''Rawḍ al-Qirṭās'' () short for ''Kitāb al-ānīs al-muṭrib bi-rawḍ al-qirṭās fī ākhbār mulūk al-maghrab wa tārīkh madīnah Fās'' ('', The Entertaining Companion Book in the Gardens of Pages from the Chronicle of the Kings of the Maghreb and the History of the City of
Fes'')
is a book that describes the rulers of the Maghreb, and a local history of the city of Fez.
The work is usually known by its short title ''Rawd al-Qirtas'' meaning ''The Gardens of Pages''. It is said that this has a double meaning in that there was a public garden in
Fes called The Garden of al-Qirtas, the latter name being a nickname of
Ziri ibn Atiyya.
[See introduction by Huici Miranda to the Spanish translation]
In the days before printing, this popularity led to a large number of variant manuscripts. A consequence of this is some uncertainty about the author, who is given in some versions as
Ibn Abi Zar of
Fes, and by some as
Salih ibn Abd al-Halim of
Granada
Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...
. The consensus of modern opinion is that the original author is
Ibn Abi Zar as stated by
Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldun (27 May 1332 – 17 March 1406, 732–808 Hijri year, AH) was an Arabs, Arab Islamic scholar, historian, philosopher and sociologist. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest social scientists of the Middle Ages, and cons ...
, and that Abd al-Halim is merely a summarizer at best. The double meaning of the title, the detailed history of
Fes and numerous mistakes in the geography of
Iberia
The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, compri ...
, are cited as evidence that the author was a native of
Fes.
The scope of the history is from the advent of
Idris I in 788 to the
Marinid Dynasty
The Marinid dynasty ( ) was a Berbers, Berber Muslim dynasty that controlled present-day Morocco from the mid-13th to the 15th century and intermittently controlled other parts of North Africa (Algeria and Tunisia) and of the southern Iberian P ...
up to 1326. The work falls into four sections, each ending in a summary list of the events in each period:
*The
Idrisid and
Maghrawa
The Maghrawa or Meghrawa () were a large Berber tribal confederation in North Africa. They are the largest branch of the Zenata confederation. Their traditional territories around the time of Muslim expansion into the Maghreb in the 7th century ...
kings
*The
Almoravids
*The
Almohad
The Almohad Caliphate (; or or from ) or Almohad Empire was a North African Berber Muslim empire founded in the 12th century. At its height, it controlled much of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus) and North Africa (the Maghreb).
The Almohad ...
s
*The
Marinid
The Marinid dynasty ( ) was a Berber Muslim dynasty that controlled present-day Morocco from the mid-13th to the 15th century and intermittently controlled other parts of North Africa (Algeria and Tunisia) and of the southern Iberian Peninsula ...
s
Modern researchers consider that the first and last sections contain a valuable record of their respective periods, even if not completely free from errors. On the other hand, the sections on the
Almoravids and
Almohad
The Almohad Caliphate (; or or from ) or Almohad Empire was a North African Berber Muslim empire founded in the 12th century. At its height, it controlled much of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus) and North Africa (the Maghreb).
The Almohad ...
s are considered to be riddled with chronological and factual errors and omissions and make this work one of the least trustworthy sources for those periods.
A critical version of the Arabic text, utilizing all the manuscript versions then available, was published by Tornberg in 1843, and this is generally used as a basis for modern Arabic versions. Tornberg also gave a Latin translation. A French translation was published in 1860 by Beaumier but is based on fewer manuscripts and is considered faulty by modern standards.
The second (1964) edition of Huici Miranda's Spanish translation is heavily annotated and is considered authoritative.
Notes
References
*French translation: A. Beaumier, ''Rawd al Kirtas. Histoire des Souverains du Maghreb et Annales de la Ville de Fes''. Editions La Porte, Rabat, 1999.
*Spanish Translation: A. Huici Miranda, ''Rawd el-Qirtas''. 2nd edition, Anubar Ediciones, Valencia, 1964. Vol. 1 , vol. 2 .
[
]
*English translation of sections on the
Almoravids:
N. Levtzion & J.F.P. Hopkins, ''Corpus of early Arabic sources for West African history'', Cambridge University Press, 1981, (reprint: Markus Wiener, Princeton, 2000, ).
External links
Maroc-Hebdo interview (in French) with Tayeb Habi, a recent publisher of Beamier's French translation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rawd Al-Qirtas
Medieval history of Morocco
Medieval history of Algeria
History books about Morocco
1320s books
History books about Algeria
History books about Spain
14th-century Arabic-language books
Literature of the Marinid Sultanate