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Title: | The contact with the West of a Mauritanian traveller: the 'Ri.hla' of Ibn .Tuwayr al-Janna (1245/1829-1250/1834) |
Author: | Fierro, Maria Isabel |
Year: | 1992 |
Periodical: | Maghreb Review |
Volume: | 17 |
Issue: | 1-2 |
Pages: | 103-123 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Mauritania |
Subjects: | Islam pilgrimages travel |
About person: | A.hmad b. .Tuwayr al- Ganna |
Abstract: | A.hmad al-Mu.s.tafà (or Mu.hammad al-Am¯in) b. .Tuwayr al-Janna was a scholar and Sufi from Mauritania who was probably born in 1202/1787 in the town of W¯ad¯an and died there in the year 1256/1848-49. He performed his pilgrimage to Mecca between 1245/1829 and 1250/1834. His 'Ri.hla al-munà wa-l-minna' is probably the most popular of all surviving Mauritanian records of the Meccan pilgrimage. The journey also brought him to European territory (Leghorn, Gibraltar) and to other places (Algiers, Egypt) where he came into contact with the West. This article summarizes the picture that Ibn .Tuwayr al-Janna sketches of 'the West', paying attention to such aspects as the journey by ship and conditions on board, quarantine, Christians (the French in Algiers and the English in Gibraltar), European women, armaments, the food of the Christians, memories of al-Andalus (derived from the descriptions of other Muslim travellers to Spain), and books and Arabic manuscripts. Bibliogr., notes, ref. |