It is iinnecesaary for the Editor of this work to enter into any details regarding the personal history of its Author Abu'l- Husain Muhamiiiad ibn Ahmad ibn Jubair al-Kinlni; those who seek it, will find the requisite information in deGayangos' Hia/ori/ of the Mohammednn Dynasties in Spain, vol, 11, p.400 ; in an article by M. Amari in the Journal Aaialique, ^^ Serie, torn. VII. p. 208; and in Reinaud's Geographie d' Moitlfeda, vol. 1. p. 124. Besides, the documents from which these Orien- talists derived their information are all contained in the present volume, along vrith others to which they had not access.
Among his countrymen in the West Ibn Jubair enjoyed a high literary reputation, based in part upon his poetical com- positions, but principally upon the Journal which he kept during his first journey to the East, and published soon after his return to Spain. Ibn al-Khatib states indeed, on the autho- rity of Abu'l-Hasan al-Sharl, that these Travels were edited from the papers of Ibn Jubair by one of his pupils, but I think that a perusal of the work will satisfy any one that this state- ment is erroneous; the hand of the marattib does not manifest itself here as in the Travels of Ibn Batutah. Of his poetry several specimens have been preserved by his biographers, among which are two of his best known pieces : the one com- posed on his first approach to al-Madinah; the other addressed to the Sult&n Satah aUdin on the subject of certain vexatious imposts to which the pilgrims to Makkah were exposed on
landing in E^pt. The latter was probably written during his second journey to the East, for allusion is made in it tu the capture of Jerusalem by Salah al-din, which did not take place till the year 583, A.D. 1187. Of his Journal, which was widely circulated in the East as well as the West, unfortunately but one MS. has come down to our times — that preserved in the University Library at Leyden. The MS, in the Eecurial (Casiri, n". 486(2)) is merely a meagre epitome'), constructed appa- rently with no better taste and judgment than the epitome of Ibn Batutah's Travels which has been translated by Lee. It is possible that MSS. of the complete work may yet be found in North Africa, but from Egypt and Syria we have, I am afraid, but little to hope. That Hajji Khalifah had never seen the book himself is clear; in hia very brief notice of it (Fliigel's edit, vol. III. p. 350), he gives it a title by which I have nowhere else found it alluded to, and that title itself is disfigured by a blunder, since instead of ^iUJ:JI xL=-j, we must read ^jU^J! *i>,, as has already been pointed out by Reinaud {Geoyr. d' Aboul- feda, vol. I, p. 125, not. 3). To the later historians of the city of Damascus- (see Belaiioa de t tigypie p. 573, and Quatre- mere's Hist, des Snl/a»8 Mamlouks vol. II. 1 . p. 277) the ori- ginal work was also unknown ; they availed themselves of those extracts which al-Sharishi had incorporated in his large com- mentary to the Maqamat of al-Hariri. Al-Maqqari perhaps possessed a copy of it, though he too may merely have borrowed from some one or other of the numerous sources of information which he had at hand.
The Leyden MS. (Catalog, vol. II, p. 135), containing 210 pages, was copied at Makkah in the year 875 by one 'Abd al- Qadir ibn ^Abd al-WahhSb ibn 'Abd al-Mumin al-Qurasbl,
\) Thii epitomB ptwra «t oucc from Ihs baiMatak to J'-'-^' \Jo-'^ ^s6 JCj^>>JX»'^I, bnt breiki off with the word* |»{a$\!Ijuj l y -LaXiL*! (p. f r, 10) ;
then rollovt lh« p*ngr>ph yMi,^^i\ L g .i j* ■Jif_ »yi ,; i_aJ_«JI q*j
(p. fr, \h-U); nat by^UlIj ma ^s^>; ud to on.
15
from a MS. in the MaghribI character. It bears the title ^) UsS" lik-rLUl) 't^.^1 Jji\ ^sji i ii)*UJt _jLj:Ccl, which I have thought proper to reject as the fiction of some person unknown, for had the author really given the book this title, he would not have failed to mention it at the commencement, whereas he has simply styled it ^U-^l olSUi"! ^ J^% '/'^i other writers too always cite it by the-appellation of j**> ^' i^_j As to the quality of the MS., it is scarcely all that could have been wbbed. A single glance suffices to show that the copyist wrote from first to last as fast as he could drive the pen; and the eonsequence is, that not only are the diacritical points very frequently wanting, but that words have been here and there omitted, sometimes through oversight, at other times appar- ently from inability to decipher them, tn which latter case a space has been left bUnk. A confusion between certain letters is also not uncommon; thus we find a and -^i a and a, « and ii, frequently substituted for one another (even Ails for lASi, jij for «,, j-j for j-5): and occasionally * for a, *o for^, s-for-a, whilst the hawzah has passed into J (JuiLs- for i3jU>, L^l^for \^]^) and even j {,^jx>Si\ for qIk?-'^')- Any one who is accu- stomed to read Western MSS. will easily see how all this can arise. Some variants are added on the margin from another MS., but this part of the copyist's task does not seem to have been executed with particular care. The errors specified I have endeavoured to remove to the best of my small ability. Words which T thought it necessary to insert in the text, I have enclosed within brackets [], unless there was a lacuna marked in the MS., in which case I have used parenthesesO *). Where I made any alteration in the reading of the MS., I have been careful to notice it at the foot of the page, with certain exceptions, which I allowed myself from a wish to economize room; viz. the more common substitutions of one letter for
1) Or XJLwj 1* in the lobKriptiaD.
S) 1 htTe dctiated more or \tm trom Ihii *TWem. d« G.
another, which were in niHny cases not difficult to detect; errors in the grammatical form of the numerals, where 1 ob- served any; and a few very obvious mistakes, such as i^^ for t|j_gJ!, ajN} for »6lj), yi-UjiJi for yv-ouJ', ;yJ^' ii*aJ!, etc. Pas- . sages which 1 could not understand, or which seemed to me corrupt without my being able to suggest any emendation, I have given as they are in the MS., and simply stated that it was SO; for which and all other shortcomings, though pro- bably neither few nor small, I trust that some palliation will be found in the fact of my having had but one not very care- fully written MS. at my disposal. The dates are, I believe, with the alterations that I have made, every where correct, though perfect uniformity with calculations according to the method laid down in the Ari de verifier les dales is not to be expected. In regard to the names of the localities mentioned by our traveller I cannot say so much, for though aided by my friend Professor Jdynboll, who has always been ready to open his stores of geographical information for my use, 1 have still been unable to find a part of them. Some of the names seem to have been corrupted by the copyists, but in other cases the author himself is perhaps to blame, as for example when he writes ^ jjI for gvj>') ^jsj'j'J' for i^^sjSJ', v'jJi for wo^l, etc.
In correcting the text, I have made use of whatever quota- tions I could find in the works of other authors. These I now proceed to enumerate.
Of subsequent Travellers three deserve to be mentioned.
1. Al-'AbdaTi. This traveller, a native of Hahah ».»-Lj* in the remotest regions of al-Sus al-aqsa, set out on pilgrimage to Makkah in the year 688, A. D. 1289. He proceeded along the north coast of Africa to Alexandria, took the usual over- land route thence to Makkah, spent some time in Palestine, and retraced his steps by Alexandria homewards. In his descrip- tion of the two holy cities he mentions Ibn Jubair two or three times, and in other places he gives some specimens of his poe- try; which I have inserted in the present volume. The IVavels
17
of al-'Abdari are deserving of publication; the Leyden MS. is unfortunately a very indifferent one.
2. Al-Balawl. The Qadbi Abu'l-baqa KfaSlid ibn 'Isa al-Ba- lawi left his native city Qantaria '^yf^ , dow Canleria, on the river Almanzora, in the vear 736. Proceeding from Spain to Tunis, he thence took ship to Alexandria, visited al-Qahirab, passed some time at Jerusnlem, and entered Arabia by the route of the Syrian Hajj. His ri/dak bears the magnificent title ^_^^l lULcs «ul^' 3 lj^I Jj, which gives a good hint as to the nature of a large portion of the contents. To tell the plain truth, the worthy QadhI was rather a disreputable person so far as his literary character is concerned. Ibn aly Google
18
only one extant in Europe. The text is very corrupt, and I have not been able ta make much of it, but preferred giving it complete to suppreuing any portion.
2. Al-Maqrizi has also a short article on Ibn Jubair in his Muqaffd.; the Leyden MS. being autograph, I have taken care to give the text precisely as I found it. It will be observed that al-Maqqan has transferred the whole of this article to his own pages with a very few verbal alterations. A 1-MaqrM has made use of the Travels of Ibn Jubair in his al-Kbilat wal-AtMr, especially in the articles v'^ (compare Burck- hardt's Trav. in Nubia, %^ edit., p. 478— 5) and ^tr^\, in which latter he mentions him by name; and in the &uluh, as may be seen by comparing Burckhardt's Trav. in Nubia, p. 497 — 8, with p. oa of this volume. Another quotation is to be fband in a fragment contained in the Leyden MS. 372, vol. III., and published by Hamaker in the Specim. Catalog, p. 209—11.
.5. Al-Fa^ offers us in the (.1^ OJJI ^Us4j ,.1^! ^Lii a quo- tation from Ibn Jubair relative to the taxes levied on the pilgrims in 'AidhSb (see p. m seq.); the passage was copied for me from a Parisian MS. by M. Dbfr£hebt ').
4. Ibn Jubair's description of the great moi>que of Damascus is given in an abridged form in the Histories of that city con- tained in the Parisian M3. 823, but, as I mentioned before, the authors have had recourse, not to the original work, but to the extracts given by al-3harTshI in his commentary to al-HarTri. M. DBPRiiiERT was so kind as to furnish me here too with the necessary collations. In some connection with these works stands the Leyden MS. 1516, which contains a
1) Oa tb« mngin of the Lcjdcn MS. of aUFJiWttt Hist, of Uikkali, fsl. 478 m\., i* > note eontiiciiiig, imongat other thiogi, i very brief extract from Uii Jabiir reUtin to Hbt waifU albax'ai (p. tov, ie).The MS.wiiirrittcn it Mikkih in the yeir 817, but the wriltr fountl the nola ib ui older eiempUr jtA ^aiii
10
fragment of a Hist, of Damascus, without date or Dame of author. I have compared the description of the mosque with that given by Quatremere in the Htat. dea Suit. Maml., vol. 11, 1, and find the words in a great many caBee almost iden- tical, though the arrangement of the several paragraphs is often very different.
5. Al-Maqgari has assigned to Ibn Jubair a long article in the fifth book of his History of Spain, which I have published in a curtailed form. The fact is that al-Maqqarl has allowed himself here a much greater license than usual even with him in wandering from his subject, and having once named the uatne of Damascus loses sight of Ibn Jubair for a space of nearly 50 pages. The MS. which I have used belongs to the Library of Gotha, and is neatly and carefully written.
I conclude my enumeration with the name of an author who does not fall under either of the former classes, and who, though I have placed him last, takes precedence of the rest in point of time; I mean al-Shariihi, the pupil of Ibn Jubair. In his large commentary to the MaqSmat of al-HaiTri, the quotations from the Travels of his Shaikh are very numerous. Maq. V, al-Kufah, Faid, and the description of the caravan p. Uf seq Maq. VIII, al-Ma'arrah. Maq. IX, Alexandria. Uaq. XII, Damascus. Maq. XIII.Bagdad, and the passage of rhymed prose p. rn. Maq. XIX, Naslbln. Maq. XXII, al-Hillnh, al- Qantarah, Zariran, Sarsar. Maq. XXV, aUMadTnah. Maq.XXX, Sur, Miar and al-Qahirah. Maq. XXXI,Makkah. Maq.XXXII. ai-Madlnah, Sadr al-din al-Khujandl p. Ill, the farewell p. fJ". Maq, XLVI, Halab and Hims. For a copy of the last two pas- sages I am indebted to M. Dugat of Paris, the Leyden MSS. of al-Sharishi (Catal. vol. 1. p. 363) extending no farther than the end of the 38^ Maqamah. I regret that I was not aware of the existence of these extracts till the printing of the work was isx advanced, so that I have been obliged to insert the prin- cipal variants and emendaiions which they furnished among the Additions and Corrections. It must not be supposed, how-
20
ever, that al-Shamhi'a notions in regard to quotations trom other writers are at all different from those of the rest of his countrymen, for he alters, transposes, and leaves out, just as suits his own pleasure or caprice.
Of European Orientalists the work of Ibn Jubair has been used, so far as I am aware, by but two. Professor Dozt has frequently cited it in the notes and glossaries to his various works; and M, Amari has published that part of it which refers to Sicily in the Journal Aaiatique, 4« Serie, torn. VI, VII, with a translation and notes. In the same Journal, torn. IX, p. 361, the Shaikh al-Tantawy made some corrections on M. Amari's text and translation. The reader will see that I have adopted a number of M. Amari's emendations, whilst at the same time I have ventured to differ from him in the reading of several passages. In the annotations to a translation of these Travels, which 1 propose to publish hereafter, I may perhaps notice a few cases in which M. Amari has, I think, misunder- stood his author; here let it suffice to touch upon one passage, involving a question of history. In his note (69) M. Amari, speaking of a treaty concluded between King Wiltiam 11 and the Almohade monarch Abu Ya'^qub, cites a passage from the historian 'Abd al-Wahid (Dozy's edit. p. 182), and pretends that »la confusion resultant des pronoms relatifs au mSme »genre et au mgme nombre ne permet pas de determiner »lequel des deux rois, selon Marrakischi, avait eu peur de wl'autre, ni, ce qui est plus important, lequel devait payer a wl'autre une somme annuelle." I think the words of 'Abd al- Wahid leave no room for the smallest doubt as to what he intended to say, though the statement may be a little offensive to M. Amari's patriotism '), viz. that King William, moved by fear of the Muhammadan monarch, obtained peace from him on condition of paying a certain sum annually. The Ian-
1) Wiiglil wroli on the narpio of hit y Google
foreign land his house was my home, and the obligations under . which he has laid me can never be forgotten. Lastly a word of thanks to my kind friend Professor DozT; being himself unfortunately obliged to lay aside all thoughts of publishing the Travels of Ibn Jabair, he was the first to urge me to undertake the task, and during the tinse that I have been occupied in its execution, he has aided me by every means in his power, giving me on alt occasions when it was sought that information which his accurate acquaintance with the Arabic language and literature so easily enables him to furnish. I am now on the eve of bidding adieu to the Continent, in all probability for a considerable length of time, but I shall ever revert with feelings of pleasure and gratefulness to my residence in Holland and Germany, exclaiming in the words of the poet :
Leyden, W. Wright,
November 1853.
X have only a few words to add. Many years ago Wright's
edition of Ibn Jubair was sold off, but he could not himself
find the time to make a revision of the text, nor to give the
promised translation. More than once this was planned by
others, lately by Robertson Smith, whose premature death in-
tervened. On the request of the Trustees of the Gibb Memorial
I charged myself in 1905 with a revision of the text. By a
very curious coincidence, just then Professor Schiaparelli un-
dertook: to give an Italian translation of the work, which
reached me when about two thirds uf the text had been
printed. From the Fre&ce of this translation (p. XIV) I learnt
that another MS. of the Rihla is existent in the library of
the principal moaque at Fez. 1 do not know whether it would
have been possible to get access to it; it was too late for
me to make an effort. A comparison of my edition with the
former will show that I had very little to change. »The travels
of Ibn Jubair" was Wright's first publication, made when he
was only 23 years old. But, as Fleischer wrote to Rodiger,
whose pupil Wright was and to whom he dedicated the work,
»er hat seinen Text so gut construirt, wie es mancher Pro-
fessor der schon Jahre lang im Amte ist, uicht im Stande ist".
His reading of the MS. bad been most careful and accurate;
the few passages which he could not understand were difficult
indeed, and part of them are hopelessly corrupt. Some faults
of the MS. have been corrected afterwards by Wright himself
on the margin of his copy, some by Dozy, one or two by
Robertson Smith. For the biographical part I could make
24
use of the Egyptian editions of al-Khatib and Maqnzl, of the Leiden one of Maqqan. I ought to have added to these documents the article of the SHa by Ibn al-Abbar, ed. Codera I, t"lf seq., which, however, gives almost nothing that ia not contained in the other notices. I could now cite Ibo Batuta from the Parisian, Sharlshi from the Egyptian edition. As for the Glossary, 1 have been obliged to make a few corrections or additions, owing chiefly to the fact that Dozy made a special study of the text for his Supplement aux dictxonnairea arabes.
The Italian translation of Professor Schiaparelli is excellent. His preface contains some additions to that of Wright, in particular about the quotations from the Rihla by Oriental authors, and the passages edited by European scholars.
In the Additions and Corrections I have drawn attention to some of his notes and mentioned the corrections of the text proposed by him which differ from those accepted by myself.
Leiden, March 1907. M. J