The Strait of Gibraltar as the ‘meeting of the two seas’ from the Quran: References in medieval Spanish and North African texts

Abstract

In the Quran, there is a story in which Moses accidentally loses a fish at a place called the ‘meeting of the two seas’. While there are different interpretations, some Islamic scholars in Andalusia (medieval Spain) claimed that the ‘meeting of the two seas’ was a reference to the Strait of Gibraltar. Accordingly, they claimed that near Ceuta, there was an unusual-looking fish that was the offspring of the fish from the Quran, and that people called it ‘Moses’ fish’. As it turns out, this purported fish was based on something that actually existed.