'Azzawi, Ahmad
Rahalat li ibn al khatib bi al andalus wa al maghrib (رحلات لابن الخطيب بالأندلس و المغرب (نصوص
Lisan ad-Din ibn al-Khatib (Born 16 November 1313, Loja– died 1374, Fes, Morocco). By his full name, Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Said ibn Ali ibn Ahmad al-Salmani) was an Andalusian Arab polymath poet, writer, historian, philosopher, physician and politician from Emirate of Granada. Some of his poems decorate the walls of the Alhambra in Granada.
He was born at Loja, near Granada. al-Khatib spent most of his life as vizir at the court of Muhammed V, but was exiled from Granada twice and lived for some time in the Marinid empire in Morocco (the first time 1360-62 and the second time 1371-74 in Ceuta and Tlemcen and Fes). In 1374, he was imprisoned and accused of heresy (Zandaqa) and atheism for which he was sentenced to death by suffocation. Earlier and modern historians assume that he was executed as a result of his many political feuds in Granada. His body was burned then buried at "Bab Mahruq", one of the gates of the city of Fes. His private feuds with the Nasrid Kings of Granada were the main reason of this treatment.
He excelled as a historian and he wrote excellent poetry some of which was put to music as muwashshahat.
His autobiography, written in 1369, is to be found in part of his al-Ihata fi akhbar Gharnata (The Complete Source on the History of Granada) ed. Muhammad Abd Allah Inan (Cairo: Maktabat al-Khanji, 1978).