Spain: Pages from 'A Guide to Achieving Goals' a manuscript of 149 zejel, or poems,...

Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Quzman (1078-1160 CE) was born and died in Cordoba. He is one of the most famous poets of al-Andalus and he is also considered to be one of its most original. He is the author of classical poetry, but above all of zejels. Characteristic of the zejel or zajal is its colloquial language, as well as a typical rhyming scheme: aaab cccb dddb where b rhymes with a constantly recurring refrain of one or two lines. Ibn Quzman is often compared to the troubadours. His approach to life as expressed in these melodious poems, together with their mixed idiom (occasionally using words of the Romance languages), shows a resemblance to the later vernacular troubadour poetry of France. A collection of poems by Ibn Quzman (Spanish 'Cancionero') was rediscovered in Saint Petersburg in 1881.