Ibn Bassām or Ibn Bassām al-Shantarīnī (; 1058-1147) was an Arab-Andalusian poet and historian from

al-Andalus Al-Andalus () was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The name refers to the different Muslim states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most o ...

. He was born in Santarém (sometimes spelled Shantarin or Xantarin) and hailed from the

Banu Taghlib The Banu Taghlib (), also known as Taghlib ibn Wa'il, were an Arab tribe that originated in Jazira. Their parent tribe was the Rabi'a, and they thus traced their descent to the Adnanites. The Taghlib were among the most powerful and cohesive no ...

tribe. He died in 1147. Ibn Bassam describes how the incessant invasions of the Christians forced him to run away from Santarém in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

, "the last of the cities of the west," after seeing his lands ravaged and his wealth destroyed, a ruined man with no possessions save his battered sword. Especially well known is his anthology (The Treasury concerning the Merits of the People of Iberia), an important source relating to the

Almoravid The Almoravid dynasty () was a Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco. It established an empire that stretched over the western Maghreb and Al-Andalus, starting in the 1050s and lasting until its fall to the Almo ...

dynasty. In an article about the poet in this work, Ibn Bassam describes the invention of the '' muwaššaḥ'',García Gómez, Emilio. 1952. “Veinticuatro jarŷas romances en muwaššaḥs árabes (ms. G. S. Colin).” ''Al-Andalus'' 17 (1): 57–127. ascribing the invention to the 10th century blind poet Muhammad Mahmud al-Qabri or Ibn ‘Abd Rabbih.

Editions and translations

* ʼAbī ʼal-Ḥasan ʻAlī ibn Bassām ʼal-Shantarīnī, ''ʼal-Dhakhīrah fī maḥāsin ahl ʼal-Jazīrah'', ed. by Iḥsān ʻAbbās, 4 vols in 8 (Bayrūt: Dār ʼal-Thaqāfah, 1978–81), https://al-maktaba.org/book/1035, https://archive.org/details/zakhera_mahasen_jazeera * 'Ibn Bassām, from ''Al-dhakhīra fī maḥāsin ahl al-Jazīra translation, trans. by Ross Brann, in ''Medieval Iberia'', ed. by Remie Constable, 2nd edn (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), pp. 125–27.

References

* 1058 births 1147 deaths 11th-century Arabic-language poets 12th-century Arabic-language poets Poets from al-Andalus Bassam Bassam People from Santarém, Portugal {{Al-Andalus-historian-stub