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Ibn ʿAbdūn, a poet, scholar, and statesman, was born in Évora (Yābura) and died there in 1134. Renowned for his elegant prose style, his prodigious memory, and his keen wit, and credited with being able to recite from memory such literary works as Kitāb al-aghānī, he began in 1080 to serve as khātib (secretary), and later vizier, to ʿUmar al-Mutawakkil (of the Banūl-Afṭas), ruler of Badajoz (Batalyaws). Al-Mutawakkil’s father, Al-Muẓaffar, had loved scholarship and had made his court a haven for scholars and men of letters, a tradition maintained by his son, himself a poet. In 1095 Al-Mutawakkil and his two sons fell into the hands of the Almoravid army of Yūsuf ibn Tāshfīn. An account by Ibn Khāqān has it that Al-Mutawakkil’s sons were executed in his presence before he met the same fate.