History, Culture and Science in Morocco: 11th-14th Centuries (Cont’d)
Previous | 1 | 24. Geographers and Travellers
Several well known geographers and travellers who left a noteworthy legacy also originated from Morocco. We mention Al-Idrisi and Ibn Battuta, who both came from northern Morocco.
Muhammad Al-Idrisi was born in Ceuta (Morocco) in 1099-1100 CE, and died in 1166 CE. He studied at Cordoba, and although he died in his birth place, Ceuta, he spent his working life at the Norman court of Palermo. At the age of 16, he travelled through Asia Minor, Morocco, Spain and the South of France and even visited England . His description of most of Western Europe is lively and, on the whole, quite accurate . The same is true of his treatment of the Balkans, whilst for the rest of Europe and for most of the Islamic world (with the exception of North Africa, with which he had a firsthand acquaintance) his account is based on the writings of others .
Al-Idrisi was a noteworthy and original geographer. He used in a creative way the system of cylindrical projection of the Earth's surface, which was to be claimed some centuries later, in 1569, by the Flemish Gerard Mercator . Al-Idrisi's other merit, according to Udovitch is the extensive information he provides about contemporary Western Europe . Hitti also notes that Al-Idrisi's map places the sources of the Nile-supposedly discovered in the latter part of the 19th century in the equatorial highlands of Africa .
At the court of Palermo, Al-Idrisi's patron was King Roger II for whom he wrote Al-Kitab al-Rujari (Roger's book) also known as Nuzhat al-mushtaq fi ikhtiraq al-afaq (Pleasures of Men and Delights of Souls), a book that has the scope of a large geographical encyclopaedia. This work is the most elaborate description of the world of medieval times, and for a considerable time thereafter. In the preface of the text, Al-Idrisi says that he spent fifteen years on his work .
"Judging by the level of knowledge and the concept of critical research of his time," Ronart writes, "Idrisi's Rogerian Book must have ranked among the most prominent achievements in the history of geographical science ."
Al-Idrisi also constructed a silver planisphere prepared with the utmost attention to scientific accuracy. This planisphere, Dunlop notes, has surely has been lost, melted down, but the book still stands as "a great monument of Arabic and Muslim geography" .
4.2. Ibn Battuta
Ibn Battuta was born in Tangier on 24 February 1304 and died about 1368-9. He left his native Tangier on 14 January 1325 in order to make his pilgrimage to Mecca, but he only returned to Morocco almost a quarter of a century later, in November 1349 . Soon after his return to Morocco, Ibn Battuta left on a trip for Spain, and then turned south to visit the Mali Madinka state, especially the cities of Timbuktu and Gao. He returned to Morocco in 1354, and it is at this date that he dictated the story of his travels to Ibn Juzayy', a scholar at the court of Merinid Sultan Innan of Fes .
Figure 7: View of the restored building of the Ben Youssef Madrasa in Marrakech founded in the 14th century by the Marinid Sultan Abu al-Hassan and allied to the neighbouring Ben Youssef Mosque. This madrasa was one of the largest theological colleges in North Africa and may have housed as many as 900 students. (Source).
Ibn Battuta's Rihla is an account of his travels first crossing many countries to India, where he occupied an important official function. Then he travelled by sea to China, Java and the Maldives. In modern scholarship, his travel account was translated into French by Defremey and Sanguinetty . There is also an abridged version by H.R. Gibb , who only translated selected extracts (thus the Arabic and French versions remaining more comprehensive and whole).
The Rihla is very instructive for all the vegetation named and described within it, but also, as Rosenthal recognises, for its unique information on India in the 14th century, and even more so for the description of the Maldives, southern Russia and Black Africa . The merit of Gibb's version , which is used in the following to illustrate some of Ibn Battuta's descriptions of places he visited, is that it gives a very useful and lengthy introduction on Ibn Battuta's life, relating to his ascetic regime, resigning all his offices and giving away all his possessions at some stage, before he was urged into accepting office again by Sultan Muhammad and became his envoy at the head of an important mission to the most powerful ruler in the world then, the Emperor of China.
Gibb also tells of how Ibn Battuta was a hunted fugitive for eight days and was left only with the clothes he was wearing and his prayer mat, forcing him to seek refuge in Malabar, where he became judge again. During his journey from Alexandria to the Maghrib, and on two occasions, he narrowly escaped capture by European pirates; still his love of travel was never extinguished. From each part visited, Ibn Battuta relates his experiences and observations. Thus, on the River Nile, he states:
"The Egyptian Nile surpasses all rivers of the earth in sweetness of taste, length of course and utility. No other river in the world can show such a continuous series of towns and villages along its banks, or a basin so intensely cultivated. Its course is from south to north, contrary to all other [great] rivers. One extraordinary thing about it is that it begins to rise in the extreme hot weather, at the time when rivers generally diminish and dry up, and begins to subside just when rivers begin to increase and overflow. The river Indus resembles it in this feature… Some distance below Cairo the Nile divides into three streams, none of which can be crossed except by boat, winter or summer. The inhabitants of every township have canals led off the Nile; these are filled when the river is in flood and carry the water over the fields ."
The Turks, Ibn Battuta observes, leave their livestock free to graze without guardians or shepherds. This is due to their strict laws against theft. Anyone caught with a stolen horse is forced to restore it with nine others; if he cannot do this, his sons are taken instead .
China amazes Ibn Battuta for its porcelain and the huge size of hens' eggs, bigger than what he knew of goose eggs. The skills of the Chinese are what thrills him most, though, "very talented and precise people" he admits. He has this to say:
"I never returned to any of their cities after I had visited it a first time without finding my portrait and the portraits of my companions drawn on the walls and on sheets of paper exhibited in the bazaars… Each of us set to examining the other's portrait [and found that] the likeness was perfect in every respect….They had been observing us (in the palace) and drawing our portraits without our noticing it. This is a custom of theirs, I mean making portraits of all who pass through their country. In fact they have brought this to such perfection that if a stranger commits any offence that obliges him to flee from China, they send his portrait far and wide. A search is then made for him and where so ever the [person bearing a] resemblance to that portrait is found is arrested ."
For briefer regional accounts on Ibn Battuta's travels, it is worth looking at M. Husain for India, Ceylon and the Maldives . For Africa, in English, there is G.S.P. Freeman-Greenville on the east African coast . Sarton's Introduction  includes useful shorter extracts.
4.3. Ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi
Also worth mentioning here also is a little known geographer of the Islamic west who stayed in Marrakech for part of his life. He is rightly noted by Sarton . Ali Ibn Musa Ibn Sa'id is a geographer, historian and the most important collector of poetry from al-Andalus in the 12th and 13th centuries.
Ali ibn Musa ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi (1213-1286) was born at Alcalá la Real near Granada, grew up in Marrakesh, studied in Seville and lived in Tunis, Alexandria, Cairo, Jerusalem and Aleppo. He died in Tunis or Aleppo in 1275 or 1286. Being an indefatigable traveller, he was profoundly interested in geography. In 1250 he wrote Kitab bast al-ardh. His Kitab al-jagrfiya embodies the experience of his extensive travels in the Muslim world and the shores of the Indian Ocean. He also gives an account of parts of northern Europe including Iceland. Ibn Said also visited Armenia and was at the Court of Hulagu from 1256 to 1265.
His Rayat al-mubarrizin wa-ghayat al-mumayyizin (Banners of the Champions, also translated as Pennants of the Champions), written in 1243, is his best known anthology of poetry. He also wrote a history of the Maghribi region (Book of the Maghrib).
Ibn Sa'id's work, although containing much from his predecessors, also included new material, for example much information not given by Al-Idrisi. Ibn Sa'id had some knowledge of the Senegal River, and of the northern countries of Europe, including Iceland. He had travelled extensively throughout the Islamic world and his work was much used, and later corrected, by Abu 'l Fida in the following period .
Finally, the name of Al-Marrakushi cited above should be added for his contribution in the field. He crossed southern Spain and all northern Africa down to Egypt, himself determining the coordinates of the principal towns and cities .
5. Marrakech City of Power and Knowledge
Marrakech was founded about 1070 by the Almoravids as the headquarters of their army north of the High Atlas, close to Aghmat, then a centre for trade across the mountains to the south.
Figure 8: The Madrasa al-Bu'naniya in Fes was founded in 1356. It is widely acknowledged as a marvel of Marinid architecture. The madrasa functioned at the same time as both an educational institute and a congregational mosque at the same time. It is the only madrasa in Fes which has a minaret. Opposite the main doorway of the madrasa is the entrance to the dar al-wudu (ablutions house). Left and right of the central court are class rooms. (Source).
In 1147, Marrakech fell to the Almohads of the High Atlas who made it their own capital. Even when Seville was the capital of the Almohad territories, Marrakech was the centre of the Almohad community with its scholars and military. Marrakech became by the desire of its rulers the centre of attraction for Maghribi scholars and even for a certain number from Spain .
So Ibn Rushd became engaged in astronomical observations in 1153 in Marrakech and was associated with the Almohad court. He had been introduced and recommended to Abu Ya'qub by the philosopher Ibn Tufayl (1105-1185), who was also based in the same city .
Marrakech is renowned for the Kutubiya Mosque cited above, famed for its books, manuscripts, libraries and book shops, which gave it its name . The Kutubiya had a hundred or so librarians gathered in the shade of the minaret; and next to them there were many intermediaries who rushed between places searching for rare and new manuscripts to copy; and also the traders who bought and sold ancient works from and to the scholars of the city . The sultans themselves collected both works and their authors, whom they wanted to have very close to them .
In Marrakech there was also a great tradition of constructors of astrolabes , and a good deal of detail on such figures and their accomplishments can be found in Mayer . Many historians flourished in Marrakech, most living surrounding the Caliphs. Abu Bakr al-Sanhadji who wrote extensively on the Almohads, and whose works were traced by Lévi Provençal to the Spanish collection at the Escurial. Because he observed from very close in time the events he describes, he is the most authentic voice on the Almohad movement in history .
Another historian born in Marrakech in 1185, but who studied at Fes, was Abd al-Wahid al-Murrakushi . Towards 1224, he wrote his Kitab al-Mu'jib fi talkhis akhbar al-Maghrib which is a good personal account of the author's history of the Western Maghrib and where, of course, Marrakech has a leading place .
Marrakech has its other great historical attractions, such as the walled Agdal Gardens, stretching for two miles south of the Casbah, and also dating from Almohad times . These gardens were irrigated, just as the city was supplied, by mainly subterranean canals from the mountains twenty miles to the south . One of the greatest accomplishments of the Almohad rule was the Marrakech hospital, also called the Bimaristan of Amir al-Muminin al-Mansur abu Yusuf. On this, Al-Murrakushi wrote:
"Abu Yusuf built a bimaristan in Marrakech, which I believe has no equal in the world. For this purpose he chose a very extensive area in the centre of the city. He ordered the masons and the builders to carry out his plans with the greatest perfection possible. He decorated the hospital with inscriptions and designs of surpassing beauty… He ordered that flowers should be planted and cultivated in the courtyard, as well as fruit trees, and to have flowing water conducted to all the wards and rooms. Of the sources of water one was paved with marble. He ordered the hospital to be equipped with furniture and to be covered with tapestries of wool, linen and silk, which gave an indescribable richness. He endowed it with ample waqfs and donations, providing the hospital with a daily sum of forty dinars for its expenses.
Figure 9a-b: Views of the Qarawiyyin mosque and university in Fes: (a) from above and (b) glimpse of the courtyard. (Source).
Pharmacists were employed to prepare food and drink and needed medicaments, as well as clothing for the summer and winter for the patients. When a poor patient left the hospital he was given a sum of money until he could find employment. When a rich patient was discharged he received his money and belongings beforehand. The hospital was accessible to rich and poor alike. If a stranger was taken ill in the city, he was admitted and treated until he was well or until he died. Every Friday the monarch rode to the hospital and visited the sick, asking about the state of their health and making inquiries about their needs. The caliph continued this custom until his death ."
6. Fes, the Spiritual Capital of Morocco
Fes is admirable in every respect. Browsing through Burckhardt  one is simply amazed by the uniqueness of the beauty of the city, the purity of colours, and all the expertise of Muslim art gathered in every edifice of the city, especially in its most renowned site, the Qarawwiyin mosque and university.
There is an excellent outline on the founding of Fes by Lévi Provençal based on the account written by Ibn Zar' in Rawdh al-Qirtas . It seems two separate cities were founded in an interval of one year. The date of the foundation is from the early 9th century the work of the Idrisids . Fes soon received an influx of people of diverse origins; Arabs, Berbers, Jews, and also Andalusians from Cordoba who had just been severely repressed by the ruler Al-Hakam I .
The city grew in size and in cultural importance. Available information shows that a strong scientific tradition was established in Fes, although more research is required to assert the full scale of this tradition, its links with that of the Andalus and the profile of the men of science who lived there . The Merinid princes made it the political capital, but also they were able to attract to this city a host of students from all parts of the country by the foundation of a series of colleges or madrassas around the Qarawiyyin mosque of New Fes . The city's greatest claim on the intellectual front is the renowned site of the Qarawiyyin mosque and university.
Figure 10a-b: Two photos of the Al-Lija'i clepsydra located in the room of al-Muwaqqit (time keeper) in the minaret of the Al-Qarawiyyin mosque in Fes. The muwaqqit was the officer charged with the regulation and maintenance of the clocks and with communicating the correct times of prayer to the muezzin. The most important object of the Dar al-Muwaqqit is the water clock of Al-Lija'i made at the order of the Marinid Sultan Abu Salim Ali II (r. 1359-1361) by Abu Zaid Abdurrahman Ibn Suleyman al-Lija'i (d. 1370). Notice the 12 doors under and above the disk; the red wooden structure is the top part of the clock. Source: La clepsydre Al-Lijai.
The first edifice of the Qarawiyyin was built, on the left bank of the Wadi Fas, in 245/859 and was the work of a pious woman, Fatima bint Muhammad al-Fihri, who came from Kayrawan to Fas with her family. She very probably received the authorization to build from the Amir Yahya b. Idris, grandson of Idris II. The first oratory measured on the inside 46.60 m. from east to west and 17.20 m. from north to south and included a prayer hall with four parallel bays in the kibla wall. The Idrisid bays are larger than those of later extensions (4.10 m. as against 3.70 m.) and contain 12 archways: 5 on the west of the axial nave and 6 on the east. There has been no success in finding the motive for this abnormal arrangement; perhaps it should be connected with the alteration suggested by the inscription of 263/877 , and whose author would be the amir Dawud, a grandson of Idris I. The eastern and western boundaries of the initial oratory are marked in the present monument by a line of cruciform pillars which separate it from the extension of the 6th/12th century. The court extended in front of the prayer hall. It was of meagre dimensions. So it is established, by its overall lay-out and its exterior, that this first mosque resembles the sanctuaries which were erected in the 3rd/11th century in the Maghrib al-Aksa and of which al-Bakri gives us information .
At exactly what date can one speak of higher education of the Qarawiyyin? It is really difficult to answer this question with precision. The Moroccan historian the late Muhammad al-Manuni thinks that it is in the reign of the Almoravids that the University really became attached to the mosque ; but the Qarawiyyin was not the only place of worship where there was teaching. At any rate, for some time, the Qarawiyyin was one of the three or four schools of the city, before becoming the principal centre of higher learning in Morocco .
Figure 11: Restoration of the Palace Bricha in the medina (old city) of Tetouan in northern Morocco. The medina of Tetouan was built by refugees who had been expelled from Spain after the Reconquest. It remains a largely untouched example of high Andalusian culture. (Source).
It had a great impact on learning both around the Mediterranean and Europe. It is said that from the beginning of the 12th century and for centuries, the glory of the Qarawiyyyin consisted in its body of scholars (ulamas). Among the scholars who studied and taught there were Ibn Khaldun, Ibn al-Khatib, Al-Bitruji, Ibn Harazim, Ibn Maymun and Ibn Wazzan, the famous Leo Africanus .
Al-Qarawiyyin was endowed principally by royal families and received students from all parts, near and far, from the Maghreb and the Sahara. Students lived in residential quadrangles, which contained two and three story buildings, accommodating between sixty and a hundred and fifty students, who all received a basic allowance for food and accommodation .
At the Qarawiyyin, there were courses on grammar, rhetoric, logic, elements of mathematics and astronomy , and possibly history, geography and elements of chemistry . To gain an even better idea of such teaching, surely, consultation of the actual manuscripts is de rigeur, and some possible leads can be cited here .
To summarize the eminent intellectual fortune of Fes, there is no better conclusion than this short and yet enlightening outline from a contemporary chronicler:
"It was during the reign of the Almohads", writes the chronicler, that, "in its richness and splendour Fes shone at its most magnificent. At that time, it was the most flourishing town in the Maghrib. In the reign of Al-Mansur and his followers, there were in Fes seven hundred and eighty five mosques and zawiyas. There are about 250 today; 240 places of convenience and purification, and 80 public fountains, which were all fed with water from springs and brooks. There were 93 public baths and 472 mills within and alongside the walls, not counting those outside the city."
The same chronicler goes on to mention 89,036 dwelling houses, 19,041 warehouses, 467 funduks (hotels) for the convenience of merchants, travellers, and the homeless; 9,082 shops, two commercial districts, one in the Andalusian district, near the river Masmuda, and the other in the Qayrawanese district; 3,064 workshops, 117 public wash-houses; 86 tanneries; 116 dye works; 12 copper smitheries; 136 bread ovens; and 1,170 other ovens… In Fes there were also 400 paper making shops, which were later destroyed in the years of famine 1221-1241 .'
7. Fes Clocks
Amongst the most remarkable historical objects in the Maghrib are the clocks in Fes. One of these, a water-clock operated by levers and strings and without any complicated gear mechanisms, was located in a room in the minaret of the Qarawiyyin Mosque. It was made in 1286/87 by Ibn al-Habbak al-Tilimsani, and when it was restored in 1346-48 by Abu Abdallah al-'Arabi it was fitted with an astrolabic rete. Alas, the driving mechanism behind the clock is lost without trace, and it is not clear what changes have been made to the front of the clock. But fortunately the astrolabic part survives to this day. It is housed in a cabinet 2.4 metres high and 1.2 metres square; the rete is about 40 cm in diameter, and would have rotated once every 24 hours. It thus could imitate the apparent daily rotation of the heavens about the horizon of Fes, a kind of model of the universe in two dimensions. In addition, metal balls would fall through the doors above the clock every hour .
Another water-clock was constructed in the 14th century next to the Abu 'Inaniyya Madrasa in Fes. Its maker was Abu 'l-Hasan Ibn Ali Ahmad al-Tilimsani, a muwaqqit at the Madrasa. It was a weight powered water clock. The date of its inauguration is on 6 may 1357. The clock itself has now disappeared but the basic device for announcing the hours –operating in a housing about 12 metres long– is still in situ overlooking a street in the medina. The clock consists of 12 windows and platforms - seven of which until now retained their brass bowls. Each hour the clock would eject metal balls which would roll through the device and fall through the little door appropriate to the hour in question onto a series of gongs. Thus the clock would chime every hour, and in between the hours one could tell the time by checking which door was open .
The motion of the clock was presumably maintained by a kind of small cart which ran from left to right behind the twelve doors. The cart was at one end attached to a rope with a hanging weight, at the other end to a rope with a weight that floated on the surface of a water reservoir that was drained at a regular pace. Each hour one of the doors opened. At the same time a metal ball was dropped into one of the twelve brass bowls. The rafters sticking out of the building above the doors supported a small roof to shield the doors and bowls .
The hydraulic clock of the college Abu 'Inaniyya was known as part of Dar al-Magana (clockhouse) which was built together with the madrasa. The Abu 'Inaniyya Madrasa in Fes, is a college founded in 1351-56 CE by the Marinid Sultan Abu Inan Faris who also founded a similar college in Meknes. It is widely acknowledged as a marvel of Marinid architecture. The madrasa functioned as both an educational institute and as a congregational mosque at the same time. It is the only madrasa in Fes which has a minaret .
The model of the clocks built in Fes was known in the past, since the Antiquity and especially in the tradition of Islamic technology. The famous engineer Al-Jazari described their construction in the early 13th century, but the Fes clocks are the sole surviving Islamic examples. Such Islamic astrolabic clocks were not common even in the Middle Ages: we know of other examples only from Cairo, Damascus and Toledo, and there is a description of one in the 13th-century Andalusian astronomical compendium entitled Libros del saber de astronomia, compiled by order of King Alfonso X el Sabio. We are thus singularly fortunate to have some remains of two clocks in Fes, as well as details about their construction recorded by a contemporary historian (al-Jazna'i in his Zahrat al-âs) .
Figure 12 : Photo of the remains of Dar al-Magana (clock house) in Fez at the beginning of the 20th century. This is the clock standing next to the Abu 'Inaniyya Madrasa in Fez. From the twelve little doors metal balls were released into the brass bowls on the lower beams to signal the hours. The rafters on the top level used to support a small roof are now gone. (old image in the public domain).
This is only a brief sketch of the Moroccan contribution to Muslim civilisation. It is unfortunate that, although Morocco's heritage is the object of much admiration, few studies are devoted to it in English, especially in electronic form. The Moroccan contribution to Islamic civilisation, and to the history of the Islamic west in particular, is over shadowed by the intense interest shown by the scholarship to Islamic Spain, of which the history and influence are intimately connected to those of North Africa and of Morocco in particular. Entire spans of Morocco's scientific tradition, historical events, architecture and arts, education and teaching institutions, mechanics, and engineering, are still lacking. It is true, however, that several studies were published in the last decades in Arabic and French. There is a need to present them to the international community. We hope to be able to carry on this task and provide our readers with informative digests.
Figure 13a-b: Two views of Hassân Tower in Rabat, the minaret of an incomplete mosque begun in 1195 CE during the Almohad reign. The tower was intended to be the largest minaret in the world along with the mosque, but its construction was stopped after the death of Ya'qub al-Mansour in 1199 CE. The tower only reached 44m, about half of its intended 86m height. The rest of the mosque was also left incomplete, with only the beginnings of several walls and 200 columns being constructed. The tower, made of red sandstone, along with the remains of the mosque and the modern Mausoleum of Mohammed V, forms an important historical and tourist complex in Rabat. The site of Hassân Tower in Rabat was added to the UNESCO World Heritage tentative list in July 1995 in the Cultural category. ( Source 1 – Source 2).
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 A. Kettani, "Science and Technology in Islam: The Underlying Value System", The Touch of Midas: Science, Values and Environment in Islam and the West, edited by Ziauddin Sardar, Manchester University Press, 1984, pp. 67-90; p. 83.
 A.Udovitch, "Al-Idrisi", op. cit., p. 412.
 P. K. Hitti, "America and the Arab Heritage", The Arab Heritage, edited by N.A. Faris, Princeton University Press, 1944, pp. 1-24; p. 3.
 D. M. Dunlop, Arab Civilisation, op. cit., p. 171.
 S. and N. Ronart, Concise Encyclopaedia of Arabic Civilization, vol. 2: The Arab West, op. cit., p. 174.
 D. M. Dunlop, Arab Civilisation, op. cit., p. 171. See for more references on the work of Al-Idrisi the useful bibliography devoted to him at the conclusion of the article by G. Oman "Al-Idrisi", The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New edition, Leyden, Brill, 1971. The book of Al-Idrisi was translated into French by P. A. Jaubert, Géographie d'Edrisi, Paris, 1836-1840, 2 vols.
 F. Rosenthal, "Ibn Battuta", Dictionary of Scientific Biography, edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1970 ff, vol. 1, pp. 516-7; p. 516.
 Ibn Battuta, Voyages d'Ibn Battuta, Arabic text accompanied by French translation by C. Defremery and B.R. Sanguinetti, preface and notes by Vincent Monteil, I-IV, Paris, 1968, reprint of the 1854 edition.
 Ibn Battuta, Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354, translated and edited by H. A. R. Gibb, London: Broadway House, 1929. See also H. A. R. Gibb, trans, The Travels of Ibn Battuta, Cambridge, Hakluyt Society, 1971, 3 vols.
 F. Rosenthal, "Ibn Battuta", op. cit., p. 517.
 Ibn Battuta, The Travels of Ibn Battuta, transl. H.A.R. Gibb, op. cit.
 Ibid, p. 52.
 Ibid, p. 143.
 Ibid, p. 282 ff.
 M. Husain, The Rehla of Ibn Battuta, Baroda, 1953.
 G. S. P. Freeman-Greenville, The East African Coast, Oxford, 1962.
 G. Sarton, Introduction, op. cit., vol. 3.
 G. Sarton, Introduction, op. cit., vol. II, p. 775.
 For more details on Ibn Sa'id and his works, see Ibn Said: Book of the Maghrib, 13th Century, Internet Medieval Source Book (Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies); M. Kropp, "Ali Ibn Musa Ibn Said al-Magribi und sein Werk al-Gusun al-yania fi mahasin shu'ara' al-mi'a as-sabi'a", Der Islam (Berlin), 1980, vol. 57, no1, pp. 68-96; James Bellamy and Patricia Steiner (editors and translators), The Banners of the Champions: An Anthology of Medieval Arabic Poetry from Andalusia and beyond by Ibn Said al-Maghribi (Madison: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, 1988).
 G. Deverdun, Marrakech, op. cit., p. 262.
 E. Lévi Provençal, "Al-Maghrib", op. cit.
 M. Brett, "Marrakech", op. cit., pp. 150-1.
 R. Landau, Morocco, op. cit., p. 80.
 G. Deverdun, Marrakech, op. cit., pp. 264-5.
 Ibid, p. 262.
 A. L. Mayer, Islamic Astrolabists, Albert Kundig edition, Geneva, 1956.
 G. Deverdun, Marrakech, op. cit., p. 263.
 R. Brunschvig, "Un aspect de la littérature historico-géographique de l'Islam", Mélanges Gaudefroy Demombynes, Le Caire, 1935-45.
 G. Deverdun, Marrakech, op. cit., p. 263.
 M. Brett, Marrakech, op. cit., p. 151.
 Abdel Wahid al-Murrakashi, The History of the Almohads, edited by R. Dozy, Leiden, 1881, p. 209.
 T. Burckhardt, Fez City of Islam, The Islamic Text Society, Cambridge, 1992, p. 73.
 E. Levi Provençal, "La Fondation de Fès", Annales d'Etudes Orientales de l'Université d'Alger, vol. 4, 1938, pp. 23-53; republished in E. Levi Provençal, "La Fondation de Fès", Islam d'Occident, Librairie Orientale et Américaine, Paris, 1948, pp. 1-32.
 E. Lévi Provençal, "La Fondation de Fès", Islam d'Occident, op. cit., pp. 3-4.
 Ibid, pp. 6-7.
 A. Djebbar, Mathematics (online article), op. cit.
 E. Lévi Provençal, "Al-Maghrib", Encyclopaedia of Islam, New edition, vol. 5, 1986, pp. 1208-9.
 G. Deverdun, Une nouvelle inscription idrisite, in Mélanges d'histoire et d'archéologie de l'Occident musulman, ii, Hommage à G. Marcais, Algiers 1957)
 G. Deverdun, "Al-Karawiyyin (masdjid)", Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Brill, 2010 (consulted through Brill Online, John Rylands (Manchester University) subscription, 04 January 2010). See also H. Terrasse, La Mosquée al-Qarawiyyin à Fès, Paris 1968.
 M. Al-Manuni, "Tarikh al-Karawiyyin", in Djami'at al-Karawiyyin, al-Kitab al-dhahabi , Muhammadiyya 1379/1959.
 Bayard Dodge, Muslim Education in Medieval Times; The Middle East Institute, Washington D.C, 1962.
 Some second hand literature asserts that Gerber d'Aurillac (d. 1003), who later became Pope Sylvester II, and who introduced the Arabic numerals into Europe, studied in Al-Qarawiyyin: see Rom Landau, "The Karaouine at Fes", The Muslim World 48 (April 1958): pp. 104-12; p. 105. But as it was shown by modern scholarship this is just a legend.
 B. Dodge: Muslim Education, op. cit., p 27.
 R. Le Tourneau, Fes in the Age of the Merinids, translated from French by B.A. Clement, University of Oklahoma Press, 1961.
 For manuscrits see: E. Lévi Provençal: Les Manuscrips Arabes de Rabat, Paris, 1921; Muhammed al-Fasi: Al-Khizana al-ilmiyya bi Fas, Rabat, 1960; Bibliothèque et archives du Protectorat français au Maroc. Catalogue des manuscrits arabes de Rabat (Bibliothèque générale et archives du Protectorat français au Maroc, Deuxième série 1921-1953), publié par I.S. Allouche et A. Regragui. (Institut des hautes-études marocaines, t. 58). Paris, Librairie orientale et américaine, 1954.
 Rawd al-Qirtas, quoted in T. Burc.
 Abdelhadi Tazi, "Sa'a ma'iya tarji' ila al-qarn al-thamin al-hijri fi manar jami'at al-Qarawiyin bi-Fas" [A water clock dating back to the 8th century H in the minaret of the Qarawiyin university in Fez], Al-Bahth al-'ilmi (Rabat), n° 34, 1988, pp. 19-31.
 Dabid A. King: "On the History of Astronomy in the Medieval Maghrib", in Etudes d'Histoire des Sciences Arabes, textes réunis et présentés par Mohammed Abattouy, Casablanca: Publications de la Fondation du Roi Abdulaziz pour les sciences humaines et les études islamiques, 2007, p. 190-191; D.J. de Solla Price, "Mechanical Water Clocks of the XIVth Century in Fez, Morocco", Proceedings of the Tenth International Congress for the History of Science (Ithaca, N. Y., 1962), pp. 599-602.
 Rajae Tazi, L'horloge Hydraulique Bouanania, une énigme enfin perçue par des spécialistes du patrimoine, in Jeunes Du Maroc, Portail des Jeunes, December 16, 2004.
 Robert Hillenbrand, Islamic Architecture. NY: Columbia University Press, 1994, pp. 240-251; Hoag, John. 1987. Islamic Architecture. NY: Rizzoli, 57-59; Michell, George, ed. 1996. Architecture of the Islamic World. London: Thames & Hudson, 216; R. le Toureau, Fes in the Age of the Marinides, Oklahoma: Norman: 1961, pp. 120–7; Blair, Sheila S. ; Bloom, Jonathan M. The art and architecture of Islam, 1250 - 1800. New Haven and London : Yale University Press, 1994. pp. 122 – 123; Pickens et al. 1995. Maroc: Les Cites Imperiales. Paris: ACR Edition.
 Al-Jazna'i, Zahrat al-âs, ed. A. Bel, Algiers: Editions Jules Carbonel, 1923, pp. 38-39 (Arabic text) and pp. 92-93 (French translation).
* The original article was produced by Salah Zaimeche, Salim Al-Hassani and Lamaan Ball. The members of the new FSTC Research Team have re-edited and revised this new version. The team now comprises of Mohammed Abattouy, Salim Al-Hassani, Mohammed El-Gomati, Salim Ayduz, Savas Konur, Cem Nizamoglu, Anne-Maria Brennan, Maurice Coles, Ian Fenn, Amar Nazir and Margaret Morris.
by: FSTC Research Team, Tue 26 January, 2010