Al-Fath ibn Khaqan (al-Andalus)

Abū Naṣr al-Fatḥ ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Khāqān ibn Abdallah al-Qaysī al-Ishbīlī^[1] (أبو نصر الفتح بن محمد بن عبيد الله بن خاقان بن عبد الله القيسي الإشبيلي; died 11 November 1134), known as al-Fatḥ ibn Khāqān, was a 12th-century popular anthologist of al-Andalus.

Al-Fatḥ ibn Khāqān al-Ishbīlī al-Andalusī
Died	11 November 1134 Marrakesh, Morocco
Cause of death	assassination
Other names	Al-Fatḥ ibn Muḥammad ibn ‘Ubayd Allāh ibn Khāqān, Abū Naṣr al-Qaysī al-Ishbīlī
Academic work
Era	Almoravid era
Main interests	anthologist of poetry and history
Notable works	Maṭmaḥ al-anfus wa-masraḥ al-taʼannus fī mulaḥ ahl al-Andalus; Qalā'id al-'Iqyān

Life

Ibn Khāqān was born in either Alcalá la Real or Seville.^[2] 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 Marrakesh where sometime later he was murdered, it was rumoured, on the orders of the sultan.^[3] He died on 11 November 1134.^[2]

The main sources for his biography are:

• Ibn Khallikan – Wafayāt al-A’yān wa-Anbā’ Abnā’ al-Zamān (tr. Obituaries of Eminent Men}^[4]
• Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Diyha al-Kalbī – Al-Mutrib fī Ash’ār Ahl il-Mughrib^[5]
• Al-Ṣafadī – Al-Wāfī bi-'l-wafayāt

Works

• Qalā'id al-'Iqyān (قلائد العقيان) ‘Collars of Gold’ or 'Necklace of Rubies'; akhbar (traditions) of poets of the Maghreb and al-Andalus, who were his contemporaries with examples of their poems.^[6][7]
• Maṭmaḥ al-anfus wa-masraḥ al-taʼannus fī mulaḥ ahl al-Andalus (مطمح الأنفس ومسرح التأنس في ملح أهل الأندلس) (Kābir, Wāsiṭ, Saghīr  – Large, Medium, Small) 'The Aspiration of the Souls and the Theater of Congeniality in the Anecdotes of the People of al-Andalus';^[8] History of the ministers, scribes and poets of al-Andalus.

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.