I. ORIGINAL AUTHORITIES:—­

A. Arab (in translations): 

(1.) Ibn abd el Hakem. “History of the Conquest of Spain.” with notes by J.H.  Jones, Ph.D., 1858.  This work only goes down to 743.

(2.) J.A.  Conde. “History of the Domination of the Arabs in Spain,” translated from the Spanish by Mrs Foster. 3 vols.  Bohn, 1854.  The author (Preface, p. 2) says that “he has compiled his work from Arabian memorials and writings in such sort that those documents may be read as they were written;” (p. 18), “The student of history may read this book as written by an Arabic author.”

Older writers used to speak very highly of this work, but their modern successors cannot find a good word for it.[1] De Gayangos, the learned translator of the Arabic history of Al Makkari, though not blind to the “unmethodical arrangement of the whole work, the absence of notes and citations of authorities, and the numerous errors and contradictions,"[2] yet does not hesitate to call Conde’s book the foundation of all our knowledge of the history of Mohammedan Spain.  It certainly is astonishing that Conde, who points out[3] the errors of his predecessors, makes precisely the same kind of mistakes himself, not only once, but constantly.  Claiming to be above all things faithful to his authorities, he is found, where those authorities can be identified, not to be faithful.

    [1] Stanley Lane-Poole, Preface to “Moors in Spain” (1887). 
    Dozy, Preface to “Mussulmans in Spain,” p. 6:  “Conde ... qui
    manquait absolumment de sens historique.”

[2] As to these he might plead Al Makkari’s excuse, that in transcribing or extracting the accounts of different historians some facts are sure to be repeated, and others entirely contradicted.  See Al Makk., i. p. 29.

    [3] Pref., p. 13 ff.

(3.) J.C.  Murphy. “History of the Mahometan Empire in Spain,” with additions by Professor Shakespear, 1816.  This work is based on Mohammedan sources, those, namely, which are mostly to be found in Al Makkari’s compilation.  The concluding chapters on the influence, scientific and literary, exercised by the Arabs in Europe, are exhaustive and interesting.

(4.) Ahmed ibn Mohammed Al Makkari.  “History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain,” being an extract from a larger work by that author, translated by Pascual de Gayangos. 2 vols.  London, 1840.  This work, which Dozy finds fault with for certain inaccuracies, is on the whole very trustworthy, and its notes form a perfect mine of information for the student wandering helplessly among the mazes of Arab history.  Al Makkari, a native of Africa, flourished at the beginning of the seventeenth century; but he quotes from many old Arabic writers, whose evidence is most valuable.  Among these are—­

[Greek:  a.] Abu Bekr Mohammed ibn Omar, Ibn al Kuttiyah, descended from the grand-daughter of Witiza; died, 877.