Ibn Juzayy
ابن جزيDefinition
The Andalusian scholar Ibn Juzayy al-Kalbi, commissioned by the Marinid sultan of Morocco to record Ibn Battuta's travels in polished literary Arabic. Ibn Battuta dictated his account orally — from memory, decades after many of the events he described — and Ibn Juzayy shaped the raw material into the literary Rihla, adding poetic quotations, geographical notes from other sources, and stylistic embellishments that reflect the collaborative nature of medieval Arabic literary production. This collaboration raises questions about authenticity that scholars continue to debate, but it also explains why the Rihla reads as polished literature rather than rough notes — the final product is the joint achievement of the traveller who witnessed and the scholar who wrote.
As understood in the classical tradition of Ibn Battuta and the scholars of his school.
How the scholars use Ibn Juzayy.
-
"Thus, the people of Basra persistently draw inadequate water for their homes, and it is said that their water is brackish. Ibn Juzayy noted that because of this, the air of Basra is unpleasant, and its people's complexions are pale and dull, to the point where they became a proverb. A poet composed upon presenting an orange to a patron, To Allah an orange has come between us, expressing the state of a sorrowful one, when Allah adorned with garments of wasting the dwellers of love and those of Basra. I then sailed from the shores of Basra in a small boat, known as a Sambouk, to Al-Ubula, which lies ten miles away in"
— Ibn Battuta, Volume One: From Tangier to the Lands of the East
-
"commits an act warranting his escape, his image is dispatched to various regions to capture him wherever his likeness is found. Ibn Juzayy described a similar instance from history, recounting the tale of Shapur II, the Persian king, who once entered Roman territories in disguise and attended a banquet held by their king."
— Ibn Battuta, Volume Two: From India to the Lands of the West
Appears in
1 book in the library
Hear the term in context.
Every book above uses Ibn Juzayy the way the classical scholars meant it. Listen with the full Study Kit in the app.