Ibn Jubayr

Ibn Jubayr was a geographer, traveler and poet from alAndalus. His travel chronicle describes the pilgrimage he made to Mecca from 1183 to 1185, in the years preceding the Third Crusade. His chronicle describes Saladins domains in Egypt and the Levant which he passed through on his way to Mecca. Further, on his return journey he passed through Christian Sicily, which had only been recaptured from the Muslims a century before, and he makes several observations on the hybrid polyglot culture which flourished there.

Ibn Jubayr was born in 1145 A.D. in Valencia, Spain. He was a descendant of AbdalSalam ibn Jabayr who in 740 A.D. had accompanied an army sent by the Caliph of Damascus to put down a Berber uprising in his Spanish provinces. Ibn Jubayr studied in the town of Jtiva where his father worked as a civil servant. He later became secretary to the Almohad governor of Granada.

Source: Wikipedia