A Wondrous Past, a Dangerous Present: The Egyptian Temple of Akhmīm and the Martorana Church in palermo, as Seen through Ibn Jubayr's Travelogue

Abstract

In the context of the major changes which occurred between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries in the Mediterranean region, this article focuses on two passages from the famous travelogue of a Muslim author from al-Andalus, Ibn Jubayr's Riḥla: the description of the ancient Egyptian temple of Akhmīm, and that of the Church of St. Mary of the Admiral, in Palermo—now better known as the Martorana. Both passages are considered within the framework of the traveller's two-year journey as a pilgrim (1183-1185) and, through a close comparative reading, this article suggests that Ibn Jubayr's different treatment of the two buildings reflects contemporary transformations in the balance of power within and outside the Islamic world. It shows how these upheavals affected the Muslim author's way of conceptualizing his own world and that of ancient and contemporaneous Others.