Exile, Encounter, and the Articulation of Andalusī Identity in the Maghrib

Abstract

This article explores how Ibn al-Khaṭīb’s historiographical perspective informed an Andalusī vision of the history of the western Mediterranean and how it articulated an Andalusī identity vis-à-vis the Maghrib, where it became deeply rooted. Through an examination of Ibn al-Khaṭīb’s historiographical and geographical work, and considering his own experience of exile and encounter in the Maghrib, I argue that Ibn al-Khaṭīb was both illustrative of a larger trend whereby Andalusīs argued for their cultural value as a displaced community in the Maghrib and a crucial actor in articulating and informing the long-term historiographical perspective on the history of the Islamic West and al-Andalus’s place in it.