, where he was well received by the Marinid sultan Abu Faris Abdul Aziz I of Morocco. During his refuge, the Grand Qadi al-Nubahi issued a fatwa in which Ibn al-Khatib's work on Sufism and philosophy were branded heretical and his work ordered to be burned. The ad hominem nature of al-Nubahi's legal decision strongly suggest that he had a personal grudge against Ibn al-Khatib. Ibn al-Khatib wrote a refutation of the fatwa, in which he harshly attacked al-Nubahi. Numerous attempts by Granada to get Ibn al-Khatib either extradited or executed were fruitless, as the Moroccan sultan Abu Faris Abdul Aziz I refused to do so. Though the Moroccan sultan soon died, Ibn al-Khatib was ensured of protection from Ibn Ghazi, Morocco's main vizir.
Ibn al-Khatib's future turned bleak when a Granada-supported coup removed Ibn Ghazi from office and brought a new sultan to power, Abu'l-Abbas Ahmad al-Mustansir. Indebted to Granada, the new sultan ordered Ibn al-Khatib arrested and a trial be held in the Moroccan capital city of Fes, in which a Granadan group of emissaries, including his former student Ibn Zamrak, was actively involved. Despite intimidation and torture, Ibn al-Khatib kept protesting his innocence throughout the trial and denied the accusations of heresy. The final vote was far from unanimous and a council of Islamic scholars were unable to reach a conclusive decision. He was sent back to his prison cell and strangled later that night. On the next morning his body was buried near Fes' Bab al-Mahruq city gate. Unsatisfied, his enemies ordered his body dug up and thrown in a bonfire.

List of works