The ''Akhbār majmūʿa fī fatḥ al-Andalus'' ("Collection of Anecdotes on the Conquest of al-Andalus") is an anonymous history of

al-Andalus Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the Mus ...

compiled in the second decade of the 11th century and only preserved in a single manuscript, now in the

Bibliothèque Nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national reposito ...

. Parts of it date to the 8th and 9th centuries, and it is the earliest

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

history of al-Andalus, covering the period from the

Arab conquest The spread of Islam spans about 1,400 years. Muslim conquests following Muhammad's death led to the creation of the caliphates, occupying a vast geographical area; conversion to Islam was boosted by Arab Muslim forces conquering vast territories ...

(711) until the reign of the Caliph

Abd ar-Rahman III ʿAbd al-Rahmān ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥakam al-Rabdī ibn Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Dākhil () or ʿAbd al-Rahmān III (890 - 961), was the Umayyad Emir of Córdoba from 912 to 92 ...

(929–61).Emilio González-Ferrín
"Al-Andalus: The First Enlightenment"
''Critical Muslim'', 6 (2013), p. 5. The ''Akhbār majmūʿa'' is sometimes called the "Anonymous of Paris", after the home of its manuscript, or the "Anonymous of Córdoba", after its presumed place of origin.Norman Roth, "The Jews and the Muslim Conquest of Spain", ''Jewish Social Studies'', 38, 2 (1976), pp. 145–58. The ''Akhbār majmūʿa'' records how, during the

Abbasid Revolution The Abbasid Revolution, also called the Movement of the Men of the Black Raiment, was the overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE), the second of the four major Caliphates in early Islamic history, by the third, the Abbasid Caliphate ( ...

, an army of ten thousand under a certain Balj marched to al-Andalus to support the

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...

emir Abd ar-Rahman I. The story appears to be borrowed from the ''Anabasis'' of Xenophon. Likewise, the anonymous compiler borrows elements, such as Roderic's alleged kidnapping of the daughter of

Count Julian Julian, Count of Ceuta ( es, Don Julián, Conde de Ceuta,, ar, يليان, (' , ''Youliān Kont Sabteh''; in Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam, بؙلْيان, ''Bulyan'', the latter is treated by the editor of the Arabic text, Torrey, as a copying error. 'Ab ...

, from other classical sources, namely the ''

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; la, Aenē̆is or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan_War#Sack_of_Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to ...

'' and the ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the '' Odys ...

''. Besides these literary embellishments, the ''Akhbār majmūʿa'' is generally free of legend. The Spanish historian

Ramón Menéndez Pidal Ramón Menéndez Pidal (; 13 March 1869 – 14 November 1968) was a Spanish philologist and historian."Ramon Menendez Pidal", ''Almanac of Famous People'' (2011) ''Biography in Context'', Gale, Detroit He worked extensively on the history of t ...

argued that since the anonymous author was clearly aiming for historical accuracy, he should be generally trusted, even on the doubtful episode of Count Julian's daughter. The ''Akhbār majmūʿa'' makes no mention of

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

in connection with the Arab conquest. Abū Ghālib Tammām ibn ʿAlḳama (died 811) may have been an important source for the section of the ''Akhbār'' called the "Syrian chronicle", which covers the period 741–788.James (2012), pp. 26–27.

Editions

*James, David. ''A History of Early al-Andalus: The Akhbār majmūʿa. A Study of the Unique Arabic Manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, with a Translation, Notes and Comments''. London and New York: Routledge, 2012. *Lafuente y Alcántara, Emilio. ''Ajbar Machmua: Crónica anónima del siglo XI. Dada a luz por primera vez''. Madrid, 1867.

References

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Editions

References

Further reading