World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies

Barcelona, July 19th - 24th 2010

· NOT_DEFINED date: TUE 20, 9-11 am

· NOT_DEFINED language: English

· NOT_DEFINED description:
Paper presenter: Arie Schippers (Ass. Professor, Dept of Arabic University of Amsterdam), ''Jews and Christians in the Dhakhira by Ibn Bassam of Santarem (d. 1147)''
The twelfth-century poetry anthology by Ibn Bassam reflects the poetic production and rivalry of the Muslim courts in al-Andalus in its different regions. Besides poetry and information on poets of the period of the Party Kings or reyes de Taifas we find also references to many historical facts of battles between Muslims and Christians and between the Muslims Kings themselves. We find also reports on viziers at Muslim courts such as the Jewish vizier Ibn Naghrilah or reports on the battle of al-Zallaqah (1086) between Muslims and Christians. From his Introduction we know that Ibn Bassam had suffered from the Christians who expelled him from his hometown. In this paper we wil deal with Ibn Bassam''s personal feelings with respect to Christians and Jews and we will analyse his comments about events connected with them in the light of our historical knowledge.