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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | An Andalusian in Mali |
Author: | Hunwick, John O. |
Year: | 1990 |
Periodical: | Paideuma |
Volume: | 36 |
Pages: | 59-66 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | West Africa |
Subjects: | Mali polity biographies (form) History and Exploration |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/40732660 |
Abstract: | Almost every book which deals with the history of Mali makes mention of Abeu Is.h¯aq al-S¯a.hil¯i, the Andalusian poet turned architect who accompanied Mansa Musa back to Mali after his pilgrimage to Mecca of 1324. The interest which has hitherto been focused on al-S¯a.hil¯i's achievements as an architect, has tended to obscure the fact that he was, first and foremost, a man of letters with a primary training in Islamic law. He was the product of an urban milieu in Andalusia who grew up during the high period of the Na.srid dynasty when poetry, belles-lettres and the fine arts were cultivated to a high degree of sophistication. Within this society he acquired a considerable reputation as a poet and had made some contributions to Islamic jurisprudence. This paper gives a fuller account of al-S¯a.hil¯i's life, both in the Andalusian and the Malian contexts, and reassesses his cultural and political role in Mali in the second quarter of the fourteenth century. Bibliogr., notes. |