Ibn Jubair

This article deals with an Arab geographer of the 12th / 13th centuries. Century. For the Kurdish astronomer of the same name, see al-Battani .

Ibn Jubair (also Ibn Jubayr , with full nameأبو الحسن محمد بن أحمد بن جبير الكناني / Abū l-Ḥasan Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Ǧubair al-Kinānī ; born 1145 in Valencia , Spain ; died 1217 in Alexandria , Egypt ) was an Arab geographer and travel writer.

Ibn Jubair's journey from Granada to Mecca

As a postal clerk to the Almohad governor of Granada, he made three extensive trips:

• 1183 a pilgrimage to Mecca via Sardinia , Sicily , Crete , Egypt, Iraq and Syria
• 1189–1191 via Syria and Iraq to Persia
• 1217 to Egypt

Dschubair is considered the founder of the experience reports known as Rihla in vivid diary form, his works became a model for reports from later pilgrims.

Dschubair's reports about the coexistence of Latin-Christian " Franks " and Muslims in the Crusader states are particularly interesting . He depicts the Christian crusaders as just landlords who only imposed taxes on the Muslim peasants and otherwise gave them a lot of freedom. This report, as well as other similar sources, is often viewed as evidence of peaceful and tolerant coexistence between crusaders and locals and in the crusader states.

However, this should not hide the fact that he was deeply hostile to Christians - he describes them and others. A. as "pigs" - and expressly rejected a cultural togetherness (which he described as an "accident for the Muslims"). For example, when King William II of Sicily occasionally tried to win Muslim scholars for the court in Palermo, he remarked: "May God save Muslims from this seduction!"

literature

Edition

• The Travels of Ibn Jubayr . Ed. William Wright . 2nd edn, revised by MJ de Goeje , Leiden and London 1907, EJW Gibb Memorial Series 5. Digitized

Translations

• The Travels of Ibn Jubayr: being the chronicle of a Spanish moor concerning his journey to the Egypt of Saladin, the holy cities of Arabia, Baghdad the city of the Caliphs, the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, and the Norman kingdom of Sicily, translated by Ronald JC Broadhurst , London, Cape 1952
• Maurice Gaudefroy-Demombynes : Ibn Jobair: Voyages. Traduits and annotations. Paris, Paul Geuthner 1949–1965 ( Documents relatifs à l'histoire des croisades , 4–7).
• Regina Günther: Ibn Dschubair. Diary of a Mecca pilgrim. ( Library of Arabic Classics 10) Stuttgart 1985.

Web links

• Literature by and about Ibn Dschubair in the catalog of the German National Library
• Books by and about Ibn Ǧubair in the catalog of the SUB Göttingen

Individual evidence

1. ^ Regina Günther: Ibn Dschubair. Diary of a Mecca pilgrim. Stuttgart 1985, p. 223f.
2. ^ Regina Günther: Ibn Dschubair. Diary of a Mecca pilgrim. Stuttgart 1985, p. 226.
3. ^ Regina Günther: Ibn Dschubair. Diary of a Mecca pilgrim. Stuttgart 1985, p. 225.
4. ^ Regina Günther: Ibn Dschubair. Diary of a Mecca pilgrim. Stuttgart 1985, p. 244.