Ibn Sahib al-Salat

Abū Marwān ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Ṣāḥib al-Ṣalāt al-Bājī ( –1198) was an Arab Andalusī historian under the Almohads.

Little is known of the life of Ibn Ṣāḥib al-Ṣalāt. His nisba indicates that his family came from Beja. He himself may have been born there or perhaps in Seville, where he spent his formative years and most of his life. He was studying theology in Marrakesh in 1165. His writings show that he was an eyewitness to many important events, including the Almohad conquest of Carmona in 1161, the fasts ordered in Marrakesh to celebrate the Caliph Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf's recovery from illness in 1170 and the battle of Huete in 1172. He was a ḥāfiẓ. He was still living in 1198.

Ibn Ṣāḥib al-Ṣalāt's main work is al-Mann bi ʾl-imāma ʿala ʾmustaḍʿafīn bi-an jaʿalahum Allāh al-aʿimma wa-jaʿalahum al-wārithīn ('Gift of the Imamate to the Formerly Humiliated, Whom God Has Made Imams and Heirs'). Only the second volume of this work survives, covering the years 1159–1172 (AH 554–568). It is known from a single copy in the manuscript Marsh 433 in the Bodleian Library. It is especially important for its information on the inner workings of the Almohad administration. It has been edited and there is a Spanish translation. Ibn Ṣāḥib al-Ṣalāt is also sometimes cited as an authority by other authors, such as Ibn al-Qaṭṭān.

Ibn Ṣāḥib al-Ṣalāt also wrote Thawrat al-murīdīn ('Revolution of the Disciples'), a history of the second period of taifas (factional kingdoms) that followed the collapse of the Almoravids. It is lost, but is partially known from citations by other authors, such as Ibn al-Khaṭīb.