Natījat al-ijtihād fī al-muhādanah wa-al-jihād نتيجة الاجتهاد في المهادنة والجهاد Ghazzāl, Aḥmad ibn al-Mahdī غزال، أحمد بن المهدي

Content

First-person travel narrative by Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn al-Mahdī al-Ghazzāl al-Fāsī al-Andalusī al-Mālaqī (أبو العباس أحمد بن المهدي الغزال الفاسي الأندلسي المالقي, d. 1777), ambassador and secretary under the ʿAlawī sultan Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh (Muḥammad III; محمد بن عبد الله, reg. 1757-90). While the present volume is undated, the benedictory phrase employed towards the author in the opening (see f. 2v, line 6) suggests that he may have still been alive at the time of copying.

Al-Ghazzāl describes his diplomatic mission to the court of Charles III of Spain (reg. 1759-88) in 1179-80/1766-67. He was charged with negotiating the release of Maghribī enslaved peoples in Spain, the retrieval of Arabic manuscripts from Spanish collections, and the promotion of warmer relations between the two kingdoms. In the course of the visit, the ambassador and his entourage visited 64 locations (enumerated in a contents table on ff. 1v-2r) including Seville, Cordoba, Madrid, El Escorial, and Granada. The narrative contains a wealth of geographical, historical and political detail and sociological observation, some relating to the author's impressions of Spain's Islamic past.

Begins (f. 2v, lines 2-9):

نتيجة الاجتهاد في المهادنة والجهاد تأليف

وزير الدولة المحمدية الإسماعلية المؤيدة با

لله وكاتب أوامرها المطاعة بالله سيدي أحمد

بن مهدي الغزالي الفاسي الدار الأندلوسي النسبة

الحميري والنجار ختم الله له بالحسنى وجعله من أهل المقام

الحمد لله الذي فرض الجهاد وسنه واشتري

به من المؤمنين أنفسهم وأموالهم بأن لهم الجنة نحمده

سبحانه وتعالى حمد من جاهد في الله حق جهاده...

Ends (f. 120v, lines 13-16):

... وقد

وعدهم أيده الله بذلك ولم تزل رسائلهم تتردد على حضرته العالية مستشفعين

بسيد الشفعاء له في إنقاذهم مما هم فيه من الأسر ولم يكن أعزه الله بغافل عنهم والأ

شياء موقوفة إلى أجلها ولكل أجل كتاب

Extent and format

Codex A collection of pages, usually gathered into quires, and bound between covers. ; ff. v+120+v

Physical characteristics

Material: Western laid paper

Dimensions: 217 x 161mm leaf [150 x 108mm written]

Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil; Eastern Arabic foliation in ink

Ruling: Misṭarah ; 17 lines per page; vertical spacing 11 lines per 10 cm

Script: Maghribī

Ink: Black ink, with rubricated headings and some titles in blue

Decoration: None

Binding: Dark brown leather binding with pentagon flap, bearing small çintamani stamps and lobed corner pieces and central mandorla of an intricate foliate design, on light-brown leather, all within a blind-tooled frame; doublures of marbled paper

Condition: Good; some small stains; binding repaired with paper; shadow of envelope flap on first unnumbered flyleaf

Marginalia: None except ff. 2r-3r

Seals: British Museum stamps: ff. 10r, 23r, 38r, 55r, 66r, 83r, 95r, 104r and 120v

Written in

Arabic in Arabic script

Type

Manuscript

Access & Reference

Original held at

British Library: Oriental Manuscripts

Access conditions

Unrestricted

Archive reference

Add MS 9596

History of this record

Date(s)

1767-1777 (CE, Gregorian)

Related material

Copies

Editions:

• al-Ghazzāl, Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Mahdī, Natījat al-ijtihād fī al-muhādana wa-l-jihād , edited by Ismāʿīl al-ʿArabī (Bayrūt, Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1980; 2nd ed.: 2012)
• al-Ghazzāl, Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Mahdī, Consecuencias del esfuerzo en la paz y en la guerra, por el famoso literato de la corte imperial marroquí y enviado especial del sultán de Marruecos Mohammed ben Abdel-lah a Carlos III Rey de España, Abul-Abbas Ahmed Ben El Mehdi Algazzal, 1179 H.-1776 J.S. , edited by A. Bustani (Larache: Artes Gráficas Boscá, 1941)

Translation:

• al-Ghazzāl, Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Mahdī, The Fruits of the Struggle in Diplomacy and War: Moroccan Ambassador al-Ghazzal and His Diplomatic Retinue in Eighteenth-Century Andalusia , edited by T. Landry and trans. A. al-Ruwaishan (Lanham: Bucknell University Press, 2016)

Studies:

• Arribas Palau, M., 'Algunos datos sobre el viaje por España del embajador marroquí Ahmad al-Gazzal (1766)', in Actas de las II Jornadas de Cultura Árabe e Islámica (1980), (Madrid: Instituto Árabe de Cultura, 1985), pp. 41–63
• Domínguez Ortiz, A. 'Un embajador marroquí en Sevilla. Estancia de Sidi Ahmed-el-Gazel en 1766, con una nota sobre la construcción del alcázar sevillano', Archivo Hispalense , 14 (1951), pp. 49–56
• García Figueras, T., 'Nueva relación de la embajada que mandó el emperador de Marruecos al Rey Católico y del viaje que hizo el Embajador Sidi Hamed El Gazel y grandeza con que lo tiene recibido en sus dominions y toda su comitiva, desde que se embarcó en Ceuta hasta entrar en la Corte de Madrid', Mauritania , 13 (1940): 416–17
• Martín-Corrales, E., Muslims in Spain, 1492–​1814: Living and Negotiating in the Land of the Infidel (Leiden: Brill, 2021), esp. pp. 218-25
• Rodríguez Casado, V., 'La embajada de Sidi Ahmet el Gazel', in La política marroquí de Carlos III (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1946), pp. 67–93 and 105–12

Finding aids

Cureton, William and Charles Rieu, Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum orientalium qui in Museo Britannico asservantur. Pars secunda, codices arabicos amplectens (London: The British Museum, 1846-71), Item 387, p. 186

Subjects

Geography--Early works to 1800Europe--Description and travel--Early works to 1800

People & organisations

Aḥmad ibn al-Mahdī Ghazzāl

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Natījat al-ijtihād fī al-muhādanah wa-al-jihād نتيجة الاجتهاد في المهادنة والجهاد Ghazzāl, Aḥmad ibn al-Mahdī غزال، أحمد بن المهدي, British Library: Oriental Manuscripts, Add MS 9596, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100110631601.0x000001> [accessed 5 December 2024]

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