social organization, and beliefs and use critical judgment
in dealing always with all the versions of the past. As
such, history merits a place in the rearm of philosophy.
While Al-Muqaddimah serves as the introduction to
Kit ̄ab al-‘Ibar, in the six parts that follow Al-Muqad-
dimah he goes on to apply his ideas to the entire history
of humankind. The work is, for the most part, a political
history and is arranged around individuals, dynasties,
rulers, and important events, but also includes striking
refl ections on human association as a dynamic interac-
tion of many motives. Ibn Khald ̄u n’s work stands as a
monument to the history of history itself and remains an
extremely important source of scholarship for the late
medieval Maghrib and Iberia in particular.
Further Reading
Al-Azmeh, Aziz, Ibn Khald ̄u n: A Reinterpretation. London,
1990.
Ibn Khald ̄u n. The Muquaddimah. 2 vols. Trans. Franz Rosenthal.
Princeton, N.J., 1967.
Mahdi, Muhsin. Ibn Khaldu n’s Philosophy of History: A Study
in the Philosophic Foundation of the Science of Culture.
London, 1957.
E. Michael Gerli
IBN QUZM^ AN (ca. 1086-1160) ̄
Ab ̄u Bakr Muhammad ibn ‘Is ̄a ibn ‘Abd al-Malik ibn
Quzm ̄an al-Asghar al-Zajj ̄a l was born in Córdoba, prob-
ably just after the battle of Zall ̄aqah (Sagrajas) in 1086,
and died in 1160. He called himself waz ̄ır (vizir), and his
family had produced several such, as well as other minor
dignitaries, so the title may have been authentic, though
it was a debased coinage by his time. Little else of his
biography is certain, even his legendary ugliness, there
being much confusion in the minds of later medieval as
well as modern literary historians between him and at
least one of his eponymous relatives. Much of what is
commonly said to be descriptive of him and his life is
gained from the internal evidence of his poetry, which
by defi nition is subject to poetic license.
What we do know with certainly is that he had as
patrons some of the more important political fi gures
of Córdoba, Seville, and Granada during the turbulent
years of his lifetime, which more or less coincided with
the fi rst seventy years of Almoravid domination. He was
considered to be an important literary fi gure shortly
after his death, and even gained some renown in the
Arab East, despite the fact that his poetry was written
principally in the dialect of southern al-Andalus and in
a form outside the normal canon of Arabic poetry.
Our sources for Ibn Quzm ̄an’s work consist primarily
of one manuscript of his D ̄ı w ̄a n (collected poems), cop-
ied in Safad (Palestine) a century or so after the poet’s
death. This is known as the “lesser” D ̄ı w ̄a n because the
existence of a more complete one may be inferred from
citations by anthologists and historians, who provide
a number of fragmentary, and a few complete, zajals
as well as Ibn Quzm ̄an’s surviving poems in classical
Arabic, including one muwashsahah.a.
Ibn Quzm ̄a n considered himself to be the master of
an Andalusian poetic form he did not invent, but per-
fected, as he immodestly claims in the prologue to the
St. Petersburg manuscript of his D ̄ı w ̄a n, though he does
express admiration for one predecessor (Ibn Num ̄a ra,
about whom next to nothing is known). The zajal is a
strophic poem apparently derived from the muwashshah.:
the rhyme scheme is similar (mostly ABcccAB or AA
cccAA or AA cccA, the latter differing slightly from
the standard muwashshah. scheme AA(or AB) cccAA(or
AB), but whereas the muwashshah. is not meant to ex-
ceed fi ve to seven strophes, the zajal may do so. The mu-
wasshah. is in classical Arabic, with only the fi nal re-
frain (kharja) in colloquial Arabic, Romance, or a
mixture of both, whereas the zajal is entirely in the
Arabic dialect of Córdoba, with an occasional sprinkling
of pithy Romance words and phrases. The Arabic shows
occasional lapses from the colloquial, probably for
metrical reasons, possibly playing on different registers
or levels of style.
The meter of the zajal, like that of the muwashshah.,
has been the subject of virulent controversy. Most
scholars who have studied Ibn Quzm ̄a n since he came
to light in the late nineteenth century have concluded
that the materical basis of his songs is closely related
to the quantitative rhythmic patterns of classical Arabic
prosody. Another group, composed mostly of Spanish
scholars, argues that the zajal is governed by syllable
count and accent, like old Spanish poetry. Given the
uncertainties involved, it is doubtful that the issue will
ever be proved ole way or the other, certainly not to the
satisfaction of all.
The literary quality of Ibn Quzm ̄an’s zajals has not
been questioned, and if his is not a “voice in the street,”
it is an original and vivid one. Even the long odes to the
talent, good looks, and generosity of his benefactors are
not devoid of local color and vividly expressed feeling;
the occasional poems can be sublime, especially the love
poems such as the famous
Now do I love you, Laleima, little star (zajal 10, I. 1)
or
Strangeness and solitude and violent passion—
Such is my lot: I am the lonely stranger! (zajal 124,
II. 1–2)
Ibn Quzm ̄an’s emotional palette ranges from pathetic,
unrequited love to graphic description of love-making
with a Berber girl. Wine, food, companionship in revelry,
music, and money or (more often) the lack thereof, as
of other refi nements such as elegant clothes, are favoriteIBN QUZM^ AN ̄