Al-Fath ibn Khaqan (al-Andalus)


Abū Naṣr al-Fatḥ ibn Muḥammad ibn Ubayd Allāh ibn Khāqān ibn Abdallah al-Qaysī al-Ishbīlī , known as al-Fath ibn Khaqan, was a popular anthologist of al-Andalus.

Life

Born in Seville, al-Andalus, he received an elite education and travelled widely across al-Andalus. Described as a 'libertine' and yet he was appointed secretary to the Almoravid governor of Granada Abū Yūsuf Tāshfīn ibn ‘Alī; a post he abandoned almost immediately to travel to Morocco in the Maghreb where sometime later he was murdered in his Marrakesh hotel, it was rumoured, on the orders of the sultan.

Works

These two works are written in rhymed prose full of metaphorical expressions and are an excellent source of information about the apogee of Andalusian letters.