Al-Ghassani, the Moroccan minister who visited Andalusia to free its Muslim prisoners

The Islamic Far East has known a different kind of relations with Europe since the Muslim conquerors set foot on these lands in the second half of the first century AH / seventh century AD. Morocco was a starting point for the conquest of Andalusia and the islands of Mallorca. For centuries, the religious relations between Islam and Europe in the western Mediterranean played crucial roles in shaping the mental image of the other in each of them.

There is no doubt that Andalusia and the entry and settlement of Islam in it was the relentless trigger for the outbreak of the spark of the counter-revolution, represented by the wars to recover the land and expel Islam from it, which in turn was a prelude to the emergence of the phenomenon of the Crusades that continued for two centuries in the Middle East and the Levant, but for eight centuries it never forgot its revenge Ancient in southwestern Europe (Andalusia).

For this reason, the kings of “Aragon”, “Leon” and “Castile” did not hesitate to take advantage of every opportunity to advance towards the south, making peace or killing and destroying the lands of Andalusia, until they were able to overthrow the last Muslim strongholds in “Granada” in 1492AD/897AH, to begin the phase of A new one that will continue for a century and a few centuries, in which the Moorish Muslims tasted all kinds of injustice, oppression and murder through the famous “Inquisition” at the height of Catholic fanaticism, which Spain considered itself - and under the auspices of the papacy in Rome - its patron in Western Europe.

Therefore, Spain's wars with its neighbors in Britain, Holland and France, which allied themselves with the Ottoman Empire at the time, did not stop for political, religious and economic reasons.

The expansion of the Spaniards and Portugal did not stop in every inch of Andalusia, and on top of that they began to establish a foothold in many cities of the Mediterranean coast in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, and in the fifteenth century AD, they were able to occupy many Moroccan cities such as Asilah and Larache. Tangiers, Ceuta, Melilla, Tunis, Oran, and others.

For all these reasons, the people of Algeria and Tunisia did not find anything but the request for extensions from the Ottoman Empire, which witnessed the peak of its glory at the hands of Selim I and his son Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, and their intervention in North Africa had a pivotal role in crushing the Spaniards and defeating them, at least in Tunisia and Algeria.

Morocco's privacy in its relationship with Spain

Al-Aqsa Morocco remained distinct and independent under the Wattasid State (1472-1552), then the Saadian Ashraf State (1554-1659), and then the Alaouite Filali dynasty that has ruled the country from 1661 to the present day.

These three countries dealt with the Western world, especially Spain and Portugal, with caution and force if necessary, and because of the Andalusian tragedy, and the migration of hundreds of thousands of Andalusians towards the Islamic countries in North Africa from Egyptian Alexandria in the far east through the cities of Tunisia and Algeria to the Far Maghreb, the Moroccan rulers found They are forced to deal with the Moorish cause and the Spanish enemy out of necessity and a fait accompli.

And if the Moroccans had entered into wars and military battles against the Spaniards and the Portuguese and were able to restore many of their occupied cities such as Larache, Asilah, El Jadida and Tangier during the Saadian and Alawi eras, they were at the same time the countries and peoples of North Africa most interested in diplomatic relations and embassies with the countries of Western Europe, especially Spain and Portugal. France, England and the Netherlands.

The professor of modern history "Abdul Rahim Benhada" counted 16 embassies sent by the Moroccan sultans to Madrid, the Spanish capital, between the years 1500-1900, and the tasks of these ambassadors ranged from researching issues of the release of prisoners, and the issue of evacuating the positions occupied by Spain on the southern bank of the sea The Mediterranean, as well as border issues linked to the reality that Morocco knew in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Despite the large number of Moroccan delegates to Spain, few of them were interested in recording the journey, travels, observations, oddities and wonders, and only four of these sixteen were, including the Ghassani Minister, who visited Spain in 1690, and the purpose of his trip was to ransom Muslim prisoners and retrieve what the Spaniards looted from The Arabic manuscripts, and he wrote down their details in his manuscript, which he curtly investigated, entitled “The Minister’s Journey in Separating the Captive,” a journey that we are going to talk about in some aspects.[1]

Who is Al-Ghasani?

Who is the Ghassani to whom the Moroccan Sultan “Ismail Al-Alawi” assigned the leadership of this embassy, ​​and the delivery of the message to the Spanish King “Carlos II” (1661-1700)?

He is the minister "Muhammad bin Abdul-Wahhab Al-Andalusi Al-Fassi Al-Ghassani", and he is one of the great intellectuals of his time, as we see among those who translated his life and biography. Abu Abdullah Muhammad, the so-called Hamu bin Abd al-Wahhab, the Andalusian minister of al-Fassi, wrote to Sultan Maulana Ismail (Al Alawi Filali 1672-1727), and he was very good in that, and he mentioned that he used to write and fulfill all the orders he was given, and none of them was strange to him despite their abundance.

The historian “Muhammad bin Jaafar Al-Katani” also translated for him in “Silwat Al-Anfas and Conversation with the Bags” similar to what Al-Qadri translated for him and added to it. Ibid. Al-Ghasani died “after falling ill in the year one hundred and nineteen,” i.e. the year 1707. As for “Ignatius Krachkovsky,” the Russian scholar and orientalist author of the book “History of Arab Geographical Literature,” he translated it by saying: “And Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Wazir al-Ghasani” From a family originally from Andalusia, but settled in Marrakesh, and worked as a clerk in the court of the honorable Alawites in Meknes during the reign of Moulay Ismail Al-Taweel, the Emir, and gained fame as an expert in the names of books, a calligrapher and an art publisher.”[3]

So, despite the laconicism that characterized Al-Ghassani’s translation in the Moroccan translation works that he witnessed or came shortly after his death, his trip to Spain and similar details reflect the intelligence and knowledge of this man, and his ability to compare objectively and logically, as well as his pride in his religion and heritage.

The minister's journey in capturing the captive

The Sharif Sultan "Mawlay Ismail Alaoui" from reclaiming the city of Larache on the Atlantic Ocean after the Spanish occupation of it for a period of eighty consecutive years.

In 1689, the Sharif Sultan " Moulay Ismail Alaoui " was able to recover the city of Larache on the Atlantic Ocean after the Spanish occupation of it for eighty consecutive years.

The Spanish garrison had fallen into the hands of the Moroccan army as prisoners of war, and the Moroccan Sultan wanted to exploit these prisoners to achieve a great exchange deal that perpetuated his biography and history, as he sought to retrieve at least 500 Muslim prisoners between Moroccan and Morisco in Spanish prisons, with the recovery of an important cache of books It consists of five thousand Islamic manuscripts, in total, is the library of Sultan Moulay “Zidane Nasir al-Saadi” that was robbed by Spanish pirates in 1612, when Moroccan sailors were transporting it from the city of “Safi” to the city of “Agadir” by sea, and it is preserved to this day in El Escorial Monastery.[4]

On this basis was the itinerary of the Ghassani Minister’s journey, as the embassy left Marrakesh towards Ceuta and from there it departed in October 1690 heading to Gibraltar, and passed through many cities until it reached Madrid in December 1690, and after spending more than six months in Madrid The embassy departed from the capital for Toledo in May 1691, which meant that the whole embassy took about eight months.

The issue of the release of Muslim prisoners has been present in the mind and conscience of al-Ghasani since he set foot on the land of Spain. Muslims to receive this embassy, ​​and he said about it: “And we met some of the captives in the city of Qalz, men, women and boys, who were rejoicing and proclaiming martyrdom and praying for the Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, and praying for victory for our master Al-Mansur by God Almighty. The grace of God be upon him, especially since it was decided by them that our master, may God support him, had no intention or intention of gathering all the Christians who were in captivity except with the intention of freeing the Muslims from the hand of the infidel enemy, whom God destroyed.”[5]

Source: Wikipedia)

Al-Ghasani did not lose sight of his exposure to the issue of the Moriscos and their situation after the complete Spanish control of the country. When he passed the city of “Sharish” in the far south of Spain, he said, “Most of its people are from the people of Andalusia and their notables who became Christians, and they are people of plowing and farming.” [6]

Rather, he drew his attention to the closeness of the descendants of the Muslim people of Andalusia to their embassy when they knew that they were Muslims coming from Morocco for the embassy, ​​especially the people of a city called “Al-Burijah”, in which “some of us belonged to Andalusia with a hidden sign, and he was not able to declare anything other than hidden words,” meaning that Some of the people of this city pointed in a hidden way to their Islamic origins and pride in them, and they did not declare these official meetings attended by the Spaniards for fear of the Inquisition and the censors of power.

But whenever the social status of the "remnants of Andalusia" as described by Al-Ghassani, especially the converts among them, they declared to him their pride in their heritage and history publicly without equivocation. A tenth of the Gregorian calendar) who overcame him in Granada.. Without a word, this is a man of good morals, of good youth, with strength and courage known to the Christians.. Despite this, he is inclined towards those he meets among the people of Islam, mentions his lineage, and likes what he hears from talk about Islam and its people. And he told me about his mother that when she became pregnant with him, she wanted couscous, so his father said to her, “Perhaps this lamb in your womb from the Muslims’ scorn is flirting with her with that.”[7]

Flight scenes

There are many scenes and impressions that Al-Ghasani saw on his trip to Spain, including those related to social and cultural conditions, including religious situations, the predominance of the Catholic sense, and the influence of churchmen or, as he calls them, “Praelian” in daily life in Spain, and sometimes their political power is above King Carlos II himself, including what is related to the political situation of the European continent and its effects on the Spanish interior and the idea of ​​alliances and hostilities that existed at the time on a religious basis between Catholics, Protestants and Evangelists, as well as intermarriage relations between European ruling families and their effects on the future of government and its transition, especially in Spain.

The strong Ottoman presence in Europe and the western Mediterranean imposed itself on the issues of Al-Ghassani, and the negative effects of this presence on Spain, which was very hostile to the Ottomans, who worked on two main axes against the Spaniards;

The first was to help the Moriscos with weapons, aid, rescue and evacuation, and the second was to ally themselves with France, the traditional enemy of the Spanish kingdom at the time.

Naval wars took place between the two sides in various places where the Spaniards suffered a strong defeat. There is no doubt that Al-Ghasani expressed his admiration for the Ottomans and called for them to be victorious and victorious, while he called upon the Spaniards and their king, whom he described as a “tyrant,” with destruction and ruin.

Al-Ghasani was also keen to record every stranger he saw during his stay in these lands, as he was one of the first Muslim historians and travelers who dealt with the issue of bullfighting and commissioned the Spaniards with it. They take them to that plaque (the rink), and decorate it with various types of silk and brocade brushes, and they sit in the councils overlooking the plaque, and they release the bulls one by one, and those who claim courage and like to show it will enter them riding on their horse to fight the bull with the sword, some of them die and some of them are killed. 8]

Al-Ghassani, of Andalusian origin, drew the attention of the great wealth that "Isbaniya" enjoyed during that era.

Compared to the other European “Arabs” countries, because of their occupation of the American continent and their looting of its wealth, which he called the country of India, as European travelers and others used to describe at that time. He wrote: “They still own in India many countries and vast territories, from which they bring every year what enriches them.” And with the acquisition of these Indian countries and their benefits and the large amount of money that is brought from them, this Spanish race has become today the most wealthy and the most powerful of the Christians, but luxury and civilization have prevailed over them, so you rarely find anyone of this race trading or traveling to countries with the intention of trade, as is the custom of other races of Christians such as the Flamenks, the English and the Francis Genoese and their ilk.”[9]

It is a clever observation that shows us the reasons that led to the decline of Spanish influence on the European continent and the world after that.

Al-Ghasani also noted the diversity of the Spanish social classes in that era, and he described the poorest of them as “bedouins” and the slightly higher ones as “civilized and urbanized,” and described the “Frayals” who are the layers of monks and hermits in monasteries and their customs, and the reluctance of women to marry since joining monasticism until death, and endowments The finances on which they relied, and he did not miss the description of the people of “banditarians” and the bandits and their danger, especially in central Spain, where there are mountains, deserts and caves. and their likes.

Al-Ghasani was also keen to record every stranger he saw during his stay in this country (Spain).

Al-Ghasani stressed that those who deserve to attain the title of "the Great" among the aristocracy must have great fortunes and a long ancient history in the service of Christianity, and that this position or affiliation to this higher social class in the Spanish Kingdom was an inheritance transmitted through generations, and it has rituals and even And special clothes that differ from the clothes of the common class of craftsmen, artisans, farmers, monks and others.

According to Al-Ghassani, “The great thing for them is for him to make a cross on his shoulder in his covered garment with a number (photocopy) known to them, and it is a great degree that only those who have a foot in Christianity can understand, and he prepares for himself in it seven ancestors with the testimony of Christians of every time.. So he is commanded to do an action. The cross is on his shoulder after he gives money to the people of the Diwan (the palace and the government) and after them to the Frailia (the church and its men) who also give him permission for it.. and this Crusader sign can only be inflicted by those who have a long tradition in Christianity or who are of the Andalusian race (the ancient Christian Christians). ) And they were the greatest of their people and supported themselves for their purposes, so they were given that sign, and it is a sign of their nobility in originality and a sign of their greatness in this corrupt religion.”[10]

The Ghassanian minister delivered his letter to King Carlos II, who was a sick young man of short stature, and he received him the best reception. The letter, as we learned, included two basic requests, namely the release of Muslim prisoners in all of Spain, and the second request to return the manuscripts and the old Al-Zayani Saadia library, which contained between five thousand To eight thousand books from the mothers of Islamic books.

We do not know the results of this exciting and important historically, anthropologically, and socially Spanish embassy in 1690, only eighty years after the decision of the Spanish expulsion of the Moriscos, which occurred before that in 1609, but we find from “the minister’s journey in liberating the captive” that many groups were still concealing their Islam even after the expulsion. official through "hidden signs" that al-Ghassani understood from his visitors, the descendants of Andalusian Muslims.

_______________________________________________________________________

Sources: