Ibn Bassām or Ibn Bassām al-Shantarinī (; 1058-1147) was an

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or w ...

and historian from

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 M ...

. He was born in Santarém (sometimes spelled Shantarin or Xantarin) and hailed from the Banu Taghlib tribe. He died in 1147. Ibn Bassam describes how the incessant invasions of the Castillans forced him to run away from Santarém in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...

, "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) one of the most important sources of information in the field of history, literature and culture of the

Almoravid The Almoravid dynasty ( ar, المرابطون, translit=Al-Murābiṭūn, lit=those from the ribats) was an imperial Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco. It established an empire in the 11th century tha ...

dynasty. It was edited in eight volumes by Ihsan Abbas, written in rhymed prose, many of its biographies are contemporary and filled out with details taken from the Kitab al-Matin of

Ibn Hayyan Abū Marwān Ḥayyān ibn Khalaf ibn Ḥusayn ibn Ḥayyān al-Qurṭubī () (987–1075), usually known as Ibn Hayyan, was a Muslim historian from Al-Andalus. Born at Córdoba, his father was an important official at the court of the Andalusi ...

.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). The parts taken from that book are easily distinguishable, because Ibn Bassam prefixes the words ''qala Ibn Hayyan'' ("Ibn Hayyan says") and concludes the extract with ''intaha kalam Ibn Hayyan'' ("here ends lbn Hayyan's words").

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 poets 12th-century Arabic poets Poets of Al-Andalus

Bassam Bassam is an Arabic name and a given name roughly meaning "one who smiles". More accurately, it is the Arabic name "Basem" (often incorrectly written in English as Bassem) that translates to "one who smiles". Basem is the agent noun of the Arabic ve ...

People from Santarém, Portugal {{Al-Andalus-historian-stub