The Intellectuals: Lalla Zaynab and Lalla N’Soumer - Indomitable Sufi Scholars

By Laura Rahme

“Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.”

– Rumi, Persian Sufi mystic.

Sufism in Algeria rose in importance during the 16^th century, under the Ottoman Empire.  One of the most powerful Sufism school of thought in Algeria is the Rahmanya. It emerged between the 12^th and 18^th centuries. It offered spiritual teaching and education, monetary assistance to its adherents, a refuge for the needy, and was instrumental in maintaining community cohesiveness and social integrity.

Lalla Zaynab was an erudite scholar from the Rahmanya order. It was believed that she possessed Baraka – a spiritual force flowing from God, giving her the ability to perform miracles. Born in 1850, this remarkable ascetic who had taken vows of celibacy, proved a veritable force against the schemes of the French colonists.

The Zawiya of El Hamel

Portrait: Lalla Fatma N'Soumer

Lalla Zaynab was the unique child of Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abi al-Qasim who ran the Zawiya (lodge or monastery) of El Hamel. The zawiya played a key role in teaching the Quran, spreading Rahmanya teachings, feeding the poor, providing relief to flood victims and enabling scholars to occupy positions of great importance. Like many zawiyas in the country, which numbered 160000 by 1887, it helped preserve Algerian identity and cultural heritage. By 1890, there were several hundred students and scholars studying at the El Hamel zawiya at any given moment. It was visited by 7000-8000 pilgrims annually.

In addition to Islamic jurisprudence, Quran and Sufi doctrines, students learned chemistry, mathematics, astrology, astronomy and rhetoric. Shaykh Muhammad reminded the community that the pursuit of science was a duty of all Muslims, a belief which harked back to the medieval Islamic era.

While the French authorities were not known to praise Algerian Muslim leaders, Shaykh Muhammad b. Abi al-Qasim was often described as having “great intelligence, vast knowledge, and [being] pure of morals."

Nevertheless, the French were paranoid about any politically active Sufi brotherhood and their threat to the French empire. They closely monitored all Algerian leaders.

the zawiya of el hamel

A Female Scholar at the Head of the El Hamel Zawiya

Lalla Zaynab had lived secluded in the zawiya for years and as her father’s confidant, had a thorough understanding of its day to day operations. Well versed in all manuscripts and books of the zawiya library, she was the natural successor to her powerful father. But the local French authorities would not see this as beneficial. Their low regard for her gender led them to believe that as a woman, she would be more likely influenced by anti-French forces.

The French were keen to have the shaykh’s nephew, Sidi Mohamed, lead the zawiya. He was not only ambitious and of average intelligence, but also most devoted to French interests. On top of that, he spoke French! However, they also noted that unlike the virtuous and pious Zaynab, Sidi did not have the esteem of his local community, who considered him avaricious and attached to the things of life.

This did not deter the French. A few months before the Shaykh’s death, on 10 Mars 1897, Captain Crochard certified that he had received a letter from the Shaykh, confirming that he designated his nephew, Sidi Mohamed, as his successor.

Following the Shaykh’s death on 2 June 1897, Sidi Mohamed was eager to install himself in the shaykh apartments and inherit the immense fortune. No sooner did he arrive than he was met by the defiant Lalla Zaynab who, brandishing an official will drafted in 1887 declared that she was her father’s sole heir and that she did not acknowledge Sidi Mohammed’s moral and spiritual authority.

Lalla Zaynab met opposition from her cousin, who attempted to have her shut in the harem, but the community who loved her rose against him and his supporters. For the locals, while there was initial reticence as to whether Zaynab was the most befitting leader, it was not due to her gender. Instead, the people were anxious to know whether she, too, possessed her father’s Baraka. A voice apparition from the Shaykh declaring that his daughter had inherited his healing and supernatural powers had soon quashed any doubts.

The French Threaten Lalla Zaynab

Lalla Zaynab

Upon Lalla Zaynab’s triumph, Captain Crochard was out of his mind. He wrote, “this woman has destroyed everything I have put in place.” At this juncture, Commandant Fournier alerted the headquarters in Algiers, enquiring whether a military intervention might be needed to topple Lalla Zaynab and ensure Sidi Mohamed was made head of the zawiya in her place.

Eager to adopt more conciliatory measures, especially with a woman, Crochard attempted to speak with Lalla Zaynab in the hope of pressuring her to defer to her cousin, but she insisted that the letter Crochard held was a fake and wanted to hear none of it.

Crochard had run out of ideas. It seemed that only military force could achieve French interests.  

Would Lalla Zaynab and her community be forced to face the French army? And at what cost?

Consider here that the Shaykh’s fortune amounted to 2 500 000 francs which at the time was an enormous sum when in colonial Algiers, a labourer was paid an average of a mere 1.5 franc per day.

It would not be the first time that the French military would take on a zawiya. One had but to reflect on what had happened when they had first invaded Algeria…

The Joan of Arc of Algeria

From the time of the French arrival in Algeria, the zawiyas usually taught its students to struggle against French dominion.

Back in 1830, when confronted with the French invasion, the Ottoman Dey Hussein called upon the Rahmanya Shaykhs around the Kabylia area and Algiers, to defend the land from French colonial rulers.

At the time, the Rahmanya was led by a young Kabyle woman called Lalla N’Soumer. Born in the Djurdjura area of the Atlas Mountains of Algeria, this highly charismatic spiritual leader and scholar was soon to be referred to by the French as the “Joan of Arc of Djurdjura”.

Her real name was Fatma Sid Ahmed and she was known for her great scholarly gifts, wisdom and intelligence. In 1854, at barely 24, she rallied indigenous Kabyle people, leading an insurrection against the French troops, often throwing herself into the fray and combatting alongside the renowned freedom fighter Abd-el-Kader.

Lalla Fatma N'Soumer in battle

In all, Lalla N'Soumer led a formidable Rahmanya resistance against the French, heading an army of men and women and being successful during several battles including on 18 July 1854 when the French suffered heavy casualties. The French, led by Marshall Randon, asked for a cease-fire. But three years later, in 1857, having replenished and fortified their armies, they broke the cease-fire and again launched into battle. This time round Lalla N’Soumer’s armies were not victorious. 

Just as Joan of Arc had suffered a turn of fortune, Lalla N’Soumer was arrested and incarcerated. She died years later in prison at the age of 33. The French soldiers squandered the wealth of her zawiya and completely destroyed her library.

In fact, from the time of their arrival in Algeria, the French colonists had closed many zawiyas, burning books and manuscripts. French historian Alexis de Tocqueville said in 1847, "We dominated the land, changed its function, established charity centers, neglected schools, dispersed the zawiya...ignored religious men and judges of the law. In doing so we made Islamic society more miserable, and more ignorant, than when we first met."

Lalla Zaynab Takes on the French

If Lalla Zaynab was going to take on the French she would have to be more astute than Lalla N’Soumer.

Under pressure from Captain Crochard, Lalla Zaynab quickly understood that she could not survive a military intervention. Instead, and this is where her scholarly genius shone, she was going to fight the French using their own colonial law against them! She announced that she would press charges against Crochard and his superiors.

In August 1897, Lalla Zaynab met Maurice l’Admiral, an Afro-descendant lawyer from Guadeloupe known for his anti-colonial position and she proceeded to raise a case against the French military administration. Lalla Zaynab who spoke no word of French, instinctively understood how to use colonial law by drawing attention to the military administration’s failure to “respect the indigenous populations”. On top of that, she also had the genius idea of going further - she accused the French authorities of misogyny. Touché! French self-righteousness over its ‘better’ treatment of women was instantly placed into question.

Maurice ''Admiral illustration

Once Maurice l’Admiral began his independent judiciary intervention, the state of affairs underwent a transformation. Of particular concern was the bad publicity caused by French poor treatment of Muslim dignitaries. At the time, the French had commenced an international public relations campaign designed to convince Muslims in Morocco, Tunisia and elsewhere of the benefits of French rule. This case was detrimental to the desired image of French tolerance and benevolence.

In October 1897, Jules Cambon, governor general of Algeria was alerted by the authorities and told of Zaynab’s judicial case. Luckily for Lalla Zaynab, Jules was a man of culture, who later was to be elected at the French Academy. He was the first colonist to engage in dialogue with the order leaders and to show interest in Sufism. In no uncertain terms, he told Algiers Commandant Collet-Meygret that they had to renounce all military intervention against the El Hamel Zawiya.

The zawiya was saved.

Lalla Zaynab had used the pen instead of the sword and won.

For the following years the mystical scholar, Lalla Zaynab, ran the zawiya with authority and wisdom. She gave generously to the poor and the needy, continuing her father’s legacy. She was a revered figure for years to come. It is said that in her approach to confronting the French, Lalla Zaynab saw 70 years ahead of her time, what would become crucial to Algerian nationalism.

The Legacy of the Rahmanya

Today the Rahmanya legacy lives on and its teachings are more important than ever.

Established in 1990, the Rahmanya Association for Zawiya Scholarship emphasises spiritual education, efforts to preserve religious unity and avoid extremism and preservation of the Algerian Islamic identity.

Since 2001, an ordinance has asked for collaboration to protect the young from media influence and from religious extremism.

Sources:

Tariqah Rahmania: Its Roots and Prospects, by Kacimi El Hassani and Mohammed Raouf, The Journal of Sophia Asian Studies No. 27 (2009), Sophia University Repository for Academic Resources.

Lalla Fatma N'Soumer, Amazigh World, 20 April 2007, http://www.amazighworld.org/history/index_show.php?id=1828, Accessed on 28 Feb 2016.

À La Tête D’une Grande Zaouïa En 1897 Lalla Zineb, L’insoumise, by Benchenouf Djamaledine, 20 April 2013, http://dzactiviste.info/a-la-tete-dune-grande-zaouia-en-1897-lalla-zineb-linsoumise/, Accessed on 28 Feb 2016.

Struggle and Survival in the Modern Middle East, by Edmund Burke and Nejde Yaghoubian, University of California Press, 2006.

Rebel and Saint - Muslim Notables, Populist Protest, Colonial Encounters (Algeria and Tunisia 1800 – 1904), by Julia A. Clancy-Smith, University of California Press, 1994.

All images from Commons

The Intellectuals: Alfonso X’s Contribution to World Science and Culture

By J. K. Knauss 

Juan Diego portrays
Alfonso X on the
series Toledo

He has a portrait hanging in the US House of Representatives in the Great Lawgivers series. A moon crater bears his name. His name is on the largest unified collection of annotated medieval music. Why do so many fields of inquiry praise the intellectual efforts of Alfonso X, el Sabio? What mark did he leave on the world to make us think he was so learned?

The short answer: his books.

In the General Estoria, we read: “The King makes a book, not because he writes it with his hands, but because he outlines the facts in it, and edits it and makes it right, and shows the way in which it is to be made… Just as we say that the King makes a palace, we don’t say it because he constructs it with his hands, but because he ordered it to be made…” The Book of the Sphere discusses at length the way King Alfonso worked as general editor. He came up with the idea for the book and what it should contain, and then went through it to take out extraneous parts and correct infelicities.

Alfonso X oversaw these projects to give himself access to the best knowledge in order to learn how rule his country more wisely, and a great additional benefit was that the books were created in Castilian and in Latin. They could then be consumed by Alfonso’s Castilian-reading subjects and Europeans farther afield. A wise populace is the beginning of a wise kingdom, and wise foreign friends make for smooth dealings and further the cause of that wise kingdom.

The collaborators made use of the finest sources available. They accurately cite Aristotle, the early Christian saints including Augustine, and eleventh-century philosophers such as Pedro Alfonso and Aelred of Rievaulx, to give the most basic examples. The scope of the intellectual activity has led to many scholarly volumes. Here’s a list of highlights.

The Alphonsus Crater on the Moon. Wikimedia Commons

Astronomy

• Alfonsine Tables

• Picatrix

• Book of Knowledge of Astronomy

• Book of the Forms and Images

• Book of the Fixed Stars

• Book of the Sphere, etc.

(More about Alfonso X’s astronomy on Unusual Historicals inJuly.)

Other Science

Lapidario—A book of erudition about types of stones.

Alfonso X in the US House of Representatives

Law

• The Fuero Real—A pragmatic town charter that was granted to new towns in order to begin regularizing the rule of law throughout Alfonso’s kingdoms.

• Espéculo—Elegant and comprehensive legal theory with practical applications as an afterthought.

• Siete Partidas—A great book of medieval thought that also served as the basis of Spanish law for centuries.

• Specialized books of law—The Book of Gambling Houses, the Book of Frontier Commanders, various ordinances, etc.

History/Wisdom

• Book of Calila and Digna—This charming book is the first work of Castilian prose narrative. Based on ancient Indian texts via Arabic sources, two jackals (or lynxes) tell each other fables to illustrate complex and sometimes conflicting points of wisdom.

• Setenario—Often classed with the legal works, this book obsessed with the number seven is an unfinished compendium of the most secret kinds of knowledge and how to apply them.

• History of Spain—Tells the story of the Iberian Peninsula from the end of the Roman Empire to the beginning of the thirteenth century.

• General History—An astoundingly wide-reaching world history from Biblical times.

Music/Religion

• The Cantigas de Santa Maria—The largest collection of written medieval music in the world. More than 400 praise and miracle songs in Galician Portuguese for the Blessed Virgin with fun melodies and gorgeous illustrations. I attempted to describe how wonderful this collection is in this post. I investigate one exciting cantiga in this post.

Alfonso's sculpture at the National Library in
Madrid emphasizes intellect with books and a scroll.

Pastimes because leisure is important for refreshing the intellect.

• Various cantigas de escarnio e mal dizer—Profane, sometimes grotesque, mostly humorous, and at least one moving account of the weariness of a king in failing health (“Non me posso pagar tanto”).

• Libro de ajedrez, dados e tablas—A comprehensive illustrated compendium of chess strategy for the troubled intellectual. Ways to play dice, backgammon, and other games of chance are not as highly regarded.

Much of this body of work had far-reaching impacts in medieval Europe and modern world. The astronomy inspired and informed Copernicus, and the law works influence decisions even today in the American Southwest.

In order to begin my studies of Alfonso X, I had to vastly broaden my fields of expertise in addition to the strictly literary training I’d had up to that time. Perhaps Alfonso X’s greatest wisdom lay in the voracity with which he pursued all intellectual subjects. It seems there was nothing the Wise King wouldn’t want to investigate and read about further.

Simon R. Doubledays’ biography (The Wise King, New York: Basic Books, 2015) seamlessly weaves the trials and tribulations of Alfonso X’s life and times into the writing of the body of work he left behind. He makes a good case that Alfonso X based his intellectuality on the model of polymath Muslim princes. Indeed, the translators and compilers frequently relied on rescued ancient documents in Arabic. Doubleday’s book is an excellent overview of a fascinating king—I learned a few things I didn’t know before. 

My tribute to Alfonso's contribution to world culture, Our Lady's Troubadour, lets you experience the Cantigas de Santa Maria in a fun new way! 

Jessica Knauss earned her PhD in Medieval Spanish with a dissertation on the portrayal of Alfonso X’s laws in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, which has been published as the five-star-rated Law and Order in Medieval Spain. A driven fiction writer, Jessica Knauss has edited many fine historical novels and is a bilingual freelance editor. Her historical novel, Seven Noble Knights, is available from Encircle Publications in ebook, paperback, and hardcover. Find out more her writing and bookish activities here or here. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter, too!

The Intellectuals: The Start of the Carolingian Renaissance

By Kim Rendfeld

In 780, Frankish King Charles might have been thinking about his realm’s long-term future and wanted to give his empire an intellectual foundation, one to associate Francia with ancient Rome and rival the Byzantines.

At that time, the man we today call Charlemagne had ruled for 12 years and had conquered Aquitaine and Lombardy. Although he was still warring with Saxon tribes, he had gained significant territory. The father of six (with No. 7 on the way) was 32, no longer a young man by medieval standards.

He and his queen, Hildegard, who was from a long-established, powerful family, started a journey to Rome, perhaps with empire-building on their minds, judging by what happened in Rome the following spring.

But first the royal family needed to spend the winter in Pavia. There, Charles might have met Paul the Deacon, a Lombard who wrote Historia Romana and other works and had taught in the overthrown court of Pavia, and Peter of Pisa, a deacon and poet who would later teach the king Latin grammar.

A public domain image from 1830 of Alcuin
presenting a manuscript to Charlemagne

When the Frankish royals resumed their journey in warmer weather, Charles met Alcuin in Parma. Alcuin, a Saxon from Britain, already earned a reputation as master of the cathedral school at York, and Charles invited him to lead the Palace School in Francia. Alcuin agreed, after he got permission from his superior upon his return to York.

In Rome, the pope anointed Charles and Hildegard's three- and four-year-old sons as subkings, and their six-year-old daughter was betrothed to the child emperor of Byzantium. The Frankish king and the pope apparently discussed Charles's uneasy relations with his cousin the duke of Bavaria, resulting in high-level diplomatic talks later.

After Easter, Charles and Hildegard returned to Francia in the company of intelligent men: Peter of Pisa; Paul the Deacon; Paulinus of Aquileia, who would later write about theology and play a role in converting the conquered Avars in the 790s, and Fardulf, a poet who in the 790s exposed a plot to overthrow Charles and was rewarded with the abbey of Saint-Denis.

Charles’s intellectuals would come and go in fulfilling their other roles, and his circle of scholars would expand to include other nationalities such as Theodulf, a Visigoth from Hispania and leading satirist, poet, author, and bishop of Orléans, and Dungal from Ireland. The circle had a few Franks such as Angilbert, Charles's trusted aide, diplomat, poet, lay abbot of Saint-Riquier who would transform the place into a center for learning, and later almost-husband (technically a Friedelmann) of Charles's daughter Bertha.

These thinkers and writers were sometimes rivals who were not above teasing and sniping at each other in their poetry. But thanks to them and others, Francia produced more literary work than before.

Charles's own education level in the 780s is unclear, but it was higher than most of his illiterate countrymen's. Likely, his mother taught him his first lessons, and she hired a churchman to tutor him as he got older. By the end of his life, he could read but not write. He could converse in Latin in addition to his native Frankish and understood Greek better than he could speak it. He enjoyed the liberal arts ranging from literature to math to music and astronomy, studied philosophy, and had his sons and his daughters educated.

He never stopped learning, and in old age, he tried his hand at writing. He didn't need that skill. He had clerks for that as did the rest of the nobility. But this hunger for knowledge might been another reason he recruited intellectuals.

Sources

Einhard’s The Life of Charlemagne translated by Evelyn Scherabon Firchow and Edwin H. Zeydel

Carolingian Chronicles, which includes the Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard’s Histories translated by Bernard Walter Scholz with Barbara Rogers

Daily Life in the World of Charlemagne by Pierre Riché, translated by Jo Ann McNamara

Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance, edited with an introduction by Peter Godman

Kim Rendfeld's third novel, Queen of the Darkest Hour, about Charlemagne's fourth wife, Fastrada, includes the early days of the Palace School. She is also the author of The Cross and the Dragon and The Ashes of Heaven's Pillar. Connect with Kim on Facebook (facebook.com/authorkimrendfeld), Twitter (@kimrendfeld) her blog (kimrendfeld.wordpress.com) or her website (kimrendfeld.com).

The Intellectuals: The life of Ibn al-Khatib (1313-1374)

By Lisa J. Yarde

One of the most celebrated scholars of Muslim Spain in the 14th century, Ibn al-Khatib lived during one of the most tumultuous periods in the country, but died in tragic, obscure circumstances. His life's end meant occurred when his former friends, turned deadly rivals branded as a religious heretic for his beliefs in Sufism or Islamic mysticism. A poet, physician, historian, politician and philosopher, he served two Sultans of Granada, Yusuf I and his son Muhammad V for at least thirty years. Ibn al-Khatib provided intimate knowledge of the last Muslim dynasty to rule Spain, as well as a treatise on the Black Death and his travels through Spain and Morocco. His work became one of the primary sources I relied on in the first four books of the Sultana series, but little remains of his knowledge.

Lisan al-Din ibn al-Khatib came from Loja, southern Spain. Born November 16, 1313, his father, a military man, and his elder brother perished during Sultan Yusuf’s disastrous alliance with the Marinids of Morocco in the Battle of Rio Salado on October 30, 1340. Although the path is unclear, by then Ibn al-Khatib had come to serve among the ministers of Yusuf’s court, then headed by Ibn Ali ibn al-Jayyab, and supported by Ridwan, a Christian convert. An ambitious man, Ibn al-Khatib sought politically advantageous marriages with the relations of his fellow council members, first approaching Ibn Ali ibn al-Jayyab, and then one of the members of the judiciary, Ibn Juzayy. Rebuffed by both powerful and noble families, Ibn al-Khatib settled for a marriage with a woman named Iqbal, who gave him three sons. His service allowed him an intimate awareness of the monarch’s family. When Yusuf’s revered grandmother Fatima died in February 1349, Ibn al-Khatib eulogized her. “… She was Fatima, daughter of Muhammad II. She was the cream of the kingdom, the central pearl of the dynasty, the pride of the harem women, the height of honor and respect, the link that gave the people the protection of the kings and her life was a reminder of the legacy of the royal family.”

Loja's memorial to Ibn al-Khatib, from Wikipedia

The Black Death ravaged Spain in the summer after Fatima’s death. The disease may have claimed thirty to forty percent of the population of Spain before it ran its first course in 1350. Ibn al-Khatib witnessed its effects firsthand and later wrote a treatise on the pestilence in 1374. While religious scholars termed its spread as God’s punishment, Ibn al-Khatib viewed the plague differently and advised its containment. “The existence of contagion is established by experience and by trustworthy reports on transmission by garments, vessels...” showing that as a doctor he understood limited contact with infected persons would slow the Black Death.

Since Ibn Ali ibn al-Jayyab’s death also in 1349 of plague, Ridwan served as the chief minister and Ibn al-Khatib aided him as the secretary of the council of ministers. After Yusuf’s murder on October 19, 1354, Ibn al-Khatib composed the oath of loyalty to his sixteen-year-old son and successor Muhammad. Upon his investiture, the governors of Moorish Spain, and the members of Muhammad’s family, including his brothers, would have sworn the oath, followed by the council and other court dignitaries. Sultan Muhammad relied on Ibn al-Khatib, sending him at the head of an embassy to the Marinid Sultan Abu Inan seeking affirmation of peace between the kingdom of Granada and the Moroccans in 1358.

On August 21, 1359, one hundred conspirators financed by the wealth of Muhammad’s stepmother Maryam, scaled the palace walls and placed her son Ismail on the throne. The propaganda Ibn al-Khatib wrote of Ismail left an unfavorable opinion of him throughout history. “…Fat, effeminate, indolent, and lacking in personal qualities, plaited with silk thread his long hair, which reached down to below his waist.” The chief minister Ridwan and his family also died in the attack. The conspirators imprisoned Ibn al-Khatib, who would later gain his freedom when his sister sent a ransom from their hometown at Loja.

Meanwhile, Muhammad fled Granada with his family. Muhammad arrived at Guadix, where its people allowed the dethroned Sultan into the city and pledged fealty to him. The new Marinid Sultan of Morocco Abu Salim offered Muhammad asylum. While awaiting the offer, Ibn al-Khatib and his family rejoined his master. Together, they crossed over to Morocco. They reached Fez where a grand reception awaited them, along with Abu Salim seated on a throne at one end of the room, while its twin awaited Muhammad at the opposite end. Ibn al-Khatib recited poetry and thanked Abu Salim for his favor.

While in Morocco, Muhammad enlisted the aid of Ibn al-Khatib in writing letters to the monarch’s friend King Pedro of Castile, begging for aid in regaining the throne of Granada. During the exile, Ibn al-Khatib met and formed a friendship with the esteemed Tunisian scholar and judge, Ibn Khaldun. Ibn al-Khatib also traveled across Morocco, but his wife died there. Events in Granada during 1360-1361 soon allowed Muhammad to return to his beloved homeland as his stepmother and her children perished in another palace coup while Pedro realized his support of the usurper would not serve Castile’s interests. Muhammad parted with his family whom he had commended to Ibn al-Khatib’s care. They would later rejoin him in June 1362 as Muhammad’s second reign began. Ibn Khaldun came as well, carrying out a diplomatic mission to Castile on Muhammad’s behalf.

Unfortunately, Ibn al-Khatib suffered under Muhammad’s later rule. Ibn al-Khatib had always protected his relationship with the Nasrid sovereigns; even in his friendship with Ibn Khaldun, Ibn al-Khatib resented Muhammad’s admiration of the Tunisian, which led to Ibn Khaldun’s withdrawal from Moorish Spain and Muhammad’s service within the year after his arrival. His enemies included the high judges Al-Sabti and Al-Nubahi, and one of the newest members of the council, Ibn Zamrak, who likely coveted Ibn al-Khatib’s position as prime minister. Calling Ibn al-Khatib a Sufi heretic who did not follow authorized prayer forms, his enemies hounded him out of Granada in 1371, which he fled with his eldest son. Ibn al-Khatib would die in a Moroccan jail three years later, assassinated by agents from Granada, likely with the knowledge of Muhammad.

Sources

Beyond the Haram: Ibn al-Khatib and Privileged Knowledge of Royal Nasrid Women by Barbara Boloix Gallardo
https://www.academia.edu/12491903/Beyond_the_Haram_Ibn_al-Khatib_and_his_Privileged_Knowledge_of_Royal_Nasrid_Women

Ibn Khaldun: Life and Times by Allen James Fromherz

Islamic Spain 1250 to 1500 by L.P. Harvey

The Great Ruling Family of the Fourteenth Century: Musahara in the Age of Ibn al-Khatib by Joseph Zenka
https://www.academia.edu/9541520/The_Great_Ruling_Family_of_the_Fourteenth_Century_Mu%E1%B9%A3%C4%81hara_in_the_Age_of_Ibn_al-Kha%E1%B9%AD%C4%ABb

Image from Wikipedia. Sections of the article presented above also appear on my website at http://www.lisajyarde.com/p/world-of-sultana-and-sultanas-legacy.html  

Lisa J. Yarde writes fiction inspired by the Middle Ages in Europe. She is the author of two historical novels set in medieval England and Normandy, The Burning Candle, based on the life of one of the first countesses of Leicester and Surrey, Isabel de Vermandois, and On Falcon's Wings, chronicling the star-crossed romance between Norman and Saxon lovers before the Battle of Hastings. Lisa has also written five novels in a six-part series set in Moorish Spain, Sultana, Sultana’s Legacy, Sultana: Two Sisters, Sultana: The Bride Price and Sultana: The Pomegranate Tree, where rivalries and ambitions threaten the fragile bonds between members of a powerful family. Her short story, The Legend Rises, which chronicles the Welsh princess Gwenllian of Gwynedd’s valiant fight against English invaders, is also available.