Abà « Muḥammad ÿAbd AllÃÂh ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-TijÃÂnë ( 1275âÂÂ1311) was a chancery official and author in the Hafsid Caliphate. He is best known for his Riḥla, an account of his travels in 1306âÂÂ1309 and a detailed description of the land between Tunis and Tripoli.
Al-TijÃÂnë's family was of Moroccan origin. His great-great-grandfather Abu þl-QÃÂsim is said to have come to Tunis after it was conquered by the Almohad caliph Abd al-Mu'min in 1159. The last known member of the family, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-TijÃÂnë, died in 1464.
Al-TijÃÂnë studied first under his father and later under Abà « Bakr ibn ÿAbd al-Karëm al-Ã¿à ªfë; Abu þl-QÃÂsim al-KalÃÂÿë, author of the Sëra al-kalÃÂÿiyya; and Abà « ÿAlë ÿUmar. He had an ample personal library and access to the Hafsid library. Among works he is known to have possessed are the Sëra al-nabawiyya of Ibn IsḥÃÂq, Yaḥyàibn SallÃÂm's commentary on the QurþÃÂn and the ÿUmda of Ibn Rashëq.
Al-TijÃÂnë entered the Hafsid chancery during the reign of Abà « ÿAṣëda Muḥammad II (1295âÂÂ1309). He left to become a secretary and later chief secretary for Abà « YaḥyàZakariyyÃÂþ al-LiḥyÃÂnë. He accompanied al-LiḥyÃÂnë as his chief secretary on his military expedition in 1306âÂÂ1307. In July or August 1308, when al-LiḥyÃÂnë set out from Tripoli on his Ḥajj, al-TijÃÂnë returned to Tunis. When al-LiḥyÃÂnë was acclaimed caliph in November 1311, he named al-TijÃÂnë as the head of the chancery. This is the last that is heard of al-TijÃÂnë and it has been mooted that he may have died in the battle of Siliana in 1318.
Al-TijÃÂnë is known to have written at least nine works, but six are thought to be lost. Of the remaining three, two have been published.
The Riḥla belongs to the genre of the same name. It is an account of al-TijÃÂnë's 32-month journey from Tunis to Tripoli and back, first published with a French translation in 1852âÂÂ1853 and in a critical edition by Hassan Husni Abd al-Wahhab in 1958. It includes valuable quotations from lost works and documents, including the works of some poets of Tunis.
The original plan behind the journey was that al-LiḥyÃÂnë would conduct military operations and then meet a caravan returning from Morocco and travel with it to Egypt before continuing on to Mecca. The Riḥla begins with the march of the army from Tunis to Gabès in two weeks in late 1306. From January to April 1307, campaigns were launched against Djerba and Tozeur. On 1 May, the army was sent back to Tunis while al-TijÃÂnë remained with al-LiḥyÃÂnë in the vicinity of Gabès. Because of an outbreak of disease at Gabès, al-LiḥyÃÂnë accepted the invitation of the chief of the MahÃÂmëd to host them at Ghomrassen, a four days' journey away. They first followed the coastal road for two days through Teboulbou and Mareth to a place called AjÃÂss near Metameur. They then turned inland. Finding Ghomrassen ill-suited to camping after a month, they built a permanent house and stayed there another two months.
At Ghomrassen, al-LiḥyÃÂnë fell ill and reports were received of a serious epidemic between Tripoli and Barqa. They were also informed that the Moroccan sultan, Abà « Yaÿqà «b Yà «suf, had been assassinated, almost certainly delaying the return of the diplomatic caravan. In September, the party set out for Tripoli to await the caravan there. They travelled for four days eastwards to TÃÂdhir in territory. Accepting the invitation of the JawÃÂrë chief, al-LiḥyÃÂnë detoured to Zanzà «r, five days away. Al-TijÃÂnë describes the villages and zÃÂwiyas and the ruins of Sabratha that they passed along the way.
At Zanzà «r, al-LiḥyÃÂnë was informed by the chief of the Banà « SÃÂlim that his safety could not be guaranteed through his territory on account of rebellions. He decided to move his party to Tripoli, where it stayed in the dilapidated citadel for the next eighteen months. Al-TijÃÂnë describes the city in great detail. In June 1309, the caravan arrived from Morocco and the party set out for Egypt. Five days later, al-TijÃÂnë fell ill. The entire caravan camped for five days waiting for him to recover before al-LiḥyÃÂnë advised him to go home. He travelled on the next day, but was unable to mount a horse and chose to return to Tunis. He was escorted back by the same escort that had accompanied the caravan from Tunis. The return journey took four weeks. He calculated his absence from Tunis as 970 days.