Name Ibn Amira Role Poet | Died 1258 | |
Ibn Amira or Ahmad ibn Abd Allah Ibn Amira (1186 - 1251/1259) was a historian, poet, and scholar of law from al-Andalus during the reign of the Almohad dynasty. Born at Alzira in the province of Valencia, Ibn Amira was Qadi of Mallorca and worked for the Almohad sultan in Valencia and Sevilla. He moved to Morocco in 1239/40 (after the fall of Valencia in 1238) and continued to work for the sultan there.
The theme of paradise lost (al-firdaws al-mafqud) was expressed by the Valencian exile in his 'Letter to a Friend'. This friend was the poet Ibn al-Abbar. "An ocean of sadness rages inside us, Our hearts, desperate, burn with eternal flames. The city was so beautiful with its gardens and rivers, The nights were imbued with the sweet fragrance of narcissus."
Ibn Amira was also the author of a manuscript about the history of Mallorca, Tarij Mayurqa. The manuscript (written between 1203 and 1232) was translated into Spanish by the historian Guillem Rosselló Bordoy.