Ibn
al-Khatib's story did end, unexpectedly and tragically as I mentioned
in The Heretic, one of
the stories within the anthology We All Fall Down.
The cause can be found within that partly fictionalized account of
his life during the plague.
In my previous post, I mentioned Ibn Khatima, who had documented the
arrival of the Black Death in his home of Almería during the summer
of 1438. He also wrote a treatise on the subject. Ibn al-Khatib also
did the same, which he concluded in 1362. Within his
observations, he indicated, “The existence of contagion is
established by experience [and] by trustworthy reports on
transmission by garments, vessels, ear-rings; by the spread of it by
persons from one house, by infection of a healthy sea-port by an
arrival from an infected land [and] by the immunity of isolated
individuals.” This was the basis for his theory of contagion; the
idea that persons could spread the disease to each other by their
actions.
But
the following line may have led to his brutal demise many years later,
because he also wrote contradicting Muslim traditions as passed down
by Prophet Muhammad regarding plague. “…A proof taken from the
traditions has to undergo modification when in manifest contradiction
with the evidence of the perception of the senses.” This line alone
would have damned him in the view of the Islamic clerics and jurists
who deemed the words of the Prophet as irrefutable.
Would
Ibn al-Khatib have dared question any precept of his religion if he
had not thought himself untouchable? He certainly had reason to
believe no one could rival him.
Ibn
al-Khatib ascends to the pinnacle of power, but the Black Death
intrudes
After
the death of his mentor, foster father and former tutor Ibn
al-Jayyab, Ibn al-Khatib attained all the honors that man had held.
Within Islamic Spain, the viziers who served the monarchs possessed
power superseded only by the sovereigns. Ibn al-Khatib became the
vizier or chief minister of the Nasrid Dynasty’s Sultan Yusuf I in
January 1349 and would hold the position into the reign of Yusuf’s
eldest son and successor, Muhammad V.
Among
his responsibilities, Ibn al-Khatib oversaw the completion of the new
religious school at the capital of Granada in April 1439. Some weeks
earlier, he had received the great honor of composing an elegy to the
family matriarch, Yusuf’s grandmother Fatima when she died in her
nineties. During the autumn of the same year, the plague ravaged
Morocco and claimed Ibn al-Khatib’s mother at Taza. However he
might have felt about the loss, his responsibilities remained. He
kept up correspondence with foreign potentates and dignitaries,
writing to the Sultan of Morocco Abu Inan, requesting military
assistance against the Nasrids foes in Castile on March 13, 1350.
Fifteen months later he served as an ambassador to the Moroccan court,
departing and returning in July 1351.
The
assassination of Yusuf I occurred on October 19, 1354, cutting short
the life of the ruler whom Ibn al-Khatib had served for 21 years. The
enthronement of Yusuf’s firstborn as Muhammad V at the age of 16
allowed Ibn al-Khatib to exercise influence over the youngster’s
policies and understanding of government. Alongside his fellow
ministers, the courtiers, and nobles, Ibn al-Khatib publicly swore his
oath of allegiance to his new master on November 9 and also secured
the appointment of the Moroccan garrison commander. A month later, he
visited Sultan Abu Inan at Fez, arriving to great pomp and an
audience on December 14.
There
he had an opportunity to meet with a man of similar age who would
become a good companion and later, a rival. Ibn Khaldun’s family
hailed from Yemen and like Ibn al-Khatib, he held a prestigious
position among the Moroccan ministers, serving as Abu Inan’s
private secretary. Ibn al-Khatib and Ibn Khaldun established and
maintained a friendship after the former returned to Granada on
January 30, 1355.
Ibn
al-Khatib dabbles in Sufi mysticism and life becomes precarious
According
to his enemies, Ibn al-Khatib made another misstep that put him on
the path to charges of heresy. On May 1, 1356, he and his three sons
arrived at a Sufi lodge outside Granada. Sufism is defined as Islamic
mysticism, characterized in Ibn al-Khatib’s time by asceticism and
rejection of the worldliness of Muslim regions. The orthodox, Maliki
school of Sharia law held sway over Islamic Spain and saw Sufism as a
direct threat. For his adherence to Sufi doctrine, the majority of
Ibn al-Khatib’s writings went up in flames just before his death.
The
monarchs of Granada’s Nasrid dynasty had known for several
generations since the time of Muhammad V’s great-great-grandfather
Muhammad II that at any moment, their fortunes could change. Ibn
al-Khatib’s young master soon learned this lesson. During the month
of holy fasting on August 21, 1359, over 100 conspirators scaled the
walls. At night, they drove Muhammad V from Alhambra Palace,
alongside his mother and toddler son, before installing Muhammad’s
younger brother Ismail as the new sovereign.
The
conspiracy between Muhammad's stepmother and his cousin /
brother-in-law jeopardized Ibn al-Khatib, too. Dragged from his
house, he endured his first bout of torture and imprisonment. A
sister of his in their birthplace of Loja offered to pay a hefty
ransom. But without the intercession of Moroccan Sultan Abu Inan’s
son, Abu Salim, Ibn al-Khatib might have remained locked away
forever. He rejoined his young master at Guadix and together with
their families, they departed for Morocco. The exiles arrived at Fez
on November 28.
Ibn
al-Khatib travels preceded the return of the Black Death
Two
and a half years followed, during which Ibn al-Khatib saw much of his
new host country. While he served Sultan Muhammad diligently, writing
letters on his behalf to the king of Castile who favored the
legitimate ruler, Ibn al-Khatib earned a living at the behest of the
Moroccan ruler. On March 11, 1360, he gave permission for the Nasrid
minister to tour the kingdom. Ibn al-Khatib visited the Atlas
Mountains that month and then went on to Marrakesh. The port of Salé
seems to have suited him well, for he settled there in May and wrote
a history of the Nasrid dynasty, poetry, and his plague treatise.
The
Black Death returned later that year and might have cast its long
shadow again. In The Heretic, I’ve speculated about the next
victim it claimed, one whom Ibn al-Khatib held dear. His wife Iqbal
died suddenly on September 7, 1361. I’ve found no indication of the
cause for her demise, but given the prevalence of the disease from
1360 to 1364 in the region, plague seemed a possibility to me.
Although
widowed with three sons, Ibn al-Khatib would have had little time for
grief. Muhammad V gave him direct charge of his household, the
mother, wife, and children he had left behind before returning to
Spain in the quest for the throne. Ibn al-Khatib would have secured
the Nasrid royal family from upheaval, as their Moroccan hosts fell
at the command of a local minister, who placed three rulers upon the
throne at Fez during the Nasrid exile.
Ibn
al-Khatib’s return to Spain
On
April 20, 1362, Muhammad wrote to Ibn al-Khatib with instructions to
bring the royal family home to Granada. They departed on May 18 and
arrived at Alhambra Palace on June 15. Ten days later, Ibn al-Khatib
again ascended to the highest office in the land. With the power of
his pen, he saw to the appointments of two men, Al-Bunnahi as the
chief judge of Granada and Ibn al-Khatib’s young apprentice within
the council of ministers, Ibn Zamrak, both in October 1362. Ibn
al-Khatib would soon come to regret those choices.
Jubilant,
he completed his treatise on the Black Death before celebrating the
arrival of his friend from Morocco, Ibn Khaldun, along with the
observation of the Prophet’s birthday at a great feast. But he
also engaged in intrigue, seeing to the removal of the Moroccan
garrison commander whom he had appointed in November 1354 from
Almuñécar and the exile of the man and his entire family back
to North Africa. The reason for a rivalry between the two men is
unclear. Even Ibn Khaldun seemed a threat to Ibn al-Khatib and at his
suggestion, Muhammad V sent Ibn Khaldun on a diplomatic mission to
the kingdom of Castile, in February 1365.
The
next four years indicated that Ibn al-Khatib spent much time devoted
to his duties, but somehow, he had run afoul of the chief judge
Al-Bunnahi and even Muhammad V. Was it because of the plague
treatise, or the indulgence in Sufism, or something else history has
not recorded? Regardless of the reasons, Ibn al-Khatib may not have
had much time to reflect on them. Muhammad V had enjoyed friendly
relations with King Pedro of Castile, but that all changed when the
king’s bastard brother, the count of Trastamara called Enrique,
murdered Pedro and took the crown. His line would eventually sire the
first Queen Isabella of Spain. The Nasrid dynasty went to war
with Castile once more, but soon, Ibn al-Khatib found himself
embroiled in conflict with his master Muhammad.
 |
| Outskirts of Bab al-Mahruq cemetery, Fez, Morocco |
Ibn
al-Khatib’s story comes to a tragic end
Aggrieved
by growing accusations of heresy and malfeasance against him, Ibn
al-Khatib then lived in fear of his life. On December 10, 1370, with
his youngest son Ali, he fled the kingdom of Granada forever. He
sailed for the court of yet another Moroccan ruler, but not before
writing Muhammad V a terse letter in which he laid bare all of his
grievances against those whom he saw as conspirators against him. Had
his former master threatened his life, too?
Ibn
al-Khatib still had friends. The Moroccan sovereign welcomed him to
court in February 1371 and even Ibn Khaldun forgave his old friend’s
jealousy and pleaded with Muhammad V to send Ibn al-Khatib’s
movable property and family across the sea, in a letter dated April
18, 1371. The rest of the family did arrive on the North African
shore eight months later. But for Ibn al-Khatib, the worse remained.
In
November 1371, the chief judge of Granada Al-Bunnahi condemned Ibn
al-Khatib as a Sufi heretic and disbeliever. The judgment could not
have come without the assent of Muhammad V. That month, Ibn
al-Khatib’s manuscripts written on philosophy and Sufi mysticism
became ashes among the pyres of Granada's central square. By the
following summer, Muhammad V demanded his extradition from Morocco
and received its ruler’s refusal, but at the start of fall that
year, that same sovereign died. In November 1372, Ibn Khaldun spent
some time with his beleaguered companion. Perhaps the last occasion
in which the old friends would see each other alive.
The
new Moroccan Sultan Abu al-Abbas Ahmad came to the throne in
September 1373. He established good relations with Muhammad V of
Granada and depended on him militarily. Their alliance sealed Ibn
al-Khatib’s fate. In June 1374, he suffered arrest and imprisonment
again. He sought help from other North African rulers, but to no
avail. Two months later, men working on behalf of his enemies,
Al-Bunnahi and Ibn Zamrak, whose career he had nurtured, entered Ibn
al-Khatib’s cell where he awaited trial. They strangled him at the age of nearly 61. Dumped
into an unmarked grave at first, his remains became disinterred and
burnt to ashes, like so many of his manuscripts. Sometime afterward
the ashes went into a grave at the Bab al-Mahruq cemetery in Fez.
So
ended the life and story of Ibn al-Khatib, who once rose to the
heights of power, only to have charges of heresy bring about his
demise.
 |
| Ibn al-Khatib's monument at Loja |
Read
a fictionalized account of his years during the Black Death in We
All Fall Down, available now.
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