Khutba of Tariq Ibn Ziyad

The Khutba of Tariq Ibn Ziyad (Arabic: خُطْبَة طارِق بن زياد) is a khutba of dubious authenticity[1] 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, along with 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]

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

  1. ^ 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')

References

  1. ^ a b c d Calderwood, Eric (2023). On Earth or in Poems: The Many Lives of Al-Andalus (1st ed.). Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-29297-0.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Qutbuddin, Tahera (2019-01-01). "7. The Battle Oration". Arabic Oration: Art and Function. BRILL. doi:10.1163/9789004395800_009. ISBN 978-90-04-39580-0.
  3. ^ Soto, Omayra Herrero (2010). "La arenga de Tariq B. Ziyad: Un ejemplo de creación retórica en la historiografía árabe [The battle Exhortation of Tariq b. Ziyad: An example of rhetoric creation in Arabic Historiography]". Talia Dixit. Revista Interdisciplinar de Retórica e Historiografía (in Spanish) (11): 45–72. doi:10.17398/1886-9440.11.45. hdl:10662/5018. ISSN 1886-9440.
  4. ^ Falk, Avner (2010). Franks and Saracens: Reality and Fantasy in the Crusades. p. 47.
  5. ^ McIntire, E. Burns, Suzanne, William (2009). Speeches in World History. Infobase. p. 85. ISBN 978-1-4381-2680-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ Charles Francis Horne (1917). The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East: With Historical Surveys of the Chief Writings of Each Nation... Vol. VI: Medieval Arabia. Parke, Austin, and Lipscomb. pp. 241–242.
  7. ^ a b c Parrilla, Gonzalo Fernández; Calderwood, Eric (16 April 2021). "What Is Moroccan Literature? History of an Object in Motion". Journal of Arabic Literature. Brill Publishers. doi:10.1163/1570064x-12341421. hdl:10486/711734. Retrieved 2025-11-17.
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