Description of the place in Ibn Jubayr's journey between geography and literature

Abstract

This research aims to regulate the relationship between literature and geography in the journey of Ibn Jubayr, which is an overlapping relationship where literature intersects with other arts of knowledge in the Arab heritage to such an extent that it is difficult to set boundaries and borders between them. Ibn Jubayr's journey is no exception; we find that it is enriched by a set of artistic and stylistic elements that usually characterize literature such as flowery style, accurate description, powerful imagery, a subjective tendency, agitation with the descriptions, the overlapping of prose and verse, and the spatial polarities that translate an abundance of diverse human feelings. Add to this the fact that literature constitutes an integral part of the formation of people’s geographical imagination through what has been written about the city, the countryside and the people’s complexions.

Key words: Literature, geography, imagery, representational expression, expressive description, spatial polarities