French / Morocco
Tarik Ibn Zyad = Ṭāriq Ībn-Zīyād
(Tarik Ibn Zyad)
Daoud, Zakya
(text)
Bravo, Alessia
(illus.)
Rabat: Marsam, [2015]. – [46] p.
ISBN 978-9954-21-396-4
Text French and Arabic
Iberian Peninsula | History 8th century | Tariq ibn Ziyad | Non-fiction | Picture book | Bilingual book
Reading age: 8+
White Ravens issue: 2016
This non-fiction picture book covers the conquering of the Visigoth empire in the 8th century from the perspective of the Muslim field captain Tariq Ibn Ziyad. In the spring of 711, the Berber arrives on the Iberian Peninsula with a Moorish army and shortly thereafter in a legendary battle defeats the Visigoths, who were led by King Roderic. In this bilingual Arabic-French picture book, Zakya Daoud describes Tarik as a brave, loyal man of great integrity. She here takes a refreshing new perspective on the well-worn myth of the “traumatic conquering of the Iberian Peninsula by the Arabs.” Here the field captain becomes a figure to identify with, thanks also to Alessia Bravo’s artistic black-and-white drawings. Tarik is here depicted as a representative of an illustrious past, in which Arabic cultures often surpassed the Western Christian countries and cultures not only militarily, but in many domains.