The History of Ibn Ḥabīb: al-Andalus in the Last Days

Abstract

The Andalusi scholar ʿAbd al-Malik b. Ḥabīb (d. 853) was remembered as a legal scholar whose judgements were cited until recent times, but he was active in several other fields. A work of universal history, the History (Kitāb al-ta’rīkh), surviving in a single thirteenth-century copy, was attributed to him. Beginning before creation, it covers the prophets and early caliphs before focusing on the conquest of Spain, ending with a brief account of the rise of Umayyads and a prediction of their downfall. Ibn Ḥabīb was also responsible for introducing into al-Andalus the practice of collecting and commenting on ḥadīth – sayings attributed to the prophet Muḥammad and his followers. Ibn Ḥabīb himself became a noted authority on ḥadīth and used them extensively in the History. Many relate to incidents in the life of king Solomon that are implied but not explained in the Qur’an, which were woven in with stories of his supposed activities in Spain. The text also introduces into the narrative ḥadīth from Egypt and elsewhere about the Last Days, adapted to the Umayyad realm at a period of instability. This paper argues that these apocalyptic ḥadīth are a key to understanding the History’s representation of al-Andalus in the ninth century.