Kitabü'l-İzz ve'l-Menâfi

Kitâbü’l-İzz ve’l-Menâfiʻ, also known as Kitabü'l-İzz ve'l-Menâfiʻ li'l-Mücâhidîn fî Sebili'llâh bi'l-Müdâfiʻ (The Book of Dignity and Benefits for Those Fighting in the Path of God with Weapons and Cannons), was authored by Al-Rais Ibrahim b. Ahmed Arribaş Al-Andalusi, a Muslim sailor and artillery expert from Al-Andalus. This work provides detailed information on artillery and military weapons.

Ibrahim Reis was born around 1550–1560 in the village of Nigüelas in Granada. After the expulsion of Muslims from Al-Andalus to exile, he migrated from Granada to Seville, where he worked on galleons transporting valuable minerals from Spain to the Americas, gaining practical experience in navigation and artillery. He also attended meetings of artillery specialists aboard ships and had the opportunity to study various treatises on the subject.

Due to events involving Muslims and Christians in Spain, Ibrahim Reis was imprisoned in a duration, but after his release, he moved to Tunisia. Appointed by the Bey of Tunis, he took command of armed Andalusian sailors and participated in wars against Christians. During a battle, Ibrahim Reis was captured and remained a prisoner for seven years before regaining his freedom and returning to Tunis. While serving at Halkulvad Castle, he deepened his knowledge of artillery. Observing the difficulties involved in the manufacture and use of cannons, he felt the need to write a book on the subject and completed his work in 1632 after beginning it in 1630.

The work was written in Aljamiado, that is, in Spanish using the Arab script. While composing Kitabü’l-İzz ve’l-Menâfiʻ, Ibrahim Reis drew upon the following important sources:

• Louis Colloda’s Platica Manual de Artilleria (Manual on Artillery) (Milan, 1592),
• Cristoval Lechuga’s Dicurso de la Artilleria (Treatise on Artillery) (Milan, 1611),
• Diego Ufano’s Tratado de Artilleria (Treatise on Artillery) (Brussels, 1613).

In his work, Ibrahim Reis meticulously integrated the knowledge he acquired from these books with his own experiences and observations.

Illustrations of a howitzer as depicted in Ibrahim Reis’s work. (Source: Süleymaniye Ktb. Hafız Ahmed Paşa, nr. 1122, vrk. 71)

In 1638, the work was translated into Arabic by Ahmed b. November b. Ahmed el-Fakıh Kasım b. el-Sheikh el-Hucri el-Endülüsî, the interpreter of the sultans of Marrakesh. Arabic copies, reproduced by the translator’s son Muhammad Teacher, were distributed throughout the Islamic world, and one copy was presented to Ottoman Sultan IV. Murad. The work, consisting of fifty chapters, contains information on loading cannons, projectile trajectories, transportation and deployment of artillery, as well as the invention of gunpowder and the development of firearms. The original Aljamiado manuscript, however, has not survived to the present day. This work was presented in 1902 by the Cairo-based scholar Ahmed Zeki Pasha at the XIIIth International Congress of Orientalists in Hamburg and subsequently gained recognition in the academic world.