Abu Ishaq al-Ilbiri

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.), signed by S. M. Stern, describes an Andalusian jurist and poet from Elvira (Ilbira), who was secretary to the qadi 'Ali b. Muhammad b. Tawba under the Zirid Badis b. Habus of Granada. He protested against the growing influence of the Jews in Granada, especially of Samuel ha-Nagid Ibn Naghrela and his son Joseph, who succeeded him in 448/1056-7. The article says that Joseph had Badis confine the faqih to a ribat in the Sierra of Elvira. His political poem, which the article treats as one of the causes of the pogrom at Granada on 9 Safar 459/30 December 1066, in which Joseph and some 3,000 Jews were killed, and he himself died at the end of 459/1067. He left a collection of ascetic poems, of which one manuscript survives in the Escorial. ¹