A History of Early Al-Andalus

The Akhb-r majm-'a, or 'Collected Accounts', deal with the Muslim conquest of the Iberian peninsula in 711 and subsequent events in al-Andalus, down to and including the reign of 'Abd al-Rahm-n III (912-961), founder of the Umayyad caliphate of al-Andalus . No Arabic text dealing with the early history of al-Andalus has aroused more controversy, and its contents and origin have occupied the attention of leading scholars of Islamic Spain since its publication in 1867.
This book gives the first complete English translation of this key contemporary text, together with notes, comments, appendices and maps. It is introduced by a survey of scholarly opinion on the text from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century in which all the - often heated - arguments around the text are explained. The translator concludes his introduction with an in-depth examination of the manuscript containing the only surviving copy of the text and presents some interesting new evidence provided by scribe which has gone unnoticed until now. Providing new insights into this significant Arabic text, this book will be of great interest to scholars of the history of Spain and Portugal, Islamic history, and Mediaeval European history.

While a student at Portsmouth Technical College, David was tempted to follow his heart and become a writer. Instead, having been brought up in a service family, duty called and he joined the Royal Navy as a seaman officer.In 1971 he left the Senior Service to pursue his other dream - of becoming a professional civilian sailor. Hard years followed before he was sufficiently experienced and qualified to captain groups of young Londoners on adventurous sailing voyages in a traditional old Norwegian sailing rescue ship. In 1977 David was recruited to run Ocean Youth Club, Britain's largest sail training fleet. In 1985 he was head-hunted by the Drake Fellowship which he soon merged with Fairbridge to create Fairbridge-Drake. This became the UK's most effective motivational training charity for unemployed young people in inner cities.David eventually left London for West Cornwall, where, at the age when most people retire, his wife suggested opening a bookshop. They transformed a local tea-room into a much-loved café and second-hand bookshop where David started writing poetry again, publishing Any Cornish Beach in 2009.David relished the solitude imposed by the Covid lockdown and began to write his first novel, A Flower in Winter.

Introduction: The Akhb-r majm-'a: Study and Speculation. Translation: The Akhb-r majm-'a. 'Collected Accounts' of the years 86-350/705-961 1. The Conquest and the Rule of the Governors of Damascus 2. The Civil Wars 3. The Annals of 'Abd al-Rahm-n I 4. Scenes from the Lives of the Umayyad Emirs 5. The Caliph of al-Andalus Appendix i: Introductory Words, Phases and Headings given in Coloured Thulth and their Location in Lafuente y Alcántara (1867), Arabic text, page number and line. Appendix ii: The Governors (w-lin pl. wul-h) of al-Andalus. Appendix iii: M-'idat Sulaym-n, the 'Table of Solomon': What was it?