The Mediterranean in the 14th century

Ibn al-Khatib

Ibn al-Khatib was, without a doubt, one of the most influential personages of the al-Andalus of the 14th century. Born in the town of Loja in 1313 he spent the greater part of his life in Granada in the service of the Nasrid dynasty. He occupied high political positions and was named “double vizier”, “du l-wizaratayn”. He died by an assassin’s hand in the prison of Fes (Morocco) in 1374.

 Politically he was a highly influential person who maintained a number of love-hate relations with the principal figures of the moment. For this reason he was obliged on two occasions to go into exile in North Africa, where he offered his services to the Merinid kings. The first time he was accompanied by his sovereign and protector, the Nasrid sultan Muhammad V. On the second occasion he fled from Granada and sought refuge again in the Merinid court. In the end he was prosecuted in Granada and in Fes. In the first place all of his works were condemned to be burned; in the second he was condemned to death for heresy.

Ibn al-Khatib was also an important figure in cultural terms. He was in contact with the principal intellectual figures of the epoch, such as Ibn Khaldun, which whom he coincided in Fes, and later in the Nasrid court. Nevertheless, due to Ibn Khaldun’s rising favor with the sultan Muhammad V, suspicions arose between the two of them which led to the departure of the sage, a gesture which permitted them to conserve their friendship till the end of their days.

Ibn al-Khatib was an excellent writer on a variety of themes. He wrote more than 60 works of a widely varied nature. The sources attribute his massive literary output to the fact that he couldn’t sleep, as many of his essays were written during periods of insomnia. Of his entire body of work, perhaps the most outstanding is the Ihata fi ta’rij Garnata, a book in which he included all of the intellectuals of Granada, the introduction to which included a description of the city which has proved invaluable for later generations of researchers.