The year entries for 595 to 597 of the Hijra (late 1198 to 1201) record the death of Yaqub al-Mansur, the accession of al-Nasir and the opening of Yahya ibn Ghaniya's war in Ifriqiya; the following years follow Yahya and the Ghuzz captain Qaraqush through Tripoli, Gabès and Mahdia to al-Nasir's reconquest in 1206, with the best eastern account of Qaraqush's career. Ibn al-Athir wrote at Mosul from written reports and travellers, and his Maghreb notices are short, sometimes a year out, and detached from the detail of Almohad politics, but they are contemporary and independent of the Marrakesh tradition. He also sets these events beside Ayyubid Egypt, where the same years saw the regency for the boy sultan al-Mansur and al-Adil's takeover.
About this source
- Title
- al-Kamil fi al-tarikh (the entries on the Maghreb and al-Andalus)
- Author
- Ibn al-Athir
- Author's dates
- 1160 to 1233
- Written
- about 1220 to 1231, at Mosul
- Language
- Arabic
- Covers
- the creation to 1231; the Maghreb entries run to the 1220s
- Kind
- Chronicle
Fagnan's volume collects the Maghreb and Andalus passages from Tornberg's text. Richards' English translation is under copyright and not online. Another entry in this library covers Ibn al-Athir for the Latin East and Persia.
Where to read it
Editions
- C. J. Tornberg (ed.), Ibn-el-Athiri Chronicon quod perfectissimum inscribitur, 14 vols (Leiden, 1851 to 1876), Arabic; Beirut reprint 1965 to 1967 (not freely online)
Translations
- E. Fagnan (tr.), Ibn-el-Athir: Annales du Maghreb et de l'Espagne (Algiers, 1898), French: every Maghreb and Andalus passage of the Kamil
- D. S. Richards (tr.), The Chronicle of Ibn al-Athir for the Crusading Period, 3 vols (Aldershot, 2006 to 2008), English, the years 1097 to 1231 (not freely online)