Ibn al-Jayyab

Ibn al-Jayyāb al-Gharnāṭī (ابن الجياب الغرناطي); Abū al-Ḥasan ‘Alī b. Muḥammad b. Suleiman b. ‘Alī b. Suleiman b. Ḥassān al-Anṣārī al-Gharnāṭī (ابو الحسن علي بن محمد بن سليمان بن علي بن سليمان بن حسن الأنصاري الغرناطي); Spanish var., Ibn al-Ŷayyab, (1274–1349 AD/673–749 AH); he was an Andalusian writer, poet and minister from the Nasrid court of Granada Ansari, in modern-day Spain.

He was of Arab heritage descending from the Ansar tribe and was born in Granada, where he grew up and became involved with a group of distinguished scholars in that city. He later chaired the Writers Cabinet of Granada. He died of the Black Death plague in Granada.

His substantial legacy of poetry and prose was posthumously collated by his many students, among whom was Lisan al-Din ibn al-Khaṭīb, who succeeded him as vizier.

He wrote his qasidas (poems) in a neo-classical style, and some still decorate the walls of the summer palace of the Nasrid sultans, now the property of Generalife.

Bibliography

• Ibn Al-Ŷayyab, El Otro Poeta De La Alhambra, by Rubiera Mata, Maria Jesus,ISBN 978-84-85622-16-0, ed. Patronato de La Alhambra, 1994
• Etude d'une scenographie poetique: l'oeuvre d'Ibn al-Jayyab a la tour de la Captive (Alhambra) by Sophie Makariou, in: Studia Islamica, No. 96, Ecriture, Calligraphie et Peinture (2003), pp. XXV-XXVII+95-107