The only Almohad court chronicle written from inside the administration, by a chancery secretary who travelled with the caliphs Abd al-Mu'min and Abu Yaqub Yusuf. What survives stops in 1173, a generation short of 1200, but it records how the Almohad state ran its campaigns, its Andalusi governorships (Seville, Cordoba, Granada), its finances and public works, and the ceremonies of the caliphate, and so is the best guide to the institutions al-Nasir inherited. The lost third part would have covered al-Mansur; its loss is why Ibn Idhari and Abd al-Wahid carry the weight for 1200.
About this source
- Title
- al-Mann bi-l-imama
- Author
- Ibn Sahib al-Sala (Abd al-Malik ibn Muhammad al-Baji)
- Author's dates
- born at Beja in Portugal, died after 1198
- Written
- late twelfth century; the surviving part covers 1159 to 1173
- Language
- Arabic
- Covers
- 1159 to 1173 (the surviving second of three parts)
- Kind
- History
Not freely online in any form found in this search. The work survives in a single Oxford manuscript (Bodleian Marsh 433).
Where to read it
Editions
- A. al-Tazi (ed.), al-Mann bi-l-imama (Beirut, 1964; 3rd ed. 1987), Arabic (not freely online)
Translations
- A. Huici Miranda (tr.), Al-Mann bil-imama (Valencia, 1969), Spanish (not freely online)