Abu-l-‘Abbas Ahmad ibn Mohammed al-Maqqari (or Al-Makkari, circa 1578 – 1632) was an Algerian scholar known for his book on Andalusia “The Breath of Perfume from the Branch of Green Andalusia and Memorials of its Vizier Lisan ud-Din ibn ul-Khattib.” That book, as the title suggests, is made of two separate parts. The first is a compilation of many authors on Andalusia. The second part is a biography of the famous writer, historian, and politician from Arab Spain, Ibn al-Khatib (1313 –1374). Ibn al-Khatib was a minister and a poet who wrote over 60 books. It is, however, the first part of the book that is of interest to us.
In his Book I, chapter V, Maqqari quotes Katib Ibrahim Ibnu-l-Qasim Al-Qarawi (Al-Karawi aka Ar-rarik-beladi-l-andalus (the slave of Andalus) who, according to al-Makkari’s translator Pascual de Gayangos, was a geographer living sometime in the 11th or early 12th century (Gayangos says Al-Qarawi is known too to the 14th century historian Ibn Khaldun). Al-Qarawi has this to say about the Slavs (again, in the Pascual de Gayangos translation).
“The Andalusians are a brave and warlike people, and great need have they of these qualities, for they are in continual war with the infidel nations that surround them on every side. To the west and north they have a nation called Jalalcah (Galicians), whose territories extend from the shores of the Western Ocean all along the Pyrenees. The Galicians are brave, strong, handsome, and well made; in general the slaves of this nation are very much prized, and one will scarcely meet in Andalus with a handsome, well made, and active slave who is not from this country. As no mountains or natural barriers of any kind separate this country from the Moslem territories, the people of both nations are in a state of continual war on the frontiers.”
“To the east the Moslems have another powerful enemy to contend with; that is the Franks, a people still more formidable than the Galicians, on account of the deadly wars in which they are continually engaged among themselves, their great numbers, the extent and fertility of their territory, and their great resources. The country of the Franks is well peopled, and full of cities and towns; it is generally designated by geographers under the name of Ardhu-l-kebirah (the “great land”). The Franks are stronger and braver than the Galicians, —they are likewise more numerous, and can send larger armies into the field. They [the Franks] make war on a certain nation bordering on their territory, and from whom they dissent in manners and religion; these are the Sclavonians, whose land the Franks invade, and, making captives of them, bring them to be sold to Andalus, where they are to be found in great numbers. The Franks are in the habit of making eunuchs of them, and taking them to castles and other places of safety in their territory, or to points of the Moslem frontier, where the Andalusian merchants come to buy them, to sell them afterwards in other countries. However, some of the Moslems who live in those parts (near to the frontiers) have already learnt that art from the Franks, and now exercise it quite as well as they do.“
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