Khutba of Tariq Ibn Ziyad
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A khutba of dubious authenticity[1] is attributed to Ṭāriq ibn Ziyād at the beginning of the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, upon the landing of Muslim troops coming from Africa on European shores.[1][2]
Transmission
The text of the speech and its historical context appear in the 1274 work Wafayāt al-ʾAʿyān [Deaths of Eminent Men] by Ibn Khallikan (1211–1282).[2][3] It also appeared in Nafh at-Tib of the 16th-century historian Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari.[a][4][5][6]
Content
The main thrust of the speech is the exhortation to fight, and it contains both persuasive and coercive language.[2] The opening lines have become well known and have contributed to the piece's fame:
أيها الناس أين المفر البحر من ورائكم والعدو أمامكم وليس لكم والله إلا الصدق والصبر[2] [People! Where is there to escape? The sea is behind you and the enemy in front of you, and by God, there is nothing for you now but courage and endurance.]
Analysis
In her analysis of the text as an example of Arabic battle oration, Tahera Qutbuddin places it in a category of speeches that employ the argument of the desperation of the troops' current moment as a rhetorical strategy, a category that also includes the speeches of Asim ibn Amr al-Tamimi in the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah and Abu Sufyan ibn Harb in the Battle of the Yarmuk.[2] The speech also differs from the orations of Ali, which focus on piousness and righteousness, in that the speech attributed to Ṭāriq ibn Ziyād "enumerates worldly rewards."[2] The speech also enjoins the troops to target the Visigothic King.[2]
Reception
The supposed speech figures prominently in early works of Moroccan literary history, which emphasized the relationship of Morocco and al-Andalus.[1]: 72 Abdellah Guennoun, in his 1937 anthology an-Nubūgh al-Maghribī fī al-Adab al-'Arabī, cited this speech as the origin of the Arabic literary tradition in al-Maghrib al-Aqsa and wrote in response to Mashriqi scholars critical of the authenticity of the speech: "Ṭāriq Ibn Ziyād, even if of Berber origin, was brought up in the atmosphere of Arabness and Islam."[7] Mohamed El Fassi described it as "the oldest Moroccan literary text" in his 1940 essay "La littérature marocaine."[7] According to Gonzalo Fernández Parrilla and Eric Calderwood, citing Tariq ibn Ziyad's speech as the origin of Moroccan literature is a "rhetorical strategy" employed in "the effort to interweave Moroccan literature with the history of al-Andalus."[7]
In popular culture
The Palestinian poet Harun Hashim Rashid from Gaza referred to the speech in his 1968 poem "La Mafarr" (لا مَفَرّ 'no escape' or 'nowhere to flee').[1]: 167
The 1994 Hollywood film True Lies, in its portrayal of Arab/Muslim terrorists, features a character giving a speech in Arabic before setting a bomb to destroy the US.[2] The first two lines of it are from the speech attributed to Ṭāriq ibn Ziyād.[2]
Notes
- Nafḥ al-ṭīb min ghuṣn al-Andalus al-raṭīb wa-dhikr waziriha Lisān al-Dīn ibn al-Khaṭīb (نفح الطيب من غصن الأندلس الرطيب وذكر وزيرها لسان الدين بن الخطيب 'The Breath of Perfume from the Dew-Laden Branch of al-Andalus and Mentions of its Vizier Lisan ad-Din Ibn al-Khatib')