ABSTRACT

When it had happened to me to see this noble residence and I had been overwhelmed by the favours of his universal benevolence, I sought to visit my mother's grave. I reached my native town of Tangier, visited it, and went to the city of Sabta [Ceuta], where I stayed for some months. I was ill for three months. Then God cured me and I wanted to take part in the holy war and the frontier fighting. I sailed from Ceuta in a shaṭṭī 1 belonging to the people of Aṣīlā [Arzila] and reached al-Andalus, |354 God Most High guard her, where the reward of those who live there is abundant and where recompense is treasured up for those who stay or travel there. This was just after the death of the Christian tyrant Adfūnus. 2 He besieged the mountain for ten months and supposed he would get possession of all of al-Andalus that still belonged to the Muslims. God took him unprepared and he died of the plague, which he feared more than anyone else.