"Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Suleiman ibn Rabi al-Qaysi, known more conveniently to posterity as Abu Hamid Al-Garnati and so named after his hometown of Granada ('Garnata'), sailed, caravanned, traded and trekked from the Arab West to the northern- and easternmost reaches of the Islamic world and beyond. Born in the year 1080 under the last of the Zirid kings, he was a merchant and a scholar who, in a 90-year lifetime, wrote on a variety of subjects in two works following the literary tradition called kutub al-‘aja’ib in Arabic, or 'books of wonder'—a genre that he helped to define. As one might expect from the name, a 'book of wonders' is not only what one sees and hears on one’s travels, but also what one could not have possibly seen because it did not then nor did it ever exist. At the same time, these 'wonders'—of legendary places, mythical people and wholly imagined events—make for good reading. ..."
Aramco World
2016 March: Travelers of Al-Andalus, Part VI: The Double Lives of Ibn al-Khatib, 2017 April: Travelers of Al-Andalus, Part I: The Travel Writer
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