Ibn Alqama

Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn al-Khālaf, called Ibn ʿAlqāmā (1036/37–1116 AD [428–509 AH]), was an Andalusi Muslim official and historian.

A native of the city of Valencia, he wrote a history of the fall of the city to the Christian army of El Cid in 1094 under the title Clear Exposition of the Disastrous Tragedy. He may have completed it before the death of El Cid in 1099,

Ibn ʿAlqāmā was a partisan of the Almoravids. He writes with pathos and clearly detests all agreements between the Valencians and the Christians. His account is lively, as well as detailed to the point of triviality. He believed that the Christian sources preserved more and better information from Ibn ʿAlqāmā than the Muslim chronicles, and tried to tease it out accordingly. His position is not now widely accepted. which was later also translated into Spanish.

Ibn ʿAlqāmā died in Dénia in 1116.