Nur ed-Din al-Musafir was a man of the 12th century who traveled extensively in Asia, Africa and Europe and wrote memoirs of his visits.
According to a rare manuscript in Persian, al-Musafir described a visit to Cordoba and his meeting with a man who said he had seen the cup of Isa. That man saw it near the source of a river which he reached after traveling south from an oasis.
Muhammad Ali al-Jawf was a scholar who studied al-Musafir's writings in Qom and in 1909 shared this important information with Henry Jones.
Behind the scenes[]
Nureddin or Nur al-Din is an Arabic name meaning "light of religion". Al-Musafir means "the traveler"; used as an epithet, it means that the character was a traveler and explorer.
Al-Musafir is mentioned only in two entries of the Grail Diary from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure. His nationality is not revealed; his connection to Cordoba might mean his is a Moor; his manuscript is mentioned to be "Persian" but it is not certain if it was his native language.
A contemporary historical figure of the same name is the Moorish philsopher Nur ad-Din al-Bitruji from Cordoba.