Ibn 'Aliwa - Ibn Hayyan

Ibn ‘Aliwa
Ibn ‘Aliwa (1869-1934).  Sufi poet of Mostaganem in Algeria.  His intellectual amplitude went hand in hand with a profound conservatism and an implacable orthodoxy.  By the time of his death, he was said to have many disciples, from North Africa, Damascus, Addis Adaba and Europe.

Ibn al-Jadd
Ibn al-Jadd. Family which was famous and influential at Seville and Njebla during the eleventh through the twelfth centuries.  Worth mentioning are Abu‘l-Qasim (d. 1121) and Abu Bakr Muhammad (1102-1190).

Ibn al-Jawzi, ‘Abd al-Rahman
Ibn al-Jawzi, ‘Abd al-Rahman (‘Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Jawzi) (Abu'l-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi) (1126-1200).  Hanbali jurisconsult, traditionist, historian and preacher in Baghdad.  He was one of the most influential persons in the ‘Abbasid capital, as much through his activity in the university as through his preaching, especially during the reign of the ‘Abbasid Caliph al-Mustadi‘ bi-Amr Allah.  He fell in disgrace during the reign of the Caliph al-Nasir li-Din Allah, who sent him in exile to the town of Wasit in 1194.  In 1199, he made a triumphant return to the capital.  He was one of the most prolific writers of Arabic literature.  As a historian, he is especially known for his history of the caliphate from 871 to 1179, an exceptionally rich source; for his history of Sufism; and for his laudatory biographies.

Ibn al-Jawzi was an Islamic scholar whose family traces their lineage back to that of Abu Bakr, the famous companion of the prophet Muhammad and first caliph. He belonged to the Hanbali school of jurisprudential thought.

He was known for his works in exegesis of the Qur'an as well as his numerous hadith writings. One of the more famous of the latter is his "Tahqiq", a compendium of both the hadith evidence used by the Hanbali school of jurisprudential thought and a work of comparative law (Arabic: fiqh). He is said to have been a precocious child who allegedly made his first speech at the age of ten (attended by a crowd of 50,000), and authored his first book at the age of thirteen.

Ibn al-Jawzi is perhaps the most prolific author in Islamic history. The number of Ibn al-Jawzi’s books reached a staggering total of 376 texts. His works include:

    * Al-Tahqiq
    * A Great Collection of Fabricated Traditions (Al-Mawdu'at al-Kubra)
    * Al-Muntazam fi Tarikh al-Umam (A categorical collection of the history of the nations)

Quranic Sciences

    * Al-Mughni fi al-Tafsir, 81 parts
    * Zad al-Masir fi ‘Ilm al-Tafsir, 4 volumes
    * Taysir al-Bayan fi Tafsir al-Quran
    * Tadhkirat al-Arib fi Tafsir al-Gharib
    * Gharib al-Gharib
    * Nuzhat al-‘Uyun al-Nawadhir fi al-Wujuh wa al-Nadha’ir
    * Al-Wujuh wa al-Nawadhir fi al-Wujuh wa al-Nadha’ir, a summary of Nuzhat al-‘Uyun al-Nawadhir
    * Al-Ishara ila al-Qira’at al-Mukhtara, 4 parts
    * Tadhkirat al-Mutanabbih fi ‘Uyun al-Mushtabih
    * Funun al-Afnan fi ‘Uyun ‘Ulum al-Quran
    * Ward al-Aghsan fi Funun al-Afnan
    * ‘Umdat al-Rasikh fi Ma’rifat al-Mansukh wa al-Nasikh, 5 parts
    * Al-Musaffa bi Akuffi Ahl al-Rusukh min ‘Ilm al-Nasikh wal-Mansukh

Theology

    * Muntaqad al-Mu’taqid
    * Minhaj al-Wusul ila ‘Ilm al-Usul, 5 parts
    * Bayan Ghaflat al-Qa’il bi Qidam Af’al al-‘Ibad
    * Ghawamidh al-Ilahiyat
    * Maslak al-‘Aql
    * Minhaj Ahl al-Isaba
    * Al-Sirr al-Masun
    * Daf’ Shubhat al-Tashbih, 4 parts
    * Al-Radd ‘Ala al-Muta’assib al-‘Anid

Traditions and Asceticism

    * Jami’ al-Asanid bi Alkhas al-Asanid
    * Al-Hada’iq, 34 parts
    * Naqiy al-Naql, 5 parts
    * Al-Mujtab
    * Al-Nuzha, 2 parts
    * ‘Uyun al-Hikayat
    * Multaqat al-Hikayat, 13 parts
    * Irshad al-Muridin fi Hikayat al-Salaf al-Salihin
    * Rawdhat al-Naqil
    * Ghurar al-Athar, 30 parts
    * Al-Tahqiq fi Ahadith al-Ta’liq, 2 volumes
    * Al-Madih, 7 parts
    * Al-Mawdhu’at min al-Ahadith al-Marfu’at, 2 volumes
    * Al-‘Ilal al-Mutanahiya fi al-Ahadith al-Wahiya, 2 volumes
    * Ikhbar Ahl al-Rusukh fi al-Fiqh wal-Tahdith bi Miqdar al-Mansukh min al-Hadith
    * Al-Sahm al-Musib, 2 parts
    * Akhyar al-Dhakha’ir, 3 parts
    * Al-Fawa’id ‘an al-Shuyukh, 60 parts
    * Manaqib Ashab al-Hadith
    * Mawt al-Khidhr
    * Mukhtasar Mawt al-Khidhr
    * Al-Mashyikha
    * Al-Musalsalat
    * Al-Muhtasab fi al-Nasab
    * Tuhfat al-Tullab, 3 parts
    * Tanwir Mudlahim al-Sharaf
    * Al-Alqab
    * Fadha’il ‘Umar b. al-Khattab
    * Fadha’il ‘Umar b. ‘Abd al-‘Aziz
    * Fadha’il Sa’id b. al-Musayyab
    * Fadha’il al-Hasan al-Basri
    * Manaqib al-Fudhayl b. ‘Ayadh, 4 parts
    * Manaqib Bishr al-Hafi, 7 parts
    * Manaqib Ibrahim b. Adham, 6 parts
    * Manaqib Sufyan al-Thawri
    * Manaqib Ahmad b. Hanbal
    * Manaqib Ma’ruf al-Karkhi, 2 parts
    * Manaqib Rabi’a al-‘Adawiyya
    * Muthir al-‘Azm al-Sakin ila Ashraf al-Amakin
    * Safwat al-Safwa, 5 parts, abridgment of Hilyat al-Awliya’ by Abu Nu’aym
    * Minhaj al-Qasidin, 4 parts
    * Al-Mukhtar min Akhbar al-Akhyar
    * Al-Qati’ li Muhal al-Lijaj bi Muhal al-Hallaj, a rebuttal against the supporters of al-Hallaj, the pantheist who was executed by          the agreement of the jurists from four schools.
    * ‘Ujalat al-Muntadhar li Sharh Hal al-Khidhr
    * Al-Nisa’ wa ma yata’alluq bi adabihin
    * ‘Ilm al-Hadith al-Manqul fi Anna Aba Bakr Amma al-Rasul
    * Al-Jawhar
    * Al-Mughlaq

History

    * Talqih Fuhum Ahl al-Athar fi ‘Uyun al-Tawarikh wa al-Siyar
    * Al-Muntazam fi Tarikh al-Muluk wal-Umam, 10 volumes
    * Shudhur al-‘Uqud fi Tarikh al-‘Uhud
    * Tara’if al-Dhara’if fi Tarikh al-Sawalif
    * Manaqib Baghdad
    * Al-Wafa bi Fadha’il al-Mustafa, biography of the Prophet, 2 volumes

Fiqh

    * al-Insaf fi Masa’il al-Khilaf
    * Junnat al-Nadhir wa Jannat al-Nadhar
    * ‘Umad al-Dala’il fi Mushtahar al-Masa’il
    * Al-Mudhab fi al-Madhab
    * Masbuk al-Dhahab
    * Al-Nubdha
    * Al-‘Ibadat al-Khams
    * Asbab al-Hidaya li Arbab al-Bidaya
    * Kashf al-Dhulma ‘an al-Dhiya’ fi Radd Da’wa Ilkiya
    * Radd al-Lawm al-Dhaym fi Sawm Yawm al-Ghaym

Art of Preaching (wa’dh)

    * al-Yawaqit fi al-Khutab
    * al-Muntakhab fi al-Nuwab
    * Muntakhab al-Muntakhab
    * Muntakhal al-Muntakhab
    * Nasim al-Riyadh
    * Al-Lu’lu’
    * Kanz al-Mudhakkir
    * Al-Azaj
    * Al-Lata’if
    * Kunuz al-Rumuz
    * Al-Muqtabis
    * Zayn al-Qisas
    * Mawafiq al-Marafiq
    * Shahid wa Mashhud
    * Wasitat al-‘Uqud min Shahid wa Mashhud
    * Al-Lahab, 2 parts
    * Al-Mudhish
    * Saba Najd
    * Muhadathat al-‘Aql
    * Laqt al-Juman
    * Al-Muq’ad al-Muqim
    * Iqadh al-Wasnan min al-Raqadat bi Ahwal al-Haywan wal-Nabat, 2 parts
    * Nakt al-Majalis al-Badriyya, 2 parts
    * Nuzhat al-Adib, 2 parts
    * Muntaha al-Muntaha
    * Tabsirat al-Mubtadi’, 20 parts
    * Al-Yaquta, 2 parts
    * Tuhfat al-Wu’adh

Various sciences

    * Dham al-Hawa, 2 volumes
    * Sayd al-Khatir, 65 parts
    * Ihkam al-Ish’ar bi Ahkam al-Ash’ar, 20 parts
    * Al-Qussas al-Mudhakkirin
    * Taqwim al-Lisan
    * Al-Adhkiya
    * Al-Hamqa
    * Talbis Iblis, 2 volumes
    * Laqt al-Manafi’ fi al-Tibb, 2 volumes
    * Al-Shayb al-Khidhab
    * A’mar al-A’yan
    * Al-Thabat ‘ind al-Mamat, 2 parts
    * Tanwir al-Ghabash fi Fadhl al-Sud wal-Habash, 2 parts
    * Al-Hath ‘ala Hifdh al-‘Ilm wa Dhikr Kibar al-Huffadh
    * Ashraf al-Mawali, 2 parts
    * I’lam al-Ahya bi Aghlat al-Ihya, a criticism of Ihya ‘Ulum al-Din by al-Ghazzali
    * Tahrim al-Muhill al-Makruh
    * Al-Misbah al-Mudhi’ li Dawlat al-Imam al-Mustadhi’
    * ‘Atf al-‘Ulama ‘ala al-Umara wal-Umara ‘ala al-‘Ulama
    * Al-Nasr ‘Ala Misr
    * Al-Majd al-‘Adhudi
    * Al-Fajr al-Nuri
    * Manaqib al-Sitr al-Rafi’
    * Ma Qultuhu min al-Ash’ar
    * Al-Maqamat
    * Min Rasa’ili
    * Al-Tibb al-Ruhani
    * Bayan al-Khata wal-Sawab fi Ahadith Ibn Shihab, 16 parts
    * Al-Baz al-Ashhab al-Munqadh ‘ala man Khalafa al-Madhab, a treatise in Fiqh
    * Al-Nur fi Fadha’il al-Ayyam wal-Shuhur
    * Taqrib al-Tariq al-Ab’ad fi Fadha’il Maqbarat Ahmad
    * Manaqib al-Imam al-Shafi’i
    * Al-‘Uzlah
    * Al-Riyadha
    * Minhaj al-Isaba fi Mahabat al-Sahaba
    * Funun al-Albab
    * Al-Dhurafa wal-Mutamajinin
    * Manaqib Abi Bakr
    * Manaqib ‘Ali
    * Fadha’il al-‘Arab
    * Durrat al-Iklil fi al-Tarikh, 4 volumes
    * Al-Amthal
    * Al-Manfa’ah fi al-Madhahib al-Arba’ah, 2 volumes
    * Al-Mukhtar min al-Ash’ar, 10 volumes
    * Ru’us al-Qawarir, 2 volumes
    * Al-Murtajal fi al-Wa’dh
    * Dhakhirat al-Wa’idh, several volumes
    * Al-Zajr al-Makhuf
    * Al-Ins wal-Mahabba
    * Al-Mutrib al-Mulhib
    * Al-Zand al-Wariy fi al-Wa’dh al-Nasiriy, 2 parts
    * Al-Fakhir fi Ayyam al-Imam al-Nasir
    * Al-Majd al-Salahi
    * Lughat al-Fiqh, 2 parts
    * ‘Aqd al-Khanasir fi Dhamm al-Khalifat al-Nasir
    * Dhamm ‘Abd al-Qadir, a censure of ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jaylani
    * Gharib al-Hadith
    * Mulah al-Ahadith, 2 parts
    * Al-Fusul al-Wa’dhiya ‘ala Huruf al-Mu’jam
    * Salwat al-Ahzan, 10 volumes
    * Al-Ma’shuq fil-Wa’dh
    * Al-Majahlis al-Yusufiyya fil-Wa’dh
    * Al-Wa’dh al-Maqbari
    * Qiyam al-Layl, 3 parts
    * Al-Muhadatha
    * Al-Munaja
    * Zahir al-Jawahir fil-Wa’dh, 4 parts
    * Al-Nuhat al-Khawatim, 2 parts
    * Al-Murtaqa li man Ittaqa
    * Hawashi ‘ala Sihah al-Jawhari
    * Mukhtasar Funun Ibn ‘Aqil, 10 odd volumes

Theology

Ibn al-Jawzi is famous for the theological stance that he took against other Hanbalites of the time, in particular Ibn al-Zaghuni and al-Qadi Abu Ya'la. He believed that these and other Hanbalites had gone to extremes in affirming God's Attributes, so much so that he accused them of tarnishing the reputation of Hanbalites and making it synonymous with extreme anthropomorphism. Ibn al-Jawzi believed that Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal himself disapproved of such theology. Ibn al-Jawzi's most famous work in this regard is his Daff' Shubah al-Tashbih.
'Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Jawzi see Ibn al-Jawzi, ‘Abd al-Rahman
Abu'l-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi see Ibn al-Jawzi, ‘Abd al-Rahman

Ibn al-Jawzi, Sibt
Ibn al-Jawzi, Sibt (Sibt ibn al-Jawzi) (Abu-Muzaffar) (Yusuf ibn Abd-Allah) (1185-1256).   Preacher and historian.  A grandson of ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Jawzi, he abandoned Hanbalism for Hanafism.  He is the author of an expansive universal history.  The work is of great value not only for his own period but also for the tenth through eleventh centuries because he preserved in extenso and without criticism the versions of sources which often no longer survive.

Yusuf ibn Abd-Allah, famously known as Sibt ibn al-Jawzi or Abu-Muzaffar, was a famous scholar. He was the grandson of the great Hanbali scholar Abul-Faraj Ibn Al-Jawzi who is known for his works such as A Great Collection of Fabricated Traditions (Arabic: Al-Mawdu'at al-Kubra) and the Provision of the Journey (Arabic:Zad Al-Maseer).  His name "Sibt ibn al-Jawzi" denotes that he is the "Sibt" or grandson from his daughter, or his daughter's son (as opposed to the "hafeed" which is the grandson from the son, or the son's son.)

Yusuf is known to be Sunni. He followed the Hanafi school of jurisprudential thought. He was known for his high intellect and diligence in research.

Born in Baghdad, in his formative years he was raised on Hanbali educational materials, yet when his family moved to Mosul, Iraq, he began his Hanafi education.  He was known for his book "Mir’at al-zaman" his famous work of history, that is reported to be forty volumes long in his own handwriting.

Yusuf died in Damascus, in his home atop Mount Qasiyun, and was buried there.

The works of Sibt ibn al-Jawzi include:

    * "Mir’at al-zaman" was his famous work of history.
    * The Defense and Advocacy of the True School of Law (Arabic: al-Intisar wa al-Tarjih li al-Madhhab al-Sahih) - in praise of Abu Hanifa and his school.

Sibt ibn al-Jawzi see Ibn al-Jawzi, Sibt
Abu-Muzaffar see Ibn al-Jawzi, Sibt
Yusuf ibn Abd-Allah see Ibn al-Jawzi, Sibt

Ibn al-Jazzar
Ahmed Ben Jaafar Ben Brahim Ibn al-Jazzar al-Qayrawani (c. 895 – c. 979) (Arabic: أبو جعفر أحمد بن أبي خالد بن الجزار القيرواني‎), was an influential 10th-century Muslim physician who became famous for his writings on Islamic medicine. He was born in Qayrawan in modern-day Tunisia. He was known in Europe by the Latinized name Algizar.

We know the biography of Ibn al-Jazzar only by an Andalusian physician Ibn Joljol and he only knew it by his student Ibn Bariq, who went to Qayrawan, Tunisia to learn medicine. The writers of Tabakates or "classes of famous men" generally considered writing only for Faquih, the benefactors and the saints. Thus, the information we have about Ibn  al-Jazzar is second hand.

Ahmed Ben Jaafar Ben Brahim Ibn al-Jazzar was born in Qayrawan around 895, and died around 979. He had learned the Qu'ran at kuttab in his youth, and grammar, theology, fiqh and history at the mosque Okba Ibn Nafaa. Ibn al-Jazzar learned medicine from his father and his uncle that were physicians, and from Ishaq Ibn Suleiman (Isaac Ben Salomon), a physician in Qayrawan.

In the time of Ibn al-Jazzar, medical training was provided by the doctors themselves at home. This was the case with the education of Ibn al-Jazzar. He said himself in the conclusion of his book Zad al-Mussafir, he would be available at home for his students at the end of his daily consultations.

At that time, the medical teaching was oral. After all, paper was not widely spread in the ninth century, and scrolls were rare and expensive. Ibn Al Jazzar had a library rich of 25 quintals, as it seems. This figure seems exaggerated. The quintal at the time amounted to 50 kg according to some and 25 kg according to others. These books were not all about medicine, but also of other disciplines.

Ibn al-Jazzar wrote a number of books. They deal with grammar, history, jurisprudence, prosody, etc. Many of these books, quoted by different authors are lost. The most important book of Ibn al-Jazzar is Zad al-Mussafir (The Viaticum). Translated into Latin, Greek and Hebrew, it was copied, recopied, and printed in France and Italy in the sixteenth century. It was adopted and popularized in Europe as a book for a classical education in medicine.

Zad al-Mussafir is a medicine handbook from head to feet, designed for clinical teaching.  In the text, the author names the disease, lists the known symptoms, gives the treatment and sometimes indicates the prognosis. He often cites in reference the names of foreign authors, as if to give importance to his subject, or for intellectual integrity to justify the loans.

One can not speak of Ibn al-Jazzar without mentioning the translator of his books: Constantine the African. Constantine translated Zad al-Mussafir, the Guide for the Traveller Going to Distant Countries (or Traveller's Provision), into Viaticum peregrinantis.  Viaticum peregrinantis became a medieval bestseller.  Viaticum peregrinantis was translated into Greek and Hebrew as Zedat ha-derachim, which helped propel the treatise to international bestseller and most read status.

Just as travellers today seek advice on how to handle all kinds of ailments on the road, travellers in medieval times also needed a reference book to see them through the bad times.  Not only for travellers, Viaticum peregrinantis was a systematic and comprehensive medical work accepted into the so-called Articella or Ars medicinae, a compendium of medical textbooks widely used in medical schools and universities at Salerno, Montpellier, Bologna, Paris and Oxford.  It contained remarkable descriptions of smallpox and measles.    

The major work of Ibn al-Jazzar was Zād al-Musāffir.  However, he also had some books on geriatric medicine and the health of the elderly (Kitāb Ṭibb al-Mashāyikh) or (Ṭibb al-Mashāyikh wa-ḥifẓ ṣiḥḥatihim).  Additionally, a book on sleep disorders and another one on forgetfulness and how to strengthen memory (Kitāb al-Nisyān wa-Ṭuruq Taqwiyat al-Dhākira) and a Treatise on causes of mortality (Risāla fī Asbāb al-Wafāh).

Ibn al-Jazzar also had other books on pediatrics, fevers, sexual disorders, medicine of the poor, therapeutics, stomach disorders, leprosy, separate drugs, compound drugs, and this is in addition to his books in other areas of science, e.g., history, animals and literature.

Ibn al-Jazzar died around 979 leaving 24,000 dinars and twenty-five quintars (about 2500 pounds) of books on medicine and other subjects.  The legacy of Ibn al-Jazzar also included a treatise on women's diseases and their treatment.  According to Ibn al-Jazzar, menstruation played a central role in maintaining women's health as well as in causing women's diseases.  Such writings earned Ibn al-Jazzar immense fame and made him very influential in medieval western Europe. 

Ibn al-Khasib, Abu Bakr
Ibn al-Khasib, Abu Bakr (Abu Bakr ibn al-Khasib).   Astrologer of Baghdad, known in the West as Albubather.

Abu Bakr al-Hassan ibn al-Khasib, also al-Khaseb, Albubather in Latin, was a Persian physician and astrologer of the 9th century.

He wrote in Persian and Arabic and is best known by his work De nativitatibus which was translated into Latin by Canonicus Salio in Padua 1218, and was also translated into Hebrew.
[edit]
Abu Bakr ibn al-Khasib see Ibn al-Khasib, Abu Bakr
Albubather see Ibn al-Khasib, Abu Bakr

Ibn al-Khatib
Ibn al-Khatib (Lisan al-Din) (Lisan al-Din ibn al-Khatib) (Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Said ibn Ali ibn Ahmad al-Salmani) (1313, in Loia near Granada - 1375, in Fez).  Vizier and historian of Granada.  He was the greatest Muslim writer of Granada, distinguishing himself in almost all branches of learning.

Ibn al-Khatib was a poet, writer, historian, philosopher, physician and politician from Al-Andalus. Some of his poems decorate the walls ot the Alhambra in Granada.

Ibn al-Khatib spent most of his life as vizier at the court of Muhammed V, but was exiled from Granada twice and lived for some time in the Marinid empire in Morocco (the first time 1360-62 and the second time 1371-74 in Ceuta and Tlemcen and Fez). He was murdered in 1374 in revenge of a private feud.

Ibn al-Khatib excelled as a historian and he wrote excellent poetry some of which was put to music as muwashshahat.  His autobiography, written in 1369, is to be found in part of his his 'al-Ihata fi akhbar Gharnata' (The Complete Source on the History of Granada).

Lisan al-Din see Ibn al-Khatib
Lisan al-Din ibn al-Khatib see Ibn al-Khatib
Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Said ibn Ali ibn Ahmad al-Salmani see Ibn al-Khatib

Ibn al-Khayyat, Abu‘l-Hasan
Ibn al-Khayyat, Abu‘l-Hasan (Abu‘l-Hasan ibn al-Khayyat).  Arab poet in Sicily during the eleventh century.  He was the panegyrist -- eulogist -- of the Kalbis.
Abu'l-Hasan ibn al-Khayyat see Ibn al-Khayyat, Abu‘l-Hasan

Ibn al-Labbana
Ibn al-Labbana (al-Dani) (Abu Bakr ibn Isa al-Dani) (b. mid-11th century - d. 1113).  Andalusian poet of the eleventh century.  He is famous for his loyalty to the poet king al-Mu‘tamid ibn ‘Abbad.

Abu Bakr ibn Isa al-Dani, called Ibn al-Labbana ( 'the son of the milk') was a poet Andalusian born in Benissa (Taifa of Denia) in mid-eleventh century and died in the Taifa de Mallorca in 1113.

Ibn al-Labbana traveled throughout Al-Andalus offering his services as a courtly poet various kings. From his early years there is a muwassaha composed in honor of Al-Mamun of Toledo. He also wrote eulogies dedicated to the Almoravids of Zaragoza and the monarch Mubassir Nasr al-Dawla of Mallorca, where he ended his days.

Ibn al-Labbana has gone down in history for being part of the Academy of court poets of Al-Mutamid of Seville. The Academy was comprised of only those members who had passed a difficult test of skill in the art of poetry. Ibn al-Labbana lived in Seville at the time that coincided with Abenamar or Abenzaidún, two of the best poets of the time.

Ibn al-Labbana's most famous poetic composition is the qasida expressing grief over the departure of the court of Al-Mutamid, Taifa of Seville, from the port of Triana into exile after the Almoravid conquest of the city. The poem reflects the swan song of the refined culture of the early Taifa kingdoms.
Dani, al- see Ibn al-Labbana
Abu Bakr ibn Isa al-Dani see Ibn al-Labbana
"The Son of the Milk" see Ibn al-Labbana

Ibn al-Mudabbir
Ibn al-Mudabbir.  Name of two brothers, who played an important role as high officials, courtiers and men of letters at Samarra and in Egypt and Syria during the middle of the ninth century.  Abu‘l-Hasan Ahmad (d. 883) was director of finance in Egypt and became the most powerful man of his time.  Abu Ishaq (Abu Yusr) (d. 892) is probably the author of one of the earliest treatises on administration and the civil service.

Ibn al-Mujawir, Yusuf ibn Ya‘qub
Ibn al-Mujawir, Yusuf ibn Ya‘qub (Yusuf ibn Ya‘qub ibn al-Mujawir) (1204-1291).  Geographer and historian from Damascus.  He is the reputed author of an important work on the geography, history and customs of western and southern Arabia.  It is a collection of itineraries which contains miscellaneous information on towns and tribes, and describes in detail Jidda, Zabid, Aden, Qalhat, Muscat, Suhar, the island of Qays (Kish) and Bahrain.
Yusuf ibn Ya'qub ibn al-Mujawir see Ibn al-Mujawir, Yusuf ibn Ya‘qub

Ibn al-Mundhir
Ibn al-Mundhir.  Grand master and chief veterinary surgeon of the stables of the Bahri Mameluke al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalawun.  He wrote a treatise on hippology -- the study of horses.

Ibn al-Muqaffa‘
Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ (‘Abd Allah ibn al-Muqaffa‘) (Abū-Muhammad Abd-Allāh Rūzbeh ibn Dādūya) (Abū-Muhammad Abd-Allāh Rūzbeh ibn Dādōē) (Ruzbeh pur-e Daduya) (720-756).  Arabic author and translator of Persian origin.  He was one of the first translators into Arabic of literary works of the Indian and Iranian civilizations, and one of the creators of Arabic literary prose.  Under the title Kalila wa-Dimna, he translated into Arabic the Pahlavi version of the celebrated collection of Indian fables, which go back to the Pancatantra.  He also translated from Pahlavi into Arabic a royal chronicle composed under the Sasanids, a picture of the institutions, customs and hierarchy of the court in the same period, and a biography of the Sasanian kings Khusraw Anushirwan (r. 531-579) and Khusraw (II) Parwiz (r. 579-628).  Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ further composed one of the earliest “Mirror for Princes” and a series of reflections on certain political, religious and social problems, addressed to an unnamed caliph who without doubt is the ‘Abbasid al-Mansur.  He probably is also the author of a Manichaean apologia.  His works soon became classic in the great ‘Abbasid civilization and exerted a great influence on the following generations.

Abū-Muhammad Abd-Allāh Rūzbeh ibn Dādūya, mostly known as Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ, or Rūzbeh pūr-e Dādūya, was an 8th-century Persian thinker and a Zoroastrian convert to Islam.

Ibn al-Muqaffa's translation of the Kalīla wa Dimna from Middle Persian is considered the first masterpiece of Arabic literary prose. Ibn al-Muqaffa' was a pioneer in the introduction of literary prose narrative to Arabic literature. He paved the way for later innovators such as al-Hamadani and al-Saraqusti, who brought literary fiction to Arabic literature by adapting traditionally accepted modes of oral narrative transmission into literary prose. Ibn al-Muqaffa was also an accomplished scholar of Middle Persian, and was the author of several moral fables.

Ibn al-Muqaffa, though a resident of Basra, was originally from the town of Jur (or Gur) in the Iranian province of Fars. His father had been a state official in charge of taxes under the Umayyads, and after being accused and convicted of embezzling some of the money entrusted to him, was punished by the ruler by having his hand crushed, hence the name Muqaffa (shrivelled hand).

Ibn al-Muqaffa was murdered around 756 by the order of the second Abbasid caliph Abu Ja`far al-Mansur reportedly for heresy, in particular for attempting to import Zoroastrian ideas into Islam. There is evidence, though, that his murder may have been prompted by the caliph's resentment at the terms and language that Ibn al-Muqaffa had used in drawing up a guarantee of safe passage for the caliph's rebellious uncle, Abdullah bin Ali; the caliph found that document profoundly disrespectful to himself, and it is believed Ibn al-Muqaffa paid with his life for the affront to al-Mansur.


'Abd Allah ibn al-Muqaffa' see Ibn al-Muqaffa‘
Abū-Muhammad Abd-Allāh Rūzbeh ibn Dādūya see Ibn al-Muqaffa‘
Abū-Muhammad Abd-Allāh Rūzbeh ibn Dādōē see Ibn al-Muqaffa‘
Ruzbeh pur-e Daduya see Ibn al-Muqaffa‘

Ibn al-Muqaffa‘, Severus
Ibn al-Muqaffa‘, Severus (Severus ibn al-Muqaffa‘) (in Arabic, Sawiris ibn al-Muqaffa') (d. 987).   Coptic bishop of Ashmunayn of the tenth century.  The first Copt to adopt the Arabic language in ecclesiastical literature, he is best known for his history of the patriarchs.

Severus ibn al-Muqaffa', or Severus of El Ashmunein, was a Coptic Bishop, author and historian. In Arabic, his name is spelled Sawirus. Severus ibn al-Muqaffa' should not be confused with Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa.

Severus ibn al-Muqaffa' was bishop of Hermopolis Magna (Ashmunein), in Upper Egypt, around the end of the tenth century. He is best known as the traditional author of the History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria.

The works of Severus ibn al-Muqaffa' include:

    * Lamp of the Intellect
    * History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria. This is a compilation said to have been begun by Severus Ibn al-Mukaffa based on earlier biographical sources. It was continued by others including Michael, bishop of Tinnis (11th century, writing in Coptic, covering 880 to 1046), Mawhub ibn Mansur ibn Mufarrig, deacon of Alexandria., and Pope Mark III of Alexandria (for 1131 to 1167).

    * Affliction's physic and the cure of sorrow
Sawiris ibn al-Muqaffa' see Ibn al-Muqaffa‘, Severus
Severus ibn al-Muqaffa' see Ibn al-Muqaffa‘, Severus
Severus of Ashmunayn see Ibn al-Muqaffa‘, Severus
Severus of Ashmunein see Ibn al-Muqaffa‘, Severus

Ibn al-Muslima
Ibn al-Muslima.  By-name given to a family of Baghdad whose most important member was Abu‘l-Qasim ‘Ali ibn al-Husayn (d. 1058), vizier to the caliphate.  He introduced to Baghdad the Saljuq, Tughril I, who entered the city in 1044.

Ibn al-Mu ‘tazz
Ibn al-Mu ‘tazz (861-908).  ‘Abbasid prince and poet.  A son of the ‘Abbasid Caliph al-Mu‘tazz bi-‘llah, he was proclaimed caliph in December 908 but was killed shortly thereafter.

Ibn al-Muwaqqit
Ibn al-Muwaqqit (1894-1949).  Moroccan author.  He was a reformist and wrote some biographies.  He kept up a relentless struggle against the confraternities, the marabouts and the judges. 

Ibn al-Nadim
Ibn al-Nadim (Abu'l-Faraj Muhammad bin Is'hāq al-Nadim) (c. 936 - September 17, 995).  Shi‘a of Baghdad and the author of an Index of Arabic books.   The work, which exists in a shorter recension (a shorter critical revision), is intended to be an index of all books written in Arabic either by Arabs or non-Arabs.

Abu'l-Faraj Muhammad bin Is'hāq al-Nadim, whose father was known as al-Warrāq, was a Shi'ite Muslim scholar and bibliographer. Some scholars regard him as a Persian but this is not certain. He is famous as the author of the Kitāb al-Fihrist (The Index). His choice of the rather rare Persian word pehrest (fehrest/ fehres/fahrasat) for the title of a handbook on Islamic literature is noteworthy in this regard.

Very little is actually known about his life. He was a bookseller, a calligrapher who copied manuscripts for sale, as his father was before him. He lived in Baghdad and sometimes he mentions a sojourn in Mosul. Of his teachers, he mentions al-Sirafi (died 978-9), 'Ali bin Harun bin al-Munazhzhim (died 963) and the philosopher Abu Sulayman al-Mantiqi. He belonged to the circle of a son of 'Ali bin 'Isa, the "Good Vizier" of the Banu al-Jarrah, whom he praises for his profound knowledge of logic and the sciences of the Greeks, Persians and Indians. Ibn al-Nadim also met in his house the Christian philosopher Ibn al-Khammar. With these men, none of whom was an orthodox Sunni, he shared an admiration for philosophy and especially for Aristotle, and the Greek and Hindu sciences of antiquity (before Islam). He admired their breadth of outlook and their air of toleration.

It did not escape his biographers that he was a Shi'ite (Ibn Hajar, l.c.); he uses khassi instead of Shi'ite, 'ammi instead of Sunnite, al-hashwiyya for the Sunnis, Ahl al-Hadith ("People of the Hadith") instead of Ahl al-Sunna ("People of the Tradition"). He inserts the eulogy for prophets (consisting of the words alaihi al-salam, "peace be with him") after the names of the Shi'i Imams and the Ahl al-Bayt (the descendants of Muhammad). He calls the Imam al-Rida mawlana. He asserts that al-Waqidi was a Shi'ite but concealed this fact by taqiyya. He claims most of the (orthodox) 'traditionists' for the Zaydiyya. He speaks of the Mu'tazila as Ahl al-'Adl ("People of the justice"), calls the Ash'arites al-mujbira. That he belonged to the Twelver Shi'a is shown by his distaste for the doctrines of the Sab'iyya and by his criticisms in dealing with their history. He remarks that a certain Shafi'i scholar was secretly a Twelver Shi'ite. He mentions Shi'as among his acquaintances, e.g., Ibn al-Mu'allim, the da'i Ibn Hamdan and the author Khushkunanadh. To the same circle belonged the Jacobite Yahya ibn 'Adi (d. 973) who instructed 'Isa bin 'Ali in philosophy and who was, like Ibn al-Nadim, a copyist and bookseller.

His great book, the Fehrest or Fihrist, gives ample testimony to the knowledge of pre-Islamic Persia and its literature in classical Islamic civilization, but unfortunately only a minute sample of the numerous Persian books listed by Ebn al-Nadīm is extant. According to the Fehrest's brief preface, it is meant to be an index of all books written in Arabic, whether by Persians, Arabs or others. There existed already books (tabaqat) dealing with the biographies of poets. The Fehrest was published in 938.  It exists in two manuscript traditions, or "editions": the more complete edition contains ten "discourses" (maqalat). The first six of them are detailed bibliographies of books on Islamic subjects:

1. the Holy Scriptures of Muslims, Jews, and Christians, with emphasis on the Qur'an and hadith;

2. works on grammar and philology;

3. history, biography, genealogy and the like;

4. poetry;

5. dialectical theology (kalam);

6. law (fiqh) and hadith.

The last four discourses deal with secular subjects:

7. philosophy and the 'secular sciences';

8. legends, fables, magic, conjuring, etc.;

9. the doctrines (maqalat) of the non-monotheistic creeds (Manicheans, Hindus, Buddhists and Chinese);

10. alchemy.

Ibn al-Nadim gives the titles only of those books which he had seen himself or whose existence was vouchsafed by a trustworthy person.

The shorter edition contains (besides the preface and the first section of the first discourse on the scripts and the different alphabets) only the last four discourses, in other words, the Arabic translations from Greek, Syriac and other languages, together with Arabic books composed on the model of these translations.

Ibn al-Nadim often mentions the size of a book and the number of pages, so that buyers would not be cheated by copyists passing off shorter versions. Compare the Stichometry of Nicephorus. He refers often to copies written by famous calligraphers, to bibliophiles and libraries, and speaks of a book auction and of the trade in books. In the opening section he deals with the alphabets of 14 peoples and their manner of writing and also with the writing-pen, paper and its different varieties. His discourses contain sections on the origins of philosophy, on the lives of Plato and Aristotle, the origin of The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, thoughts on the pyramids, his opinions on magic, sorcery, superstition, and alchemy etc. The chapter devoted to what the author rather dismissively calls "bed-time stories" and "fables" contains a large amount of Persian material. In the chapter on anonymous works of assorted content there is a section on "Persian, Indian, Byzantine, and Arab books on sexual intercourse in the form of titillating stories", but the Persian works are not separated from the others. The list includes a "Book of Bahrām-doḵt on intercourse." This is followed by books of Persians, Indians, etc. on fortune telling, books of "all nations" on horsemanship and the arts of war, then on horse doctoring and on falconry, some of them specifically attributed to the Persians. Then we have books of wisdom and admonition by the Persians and others, including many examples of Persian andarz literature, e.g. various books attributed to Persian emperors such as Khosrau I and Ardashir I.

As a bookseller, Ibn al-Nadim became known for his celebrated bookshop.  The bookshop was said to be on an upper story of a large building where buyers came to examine manuscripts, enjoy refreshments and exchange ideas.  

The Fihrist is the greatest work of Ibn al-Nadim.  Fihrist literally means "a table of contents" or "an index". The Fihrist is an index of all books written in Arabic by Arabs or non-Arabs.  Ibn al-Nadim began to make this catalogue of authors and the names of their compositions for use in his father's bookstore.  As he grew older, he became interested in the many subjects he read about in books, or which he learned about from friends and chance acquaintances.  So, instead of being merely the catalogue for a book shop, Ibn al-Nadim's Fihrist became an encyclopedia of medieval Islamic culture. 

The Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim listed more than sixty thousand titles on an unlimited range of subjects.  The first section of the first chapter of the Fihrist was devoted to various styles of writing, including Chinese, qualities of paper, and "excellencies of penmanship" and "excellencies of the book". After this was a whole range of topics including language and calligraphy; Christian and Jewish scriptures; the Qu'ran and commentaries; linguistic works; histories and genealogies; official government works; court accounts; pre-Islamic and Islamic poetry; works by various schools of Muslim thought; biographies of numerous men of learning; Greek and Islamic philosophy; mathematics; astronomy; Greek and Islamic medicine; literature; popular fiction; travel (India, China and Indochina); magic, and miscellaneous subjects and fables.


Abu'l-Faraj Muhammad bin Is'hāq al-Nadim  see Ibn al-Nadim

Ibn al-Nafis Damashqui
Ibn al-Nafis Damashqui (Ala-al-Din Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Abi al-Hazm al-Qarshi ibn al-Nafis al-Damashqui)  (Ala al-Din Abu al-Hassan Ali ibn Abi-Hazm al-Qurashi al-Dimashqi) (1213-1288).   Physician and many-sided author from Damascus.  He wrote an encyclopedia of medicine, a comprehensive record of the whole knowledge of the Arabs in ophthalmology, which was also translated into Hebrew and Turkish, a medical commentary on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates, and an extensive commentary on the Canon of Avicenna, part of which was translated into Latin.  His most important achievement in the field of medicine is his theory of the lesser or pulmonary circulation of the blood, boldly contradicting the accepted ideas of Galen and of Ibn Sina  and anticipating part of William Harvey’s discovery.  

Ibn al-Nafis was a reputed physician and a renowned expert on Shafi‘i School of Jurisprudence.  He is famous for the discovery of the blood’s circulatory system, and was the first to describe the constitution of lungs, bronchi, and the coronary arteries.  Ala-al-Din Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Abi al-Hazm al-Qarshi ibn al-Nafis al-Damashqui was born in 1213 in Damascus.  He was educated at the Medical College and hospital founded by Nur al-Din Zangi.  Ibn al-Nafis studied medicine under the famous physician Muhazzab al-Din Abd al-Rahim.  He also studied jurisprudence, literature and theology.

His expertise and reputation in medicine and jurisprudence was rewarded by an appointment as the principal of the famous Nasri Hospital in Cairo.  There he trained many medical specialists, including the famous surgeon Ibn al-Quff al-Masihi.  Subsequently, he served at the Mansuriyya School at Cairo.  As part of his will, Ibn al-Nafis donated his house, library and clinic to the Mansuriyya Hospital.  He died in 1288.

Ibn al-Nafis made major contributions in medicine.  He wrote detailed commentaries and critiques on the medical knowledge available up to his time, and added to it many original contributions.  His greatest original contribution was the discovery of the blood’s circulatory system, which was rediscovered three centuries later.  Ibn al-Nafis was the first to correctly describe the constitution of lungs and gave a description of the bronchi and the interaction between the human body’s vessels for air and blood.  Also, he elaborated the function of the coronary arteries as feeding the cardiac muscle.

Ibn al-Nafis‘ Al-Shamil fi al-Tibb was an encyclopedia comprising 300 volumes, but it could not be completed as planned due to his death.  This manuscript is preserved as special collections in Damascus.  His book on ophthalmology is primarily an original contribution and is also extant.  Among his books Mujaz al-Qanun became most famous and later several commentaries were written on it.  He wrote another famous book Kitab al-Mukhtar fi al-Aghdhiya that deals with the effects of diet on health.  He also wrote several commentaries on Hippocrates‘ book and on Ibn Sina’s Qanun, which are still extant.

Ibn al-Nafis‘ work exerted great influence on the development of medical science, both in the Islamic world and Europe.  His work integrated the medical knowledge with great clarity and emphasized precision.  Initially, only one of his books was translated into Latin.  Consequently, much of his work remained unknown to Europe for several centuries.


Ala-al-Din Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Abi al-Hazm al-Qarshi ibn al-Nafis al-Damashqui see Ibn al-Nafis Damashqui
Ala al-Din Abu al-Hassan Ali ibn Abi-Hazm al-Qurashi al-Dimashqi see Ibn al-Nafis Damashqui

Ibn al-Najjar
Ibn al-Najjar (1183-1245).  Historian and leading Shafi‘i transmitter of Prophetic traditions.  He wrote a histories of Medina and  Baghdad.

Ibn al-Nattah
Ibn al-Nattah (Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Salih ibn Mihran lah an-Nattah) (d. 866).  Traditionist, genealogist and historian.  He is likely the author of an important extant work on the ‘Abbasids.

Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Salih ibn Mihran lah an-Nattah, better known as Ibn an-Nattah was a genealogist and historian of Basra in the ninth century. He is author of a history of the Abbasids and other works of history.

He died in 866.
Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Salih ibn Mihran lah an-Nattah see Ibn al-Nattah

Ibn al-Qadi, Shihab al-Din
Ibn al-Qadi, Shihab al-Din (Shihab al-Din ibn al-Qadi) (Abu l-Abbas Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn al-Qadi al-Miknasi) (1553-1616).  Moroccan polygraph of Fez.  He composed two collections of biographies of great documentary value.

Abu l-Abbas Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn al-Qadi al-Miknasi was the leading writer from Ahmad al-Mansur's court next to Abd al-Aziz al-Fishtali. He was also a renowned judge and mathematician.

A number of Ibn al-Qadi's works survive to this day. His primary panegyric work is entitled Al-Muntaqa al-maqsur 'ala ma'athir al-khilafat Abi al-Abbas al-Mansur. This work consists mainly of a meditation upon the great character qualities of al-Mansur which, the scholar argues, showed him to be the rightful caliph of Islam. He also composed two collections of biographies of great documentary value: Jadwat al Iqtibas Fi-man halla min al'alam madinata fas and Durrat al-hidjāl fī asmā’ al-ridjāl.

Ahmad Ibn al-Qadi studied with Abd al-Wahid al-Sijil Masi, the famous Moroccan mufti and Ahmad Baba al-Sudani. The jurisdiction of Salé was assigned to him. At the age of 34 he undertook a journey to the east, but his ship was captured by Christians. Ibn al-Qadi spent eleven months in captivity and was released thanks to sultan Ahmad al-Mansur who paid as ransom the equivalent of 20 thousand ounces of gold.
Shihab al-Din ibn al-Qadi see Ibn al-Qadi, Shihab al-Din
Abu l-Abbas Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn al-Qadi al-Miknasi see Ibn al-Qadi, Shihab al-Din

Ibn al-Qalanisi
Ibn al-Qalanisi (Hamza ibn Asad abu Ya'la ibn al-Qalanisi (1073-March 18, 1160).  Historian from Damascus.  His history of his native town is of great importance for the events in central Syria during the first half century of the period of the Crusades.

Hamza ibn Asad abu Ya'la ibn al-Qalanisi was an Arab politician and chronicler in Damascus in the 12th century.  He was descended from the Banu Tamim tribe, and was among the well-educated nobility of the city of Damascus. He studied literature, theology, and law, and served, firstly, as a secretary in, and later the head of, the chancery of Damascus (the Diwan al-Rasa'il). He served twice as ra'is of the city, an office equivalent to mayor.

His chronicle, the Dhail or Mudhayyal Ta'rikh Dimashq (Continuation of the Chronicle of Damascus) was an extension of the chronicle of Hilal bin al-Muhassin al-Sabi', covering the years 1056 to al-Qalanisi's death in 1160. This Chronicle is one of the few contemporary accounts of the First Crusade and its immediate aftermath from the Muslim perspective, making it not only a valuable source for modern historians, but also for later 12th-century chronicles, including Ibn al-Athir.

Hamza ibn Asad abu Ya'la ibn al-Qalanisi (c. 1070-March 18, 1160) see Ibn al-Qalanisi

Ibn al-Qatta‘, ‘Ali ibn Ja‘far
Ibn al-Qatta‘, ‘Ali ibn Ja‘far (‘Ali ibn Ja‘far ibn al-Qatta‘) (1041-1121).  Anthologist, historian, grammarian and lexicographer of Sicily.  He wrote an anthology of Arabo-Sicilian poetry.
'Ali ibn Ja'far ibn al-Qatta' see Ibn al-Qatta‘, ‘Ali ibn Ja‘far

Ibn al-Qattan, Abu‘l-Qasim
Ibn al-Qattan, Abu‘l-Qasim (Abu‘l-Qasim ibn al-Qattan) (1086-1163).  Poet, traditionist, and oculist of Baghdad.  He is known for his vigorous satires.
Abu'l-Qasim ibn al-Qattan see Ibn al-Qattan, Abu‘l-Qasim

Ibn al-Qifti
Ibn al-Qifti (Djamal al-Din Abu 'l-Hasan 'Ali ibn Yusuf ibn Ibrahim ibn 'Abd al-Wahid al-Shaybani) (1172-1248).  Arab writer from Egypt.  While exercising the office of director of finance in Aleppo, he gave shelter to Yaqut al-Rumi, who had fled from the Mongols.  Of his many works, two biographies are known to have survived, one of physicians, philosophers and astronomers, the other of scholars.

Djamal al-Din Abu 'l-Hasan 'Ali ibn Yusuf ibn Ibrahim ibn 'Abd al-Wahid al-Shaybani, known as Ibn al-Qifti, was a versatile Arab writer, born in 1172 at Qift in Upper Egypt. He received his early education in Cairo and in 1187 went to Jerusalem, where his father had been appointed as deputy to the qadi al-Fadil, the famous chancellor and adviser of Salah al-Din (Saladin). During the many years which he spent as a student there he was already collecting the material for his later works. He was forced by the disturbances which followed Salah al-Din's death to go in 1201 to Aleppo, where, under the protection and with the encouragement of a friend of his father, he was able again to pursue his scholarly interests for several years, until the Atabeg of Aleppo, al-Malik al-Zahir, placed him in charge of the diwan of the finances, a task which he undertook only reluctantly, but which brought him the honorific title of al-qadi al-Akram. After al-Zahir's death (1216) he resigned, but three years later was appointed by al-Zahir's successor to the same post, which he then held without interruption until 1230. There is no doubt that Ibn al-Qifti used his influential position in order to further the cause of scholarship, for during these years he gave shelter in Aleppo to Yaqut, who had fled from the Mongols, and gave him much help in the compilation of his great geographical dictionary. Dismissed at his own request in 1230, Ibn al-Qifti was able to devote a few years to his own studies until he was appointed vizier by al-Malik al-'Aziz in 1236. He remained in this office until his death in 1248.

Of the 26 works of Ibn al-Qifti of which the titles are known only two survive: (1) The Kitab Ikhbar al-'ulama' bi-akhbar al-hukama', usually referred to simply as Ta'rikh al-hukama', which exists in an epitome by al-Zawzani (written in 1249). It contains 414 biographies of physicians, philosophers and astronomers with many statements from Greek writers which have not survived in the original; and (2) Inbah al-ruwat 'ala anbah al-nuhat, parts i-iii ed. by Muh. Abu 'l-Fadl Ibrahim, Cairo 1369-74, which contains about a thousand biographies of scholars. Of the posthumous Akhbar al-Muhammadin min al-shu'ara' there exist only fragments. The remaining titles are mainly of historical works: a history of Cairo until the reign of Salah al-Din, a history of the Seljuqs, of the Mirdasids, of the Buyids, of Mahmud b. Sabuktakin, of the Maghrib, and of Yemen. A comprehensive Ta'rikh al-qifti in the epitome of Ibn Maktum (d. 749/1348) is evidently identical with the history of Cairo mentioned above. Other titles indicate individual biographies (of Ibn Rashiq, Abu Sa'id al-Sirafi), the history of scholarship (the Shaykhs of al-Kindi), and a supplement to the Ansab of al-Baladhuri.

Djamal al-Din Abu 'l-Hasan 'Ali ibn Yusuf ibn Ibrahim ibn 'Abd al-Wahid al-Shaybani see Ibn al-Qifti

Ibn al-Qitt
Ibn al-Qitt (d. 901).  By-name of the Spanish Umayyad prince Ahmad ibn Mu‘awiya.  Persuaded by the Andalusian missionary Abu ‘Ali al-Sarraj who had gathered many supporters, Ahmad, who was a devotee of astrology and aspired to the throne, laid siege to Zamora but was killed.
Ahmad ibn Mu'awiya see Ibn al-Qitt

Ibn al-Quff
Ibn al-Quff (1233-1286{1305?}).  Christian physician and surgeon.  He was the first known military physician surgeon and composed a manual on surgery.  The Arab physician Ibn al-Quff, a student of Ibn al-Nafis, described embryology and perinatology more accurately in his Al-Jami.

Amīn-ad-Daula Abu-'l-Faraǧ ibn Yaʻqūb ibn Isḥāq Ibn al-Quff al-Karaki (Arabic: أمين الدولة أبو الفرج بن يعقوب بن إسحاق بن القف الكركي‎)  was an Arab physician and surgeon and author of the earliest medieval Arabic treatise intended solely for surgeons.

Ibn al-Quff was born in the city of Al Karak (in modern-day Jordan). His father was Muwaffaq al-Dīn Yaʿqūb, a Christian Arab. His father had a good job opportunity and moved his family to Sarkhad in Syria, where Ibn al-Quff was tutored by Ibn Abi Uṣaybiʿah who introduced him to the medical studies. He studied with Ibn Abi Uṣaybiʿah and learned a lot of medical information, read many biographies on earlier doctors, and spent a large amount of time meditating on the material he studied and learned. Ibn al-Quff ended up moving to Damascus where he improved his knowledge and studied metaphysics, philosophy, medicine, natural sciences, and mathematics. It is not completely clear as to who was teaching him all of this material but regardless he learned a large amount of information which would be very beneficial for his career. After he had studied for a while and proved he was a good knowledgeable physician and surgeon, he was given the job of physician-surgeon in the army which was stationed in Jordan. It was while serving in the army that he became well known as a physician and a surgeon. His reputation became widespread in the Muslim empire for being a Christian Arab, for caring for his patients and for conducting his work with honesty. After his time of popularity died down he was sent to Damascus and remained there teaching until his death at the age of fifty-two.

During his time in Jordan being a physician-surgeon, Ibn al-Quff wrote many books and taught. He was more well known as a writer and educator on medical topics than for being a doctor. He wrote at least ten commentaries and books during his lifetime. Seven of these works are known to exist today whether fragments or the entire work. One of his most famous works was a commentary on Ishārāt of Ibn Sina, but there is no evidence of this today. Some of the most well known surviving works of Ibn al-Quff are listed below with a brief description.

• Kitāb al-ʻUmda fi 'l-ǧirāḥa (كتاب العمدة في الجراحة) or Basics in the Art of Surgery: a general medical manual covering anatomy and drugs therapy as well as surgical care, concentrating on wounds and tumors, however, he excluded ophthalmology as he considered it to be a specialty with its own technical literature. The work was published in Hyderabad, India, in 1937. This was by far the largest Arabic text on surgery during the entire medieval period. In this book, Ibn al-Quff explained the connections between arteries and veins which was the earliest description of what would be known as capillaries. He did this work before the invention of a microscope and also explained how valves worked and the direction they opened and closed.

• Al-Shafi al-Tibb (The Comprehensive of the Healing Arts): His first medical encyclopedia, completed early 1272 AD.

• Jāmiʻ al-gharaḍ fī ḥifẓ al-ṣiḥḥah wa-dafʻ al-maraḍ (جامع الغرض في حفظ الصحة ودفع المرض): on preventive medicine and the preservation of health in 60 chapters, completed around 1275. 

• Al-usul fi sarh al-fusul: A two-volume commentary on the works of Hippocrates.

• Risala fi manafi al-a da: A treatise on the anatomy of the body's organs.

• Zubad at-Tabib: A book with advice for practicing physicians.

• Sarh al-Kulliyat: A commentary on Avicenna's work Qanun fi t-Tibb.

Ibn al-Qutiyya
Ibn al-Qutiyya (d. November 8, 977, in Cordoba).  Grammarian and, in particular, an historian of Muslim Spain.  He wrote a history of the conquest of the Iberian peninsula.

Ibn al-Qūṭiyya was an important chronicler of al-Andalus. He wrote the Ta'rij iftitah al-Andalus (History of the Conquest of al-Andalus).

Ibn al-Raqiq
Ibn al-Raqiq.  Man of letters and chronicler of Qayrawan of the tenth century.  He was regarded by Ibn Khaldun as the best specialist on the history of Ifriqiya.  His History was the basis for the works of many famous Muslim historians.

Ibn al-Rawandi
Ibn al-Rawandi (al-Rewendi) (827-911).  Mu‘tazili and heretic of the tenth century.  His heterodox doctrine, which includes a biting criticism of prophecy in general and of that of the Prophet in particular, has been refuted by several generations of Muslim theologians.

Ibn al-Rawandi was an early skeptic of Islam and a critic of religion in general. In his early days he was a Mutazilite scholar but after rejecting the Mutazilite doctrine he adhered to Shia Islam for a brief period of time and later became a freethinker who repudiated Islam and revealed religion.  Though none of his works survive, his opinions were preserved through his critics, and the surviving books that answered him. The book with the most preserved fragments (through an Ismaili book refuting Al-Rawandi's ideology), is the Kitab al-Zumurrud (The Book of the Emerald).


Rewendi, al- see Ibn al-Rawandi

Ibn al-Sa‘ati
Ibn al-Sa‘ati (d.1230).  Physician of Damascus.  He wrote a book on clockmaking.

Ibn al-Saffar
Abu al‐Qasim Ahmad ibn Abd Allah ibn Umar al‐Ghafiqī ibn al-Saffar al‐Andalusi (b. Cordoba - d. 1035 at Denia), Ibn al-Saffar (literally: son of the brass worker) was a close colleague and astronomer at the school founded by al-Majriti in Cordoba.  His most well known work was a treatise on the astrolabe.  The work was still published until the 15th century and influenced the work of Kepler.  Ibn Saffar also wrote a commentary on the Zij al-Sindhind,  and measured the coordinates to Mecca.  

Ibn al-Salah
Ibn al-Salah (Abū `Amr `Uthmān ibn `Abd al-Raḥmān Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Kurdī al-Shahrazūrī  (1181- September 18, 1245).  Iraqi author of a standard work on the sciences of hadith.

Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ was a Shafi'i hadith specialist and the author of the seminal Introduction to the Science of Hadith. He was originally from Sharazor, was raised in Mosul and then resided in Damascus where he died.

Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ was born in the year 1181 in Sharazor.  He first studied fiqh with his father in Sharazor, located in the south-eastern part of what is currently referred to as Iraqi Kurdistan. He then occupied himself in Mosul for an unknown period of time, studying under a number of local religious scholars. He studied in a number of cities, including Baghdad, Hamedan, Naysabur, Merv, Aleppo, Damascus and Harran.

While Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ was most recognized for his contribution to the field of hadith, he was well-grounded in a variety of disciplines.

Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ held several positions throughout his life, primarily in the field of education. He taught at the Salahiyyah School in Jerusalem, and then, following the destruction of its city walls, moved to Damascus and taught at the Rawahiyyah School for some time following its inception. Following the foundation of Dar al-Hadith Ashrafiyyah, he became its shaikh and was the first to teach and give verdicts there. It was here that he dictated his work Introduction to the Science of Hadith to his students. He was then appointed a teacher at the al-Shamiyyah al-Sughara School.

Ibn al-Salah had a number of students, some of whom achieved prominence in their own right; among them:

    * Ibn Khallikan
    * Ibn Razin
    * Kamal Ishaq
    * Kamal Salar
    * Shams al-Din `Abd al-Rahman Nuh al-Maqdisi
    * Shihab al-Din Abu Shamah

Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ avoided association with problematic ideologies in regards to creed. He abstained from interpreting religious texts in a manner inconsistent with their apparent intent, or ta'wil, as he did the entrapments of those immersed in rhetoric.

Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ died on Monday, September 18, 1245, at the age of 66. His funeral prayer was performed at the congregational mosque of Damascus, to a crowd so large it required a second prayer to accommodate. He was buried in the Sufiyyah graveyard, now the location of a hospital, a mosque and other buildings.

Ibn al-Salah had a number of works the most notable are named below:

   1. Introduction to the Science of Hadith – perhaps his best known work;
   2. Ishkalat 'ala al-Wasit, also called Mushkil al-Wasit
   3. Al-Amaali
   4. Siyanah Sahih Muslim
   5. Numerous fatawa, or religious rulings
   6. Fawa`id, or benefits, from his travels
   7. Adab al-Mufti wa al-Mustafti—The Etiquette of the One Giving a Verdict and of the One Seeking a Verdict
   8. Nukat `Ala al-Muhadhdhab
   9. Tabaqat al-Fuqaha al-Shafi`iyyah

Abū `Amr `Uthmān ibn `Abd al-Raḥmān Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Kurdī al-Shahrazūrī  see Ibn al-Salah
Shahrazuri, Abū `Amr `Uthmān ibn `Abd al-Raḥmān Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Kurdī al- see Ibn al-Salah

Ibn al-Sarraj
Ibn al-Sarraj (875-929).  Arab grammarian of Baghdad.  He took part in the wide spread movement which led the Arab grammarians to base their work on The Book of Sibawayhi.

The name Ibn al-Sarraj is also the name of a fourteenth century Arab inventor.  Around 1325 in Aleppo, Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Abi Bakr, more commonly known as Ibn al-Sarraj, devised an astrolabe that would solve all the problems of spherical astronomy for all latitudes with a single plate. He had effectively reinvented the up till then universal astrolabe of the 11th century Toledan astronomer ‘Ali ibn Khalaf al-Shakkaz. In the past, Al-Shakkaz’s innovative astrolabe substituted the multiple latitude plates used in typical astrolabes for one plate (safiha shakkaziya), which bore the entire celestial sphere. He called the markings on his plate the shakkaziya markings, which were also included on the rete that rotated over the plate. Al-Shakkaz’s contemporary, al-Zarqallu, superimposed two shakkaziya grids on a single plate and his rete consisted of semicircle shakkaziya curves that rotated over the plate. Although the work of al-Zarqallu was better known in the Islamic east than al-Shakkaz’s astrolabe, Ibn al-Sarraj hit upon his idea after solving the problem of determining the hour angle from a celestial altitude with a shakkaziya plate. He called his universal astrolabe the sarrajiya. The Benaki Museum in Athens houses one of the most sophisticated universal astrolabes made by al-Sarraj. No treatise written by al-Sarraj explains exactly how this astrolabe works but a treatise by a 15th century Egyptian astronomer who owned the astrolabe does exist. Al-Wafa’i’s treatise describes five different ways that this astrolabe can be used to solve all the standard problems of spherical astronomy for any latitude, aided by the highly ingenious trigonometric grid and alidade on the back of the device.
Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Abi Bakr see Ibn al-Sarraj

Ibn al-Sayrafi, Abu Bakr
Ibn al-Sayrafi, Abu Bakr (Abu Bakr ibn al-Sayrafi) (1074-1162).  Andalusian poet, historian and traditionist from Granada.  His fame rests on a history of the Almoravids.
Abu Bakr ibn al-Sayrafi  see Ibn al-Sayrafi, Abu Bakr

Ibn al-Shatir

Ala Al-Din Abu'l-Hasan Ali Ibn Ibrahim Ibn al-Shatir (1304 – 1375) (Arabic: ابن الشاطر‎) was an Arab Muslim astronomer, mathematician, engineer and inventor who worked as muwaqqit (موقت, religious timekeeper) at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria.

Ibn al-Shatir conducted extensive observations which led to some of his theoretical contributions, designed and constructed new instruments, and made advanced contributions to Islamic astronomy in the field of planetary theory.

His most important astronomical treatise was the Kitāb Nihāyat al-Suʾāl fī Taṣḥīḥ al-ʾUṣūl (كتاب نهاية السؤال في تصحيح الأصول - The Final Quest Concerning the Rectification of Principles), in which he drastically reformed the Ptolemaic models of the Sun, Moon, and planets. While previous Maragha school models were just as accurate as the Ptolemaic model, Ibn al-Shatir's geometrical model was the first that was actually superior to the Ptolemaic model in terms of its better agreement with both contemporary theory and empirical observations. 

Experimentally Ibn al-Shatir employed careful eclipse observations to measure the apparent size of the Sun and Moon and found that they disagreed with Ptolemaic expectations. His work on his experiments and observations (e.g. Ta'liq al-arsad, or Accounting for Observations) has not survived, but there are references to it in his Final Quest Concerning the Rectification of Principles.

Theoretically, Ibn al-Shatir objected to Aristotle's ether, in its eternal uniformity, and argued that if one grants that the heavens must allow for a variation in composition then there's no reason to reject epicycles, while agreeing that equants and eccentrics, which violated Aristotelian principles of uniform circular motion and gravity, were impossible. He then built a model that by adding new epicycles utilizing the Tusi-couple eliminated entirely the epicycle in the solar model, the eccentrics and equants in the planetary models, and the eccentric, epicycles and equant in the lunar model. The resulting model was one in which the Earth was at the exact center of the universe around which all heavenly bodies moved in uniform circular motions, remained as accurate as Ptolemy in predicting the paths of heavenly bodies, and improved on Ptolemy by accurately predicting the apparent size and distance of the Sun and Moon.

By creating the first model of the cosmos in which physical theory, mathematical model, and empirical observation were in agreement, Ibn al-Shatir marked a turning point in astronomy which may be considered a "Scientific Revolution before the Renaissance".

Although his system was firmly geocentric — he had eliminated the Ptolemaic equant and eccentrics  — the mathematical details of his system encompassed those in Nicolaus Copernicus' De revolutionibus, which had retained the Ptolemaic eccentric.  Copernicus' lunar model was identical to the lunar model of al-Shatir.  It is noted that in Copernicus' Commentariolus that his model of Mercury is mistaken, and that since it is Ibn al-Shatir's model, this is further evidence, and perhaps the best evidence, that Copernicus was in fact copying without full understanding from some other source. All this suggests that Ibn al-Shatir's model may have influenced, if indirectly, Copernicus while constructing the latter's heliocentric model. How Copernicus would have come across al-Shatir's work, exactly, remains an open question, but there are some number of possible routes for first or secondhand transmission.

Ibn al-Shatir constructed a magnificent sundial for the minaret of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus which gave both seasonal and equinoctial hours. The fragments of this sundial in a Damascus museum make this the oldest polar-axis sundial still in existence.

Ibn al-Shatir made a timekeeping device incorporating both a universal sundial and a magnetic compass. 

The compendium, a multi-purpose astronomical instrument, was first constructed by Ibn al-Shatir. His compendium featured an alhidade and polar sundial among other things. These compendia later became popular in Renaissance Europe.

Ibn al-Shatir described another astronomical instrument which he called the "universal instrument" in his Rays of light on operations with the universal instrument (al-ʾashiʿʿa al-lāmiʿa fī al-ʿamal bi-l-āla al-jāmiʿa). A commentary on this work entitled Book of Ripe Fruits from Clusters of Universal Instrument (Kitāb al-thimār al-yāni'a ʿan qutāf al-āla al-jāmiʿa) was later written by the Ottoman astronomer and engineer Taqi al-Din, who employed the instrument at the Istanbul observatory of Taqi al-Din from 1577-1580.

In the case of lunar motion, Ibn al-Shatir corrected Ptolemy, whose imagined Moon approached far closer to the Earth than did the actual Moon.

Many believe that astronomy died with the Greeks, and was brought back to life again by Copernicus, the 15th century Polish astronomer who is famous for introducing the Sun-centered (heliocentric) theory of the solar system, which marked the beginning of modern astronomy.

However, many historians now think it is not a coincidence that his models of planetary theory are mathematically identical to those prepared by Ibn al-Shatir over a century before him.  It is known that Copernicus relied heavily on the comprehensive astronomical treatise by al-Battani, which included star catalogues and planetary tables.

The mathematical devices discovered by Muslims before Copernicus, referred to in modern terms as linkages of constant length vectors rotating at constant angular velocities, are exactly the same as those used by Copernicus.  The only, but important, differences between the two was that the Muslims' Earth was fixed in space, whereas Copernicus had it orbiting around the Sun.  Copernicus also used instruments which were particular to astronomy in the East, like the parallactic ruler, which had previously only been used in Samarkand and Maragha Observatories.

Ibn al-Thahabi
Ibn al-Thahabi (Abu Mohammed Abdellah Ibn Mohammed Al-Azdi) (Arabic: ابو محمد عبدالله بن محمد الأزدي‎) (ca. ? - 1033, in Valencia, Al-Andalus [Islamic Spain]), known also as Ibn Al-Thahabi, was an Arab physician, famous for writing the first known alphabetical encyclopedia of medicine.

He was born in Suhar, Oman.  He moved then into Basra,  then to Persia where he studied under Al-Biruni and Ibn Sina.  Later he migrated to Jerusalem and finally settled in Valencia, in Al-Andalus (Islamic Spain).

He is famous for his book Kitab al-Ma'a (The Book of Water), which is a 900 page medical encyclopedia that lists the names of diseases, its medicine and a physiological process or a treatment. It is the first known alphabetical classification of medical terms. In this encyclopedia, Ibn Al-Thahabi not only lists the names but adds numerous original ideas about the function of the human organs. It also contains a course for the treatment psychological symptoms. The main thesis of his medication is that cure must start from controlled food and exercise and if it persists then use specific individual medicines.  If it still persists, then use medical compounds. If the disease continued, surgery was performed.

Ibn al-Thumna
Ibn al-Thumna (r.1052-1062).  Lord of Syracuse in Italy.  He gave support to the Normans when they invaded the island.

Ibn al-Tiqtaqa
Ibn al-Tiqtaqa. Iraqi historian from the fourteenth century.  He is known for an enjoyable history of the caliphs down to al-Musta‘sim and of their viziers.

‘Ibn al-Tiqtaqā’, or the son of a chatterbox, was an onomatopoeic nickname for the Iraqi historian Jalāl-ad-Dīn Abu Ja’far Muhammad born Tāji’d-Dīn Abi’l-Hasan ’Ali, the spokesman of the Shi'a community in the Shi’ī holy cities—Hillah, Najaf, and Karbala; in an Iraq that was to remain the stronghold of Shi'ism, until the forcible conversion of Iran by Shah Ismail I Safavi.

Around 1302 AD he wrote a popular compendium of Islamic history called al-Fakhri.
Jalal-ad-Din Abu Ja'far Muhammad  see Ibn al-Tiqtaqa.
Taji'd-Din Abi'l-Hasan 'Ali see Ibn al-Tiqtaqa.

Ibn al-Wafid

Ibn al-Wafid (Ali Ibn al-Husain Ibn al-Wafid) (997-c.1074), known in Latin Europe as Abenguefit, was a pharmacologist and physician from Toledo. He was the vizier of  Al-Mamun of Toledo. His main work is Kitāb al-adwiya al-mufrada (The Book of Simple Drugs) (كتاب الأدوية المفردة, translated into Latin as De medicamentis simplicibus).

Ibn al-Wafid was mainly a pharmacist in Toledo, and he used the techniques and methods available in alchemy to extract at least 520 different kinds of medicines from various plants and herbs.

Ibn al-Wafid's student Ali Ibn al-Lukuh was the author of ʿUmdat al-Ṭabīb fī Maʿrifat al-Nabāt li kulli Labīb, a famous botanical dictionary.

Kitāb al-adwiya al-mufrada (The Book of Simple Drugs) ran to five hundred pages, taking twenty-five years to compile.  The Latin translation, De medicamentis simplicibus is only a fragment of all his work.  

As well as investigatin the action of drugs, sleep and bathing, Ibn al-Wafid also wrote on farming, because agriculture, plant cultivation, botany, chemistry and medicine were closely linked.

Ibn al-Wannan
Ibn al-Wannan (d. 1773).  Poet from Fez.  His fame is based on a poem which is a resume of the traditional culture of the Arabs.  It is known as al-Shamaqmaqiyya and is used as a textbook to be learned by heart.

The al-Shamaqmaqiyya is a survey of traditional Arabic culture in which Ibn al-Wannan describes the customs of the early Arabs.

Ibn al-Zaqqaq
Ibn al-Zaqqaq (c. 1100-1133).  One of the great poets of Muslim Spain.  His diwan acquired great fame.

Ibn al-Zayyat
Ibn al-Zayyat (d. 1230).  Man of letters and jurist from Morocco.  He is known and esteemed as a hagiographer of the saintly personages of the country, among them the great Moroccan saint Abu‘l-‘Abbas al-Sabti.  

Abu Yaqub Yusuf Ibn Yahya ibn al-Zayyat al-Tadili (born in Beni Mellal) was a Sufi mystic, influential jurist and hagiographer from Morocco. He is the biographer of many Sufi saints. His best known publication is the al-Tashawwuf ila rijal at-tasawwuf (Looking upon the men of Sufism). It was written circa 1220. Al-Tadili also wrote the hagiography of Abu al-Abbas as-Sabti entitled Akhbar Abi'l-Abbas as-Sabti. Like his al-Tashawwuf, it contains many autobiographical passages of Abu al-Abbas himself.

Abu Yaqub Yusuf Ibn Yahya ibn al-Zayyat al-Tadili  see Ibn al-Zayyat
Tadili, Abu Yaqub Yusuf Ibn Yahya ibn al-Zayyat al- see Ibn al-Zayyat

Ibn al-Zubayr, Abu Ja‘far
Ibn al-Zubayr, Abu Ja‘far (Abu Ja‘far ibn al-Zubayr) (1230-1308). Transmitter of traditions; a “reader” of the Qur‘an; a man of letters; and an historian of Jaen, of south central Spain.
Abu Ja'far ibn al-Zubayr see Ibn al-Zubayr, Abu Ja‘far

Ibn ‘Amir
Ibn ‘Amir (d. 736).  “Reader” of the Qur‘an.  His “reading” is counted among the seven canonical ones.

Ibn ‘Aqil, Abu‘l-Wafa‘
Ibn ‘Aqil, Abu‘l-Wafa‘ (Abu‘l-Wafa‘ ibn ‘Aqil) (Abu al-Wafa Ali Ibn Aqil ibn Ahmad al-Baghdadi)(1040-1119).Hanbali jurist and theologian of Baghdad.Because of his interest in Mu‘tazila, he was forced into exile in another quarter of the city.In 1072, he publicly retracted his writings in favor of al-Hallaj and of certain Mu‘tazili doctrines.

Ibn 'Aqil was an Islamic theologian from Baghdad, Iraq. Trained in the tenets of the Hanbali school (madhab), the most traditional school of Islamic law, he outraged his teachers by striving to incorporate liberal theological ideas into the tradition. He sought to use reason and logical inquiry to interpret religion, and was influenced by the teachings of the mystic, and universally respected and accepted saint of Islam, al-Hallaj (d. 922). In 1066 he was appointed professor at the mosque of al-Mansur in Baghdad, but persecution by conservative theologians soon led to his retirement, and in 1072 he was forced to retract his beliefs publicly, due to a threat on his life. It would seem probable however, that even after this public recantation, he still had a great admiration for al-Hallaj. Among his works of jurisprudence that have survived are Wadih fi usul al-fiqh and (in part) Kitab al-funun, a work comprising 800 volumes.

Ibn 'Aqil was appointed to a well-known academic "chair" in Jami' al-Mansur in Baghdad. The notion of a "chair" arose in eleventh century. At that time, a study circle or a Halaqat al-'ilm or halaqa gathered around a professor who was seated on a chair, or kursi in Arabic. Initially, the chair was just to give the teacher a comfortable place and to make him higher than the seated students so they could see and hear him better. It is this notion of "chair," or kursi, that evolved into a professional position, like the chair of a board or a committee.

The professor in the chair of the study circles was either chosen by the caliph or by a committee of scholars (al-Hawza), as in present day Qum in Iran or Najaf in Iraq. They were chosen for their scholarly prowess and popularity.

Abu'l-Wafa' ibn 'Aqil see Ibn ‘Aqil, Abu‘l-Wafa‘
Abu al-Wafa Ali Ibn Aqil ibn Ahmad al-Baghdadi see Ibn ‘Aqil, Abu‘l-Wafa‘
Baghdadi, Abu al-Wafa Ali Ibn Aqil ibn Ahmad al- see Ibn ‘Aqil, Abu‘l-Wafa‘

Ibn ‘Arabi
Ibn ‘Arabi.  See Ibn al-‘Arabi.
Ibn al-'Arabi see Ibn ‘Arabi.

Ibn ‘Arabshah, Ahmad ibn Muhammad
Ibn ‘Arabshah, Ahmad ibn Muhammad (Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Arabshah) (1392-1450).  Arab historian and writer of Damascus.  He learned Persian, Turkish and Mongol and in his chief work describes the conquests of Timur and the conditions under his successor Shah Rukh.
Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn 'Arabshah see Ibn ‘Arabshah, Ahmad ibn Muhammad

Ibn Aranbugha al-Zardkash
Ibn Aranbugha al-Zardkash was the author of a 14th century treatise on weaponry entitled Manual on Armoury.

Ibn ‘Asakir
Ibn ‘Asakir.  Name of the members of a family who, between 1077 and 1261, held important positions in Damascus and produced a dynasty of Shafi‘i scholars.  The best known among them is ‘Ali ibn ‘Asakir (1105/6-1175/6).  Having travelled to many cities in the eastern Islamic world, he settled in his native town and was befriended by the Zangid Nur al-Din Mahmud, who occupied Damascus in 1154.  His History of the City of Damascus is a biographical dictionary in 18 volumes.

'Ali ibn Asakir was a Sunni Islamic scholar.  His full name was Ali ibn al-Hasan ibn Hibat Allah ibn `Abd Allah.  His History of Damascus (Arabic: Tarikh Dimashiq) is one of most important books about the Islamic history of Syria, covering the life of important figures who resided in or visited Damascus. That is not limited to the assessment of narrators of hadith, Ilm ar-Rijal, but also includes historical and political figures. When it comes to Islamic figures, Ibn Asakir tried to collect everything that had been said about that figure, true or false, with full chain of narration. It also contains a huge collection of Arabic poems.

Ibn ‘Ashir
Ibn ‘Ashir (Abu Muhammad Sidi ‘Abdul-Wahid ibn Ahmad ibn ‘Ali ibn ‘Ashir) (1582-1630).  Maliki scholar of Morocco.

Abu Muhammad Sidi ‘Abdul-Wahid ibn Ahmad ibn ‘Ali ibn ‘Ashir was one of the great Maliki scholars of Morocco. His lineage can be traced back to the ancient Medinite tribe known as the ‘Ansar’ who lent their support to the Prophet Muhammad and welcomed him to take up residence in their city after the people of Mecca had persecuted him and driven him out. His most immediate descendants can be traced back to Islamic Spain (Andalusia). But they would later take up residence in the ancient Moroccan city of Fez where Sidi ibn ‘Ashir grew up and spent most of his life.

Ibn 'Ashir was known as one who excelled at the various Islamic disciplines. He was also an extremely righteous and ascetic person. He, like many scholars before him, provided for his self through his independent labor and exertion. He was well-known for always seeking out the most wholesome and purest of food (halal). And people knew him to be humble, modest, and of the most outstanding character.

Ibn 'Ashir would even sometimes attend the circles of scholars who were lesser than he in knowledge in order to take benefit. And he was constantly involved in teaching. When he spoke to and about people, he was very fair in whatever he had to say to others.

Some of his greatest contributions are in the area of the variant Koranic readings (qira’at). He has super-commentaries on the works of major scholars of that discipline, like Imam Ja’buri. He also surpassed those of his time in the area of scriptwriting (rasm), and he has an amazing commentary on a work entitled ‘Maurid Al-Zham’an’ (Drinking-Pool of the Thirsty) that deals with the manner of writing the script of six of the seven major authors of the variant Koranic readings besides Imam Nafi’i that consists of approximately 50 lines of poetry.

He has also contributed much to the sciences of grammar (nahw), word declension (sarf), exegesis (tafsir), law (fiqh), behavioral refinement (tasawwuf), logic (mantiq), eloquence (bayan), the poetic meters (‘arud), medicine (tibb), natural time determination (tawqit), arithmetic (hisab), inheritance law (faraa’id), and others.

He performed the Hajj pilgrimage in the year 1008 when he was 18 and he participated in a number of military campaigns. It was a common practice for him to take retreat in the mosque (‘itikaf) and stand up for the night prayer (tahajjud) very often.

He memorized the Koran under Ustadh Abu Al-‘Abbas Ahmad ibn ‘Uthman Al-Lamti and others. And he learned the seven famous variant Koranic readings with Ustadh Abu Al-‘Abbas Al-Kafif, then from ‘Ali Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad Al-Sharif Al-Maryi Al-Talmasani and others.  He also learned fiqh (law) and other things from Abu Al-‘Abbas ibn Al-Qadi, his cousin Abu Al-Qasim, Ibn Abu Al-Na’im Al-Ghassani, Abu Al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn ‘Imran, Abu ‘Abd Allah Al-Hawari, Shaykh Al-Qassar and others. In the east, he learned from Salim Al-Sanhuri, ‘Abd Allah Al-Ghazzi, and others.

Ibn ‘Ashir learned the spiritual path of Tasawwuf from his shaykh, Sidi Muhammad Al-Tajibi, better known as Ibn ‘Aziz, who is buried in Al-Darb Al-Tawil.

As for his death, Ibn 'Ashir was afflicted with an illness that the common folk called ‘Al-Nuqta’ (The Dot) in the year 1040 AH. He died at the age of 50 and he was buried at the top of Matrah al-Janna near the prayer room (musalla).

Abu Muhammad Sidi ‘Abdul-Wahid ibn Ahmad ibn ‘Ali ibn ‘Ashir see Ibn ‘Ashir

Ibn ‘Ashur
Ibn ‘Ashur.  Patronymic of a family of Idrisid descent and Moroccan origin which settled in Muslim Spain from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries.

Ibn ‘Askar, Abu ‘Abd Allah
Ibn ‘Askar, Abu ‘Abd Allah (Abu ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Askar) (1529-1578).  Idrisid sharif and Moroccan author of a highly esteemed hagiographic dictionary.
Abu 'Abd Allah ibn 'Askar see Ibn ‘Askar, Abu ‘Abd Allah

Ibn ‘Askar, Muhammad ibn ‘Ali
Ibn ‘Askar, Muhammad ibn ‘Ali (Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn 'Askar) (c. 1188-1239).  Andalusian jurist, philologist, poet and man of letters.  He wrote a history of Malaga.
Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn 'Askar see Ibn ‘Askar, Muhammad ibn ‘Ali

Ibn ‘Ata‘ Allah
Ibn ‘Ata‘ Allah (Ahmad ibn Muhammad Ibn 'Ata Allah al-Iskandari) (d. 1309).  Arab mystic of Egypt.  He was a follower of Abu‘l-Hasan al-Shadhili and was one of the foremost adversaries of the Hanbalite Ibn Taymiyya.

Ahmad ibn Muhammad Ibn 'Ata Allah al-Iskandari, the third sheikh of the Shadhili Sufi order was born and grew up in Alexandria, and later lived and died in Cairo. He was responsible for systematizing the order's doctrines and recording the biographies of its founder, Sidi Abu-l-Hassan ash-Shadhili, and his successor, Sidi Abu al-Abbas al-Mursi. Ibn 'Ata Allah was the author of the first systematic treatise on dhikr, titled The Key to Salvation: A Sufi Manual of Invocation (Miftah al-Falah) and his compilation of aphorisms (hikam) helped to make the group very popular. Commentaries on the hikam have been made by some of the most famous of the Shadhili order such as Ibn Abbad al-Rundi, Sheikh Ahmed Zarruq founder of the Zarruqiyya Sufi order and Ahmad ibn Ajiba. The wide circulation of his written works led to the spread of the Shadhili order in North Africa, where the order's founder had been rejected in earlier attempts. The Wafai Sufi order was also derived from his works. He died in 1309 while in Cairo.

Ahmad ibn Muhammad Ibn 'Ata Allah al-Iskandari see Ibn ‘Ata‘ Allah
Iskandari, Ahmad ibn Muhammad Ibn 'Ata Allah al- see Ibn ‘Ata‘ Allah

Ibn Babawayh, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad
Ibn Babawayh, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad (Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Babawayh) (Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn Babawaih al-Qummi) (Al-Shaykh al-Saduq) (918/923-991).  Known as al-Shaykh al-Saduq, he is regarded among the Twelver Shi‘a as one of their foremost doctors and traditionists.  He was a prolific author.

Al-Shaykh al-Saduq is the title given to Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn Babawaih al-Qummi. He was the leading traditionist of his time (4th Century A.H.) and one of the most outstanding traditionists of Shi'ite Islam. He earned the title of al-Shaykh al-Saduq on account of his great learning and his reputation for truthfulness. It is a title which he also shared with his father.

Al-Shaykh al-Saduq's father, al-Shaykh 'Ali was a leading figure among the scholars of Qom. By the father's time, the family was established as strong adherents of Shi'ite Islam. However, it is not known how early the family entered into Islam. Al-Shaykh al-Saduq is sometimes known as Ibn Babawayh. This is the family name and indicates the Persian origin of the family, as Babawayh is an Arabicized version of the Persian form Babuyah.

The date of al-Shaykh al-Saduq's birth is not known exactly. However, an interesting story surrounds the circumstances of it. When his father was in Iraq, it is said that he met Abul Qasim al-Husayn ibn Rawh, the third agent of the Hidden Imam. During their meeting he asked the latter several questions. Later he wrote to al-Husayn ibn Rawh asking him to take a letter to the Hidden Imam. In this letter he asked for a son. Al-Husayn sent back an answer telling him that they (the Hidden Imam and al-Husayn) had prayed to God to ask Him to grant the request and he would be rewarded with two sons. Another version of the story says three sons. The elder, or eldest, of these sons was al-Shaykh al-Saduq.

On the basis of this story, early Shi'ite scholars have placed his birth after the year 305 A.H./918 probably 306 A.H./919. For al-Husayn ibn Rawh was the agent of the Hidden Imam from 305 A.H./918 until his death in 326 A.H./937. Al-Shaykh al-Saduq was born and grew up in Qom. He was educated by his father and came into close contact with all the leading scholars of Shi'ite Islam in Qom and studied under many of them.

Qom was one of the centers of the study of Shi'ite traditions and it was this form of religious learning which held great influence over al-Shaykh al-Saduq. He travelled widely visiting many cities in search of traditions and as a result the number of scholars whom he learned traditions from was considerable.

The importance of traditions is emphasized by al-Shaykh al-Saduq and he quotes traditions against speculative theology. His works reflect this interest in traditions and nearly all of them take the form of compilations of traditions. However, he did write a creed of Shi'ite Islam al-I'tiqadat. His pupil, the eminent theologian al-Shaykh al-Mufid, wrote a correction of this creed Tashih al-i'tiqad where he criticizes him on several points.

The number of al-Shaykh al-Saduq's works is considerable. Many of the works of al-Shaykh al-Saduq have been lost but a considerable number survive and have been published. There are also other works not yet published but extant in manuscript form. During his life, al-Shaykh al-Saduq devoted most of his energy to the collection and compilation of traditions. He was also a great teacher of tradition. During the last years of his life al Shaykh' al-Saduq lived in Ray. He had been invited there by the Buyid Rukn al-Dawla. He seems to have been well-treated and honored there by Rukn al-Dawla and took part in many discussions with him. However, his teaching was eventually restricted by the Buyid Wazir Ibn 'Abbad. The attack appears to have been aimed at traditions, for several Sunni traditionists also suffered similar restrictions at the hands of Ibn 'Abbad.

Al-Shaykh al-Saduq died in Ray in 381 A.H./991 and he was buried there. He left behind him many collections of traditions which are considered to be of great importance.

Al-Shaykh al-Saduq's most noted work is Man la yahduruhu al-faqih. This work is included in the four major books of the traditions of Shi'ite Islam. Despite the fact that many of his other works are extremely important, this book is regarded as his most important work. However, some authorities maintain that there were five major books of traditions and they include another of al-Shaykh al-Saduq's works, Madinat al-'ilm, in this number. Al-Tusi mentions that the latter work was bigger than Man la yahduruhu al-faqih. It appears that this book is no longer existent. It seems to have been concerned with usual al-din (the principles of religion) rather than the furu', which are the practical regulations for carrying out the shari'a (Islamic law).

As its title implies Man la yahduruhu al faqih was concerned with furu'. The title has be translated to be "Every man his own lawyer". In his introduction to the book, al-Shaykh al-Saduq explains the circumstances of its composition and the reason for its title. When he was at Ilaq near Balkh, he met Sharif al-Din Abu 'Abd Allah known as Ni'mah whose full name was Muhammad ibn Al-Husayn ibn Al-Husayn ibn Ishaq ibn Musa ibn Ja'far ibn Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Al-Husayn ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib. He was delighted with his discourses with him and his gentleness, kindness, dignity and interest in religion. He brought a book compiled by Muhammad ibn Zakaria al-Razi entitled Man la yahduruhu al-Tabib or "Every man his own doctor" to the attention of al-Shaykh al-Saduq. He, then, asked him to compile a book on Fiqh (jurisprudence), al-halal wa al-haram (the permitted and prohibited), al-shara-i' wa-'l-ahkam (revealed law and (ordinary) laws) which would draw on all the works which the Shaykh had composed on the subject. This book would be called Man la yahduruhu al-faqih and would function as a work of reference.

In fact, the work represents a definitive synopsis of all the traditions which al-Shaykh al-Saduq had collected and included in individual books on specific legal subjects. In the lists of books of al-Shaykh al-Saduq, individual works are attributed to him on every subject of the furu'; examples are such works as Kitab al-nikah ("Book of Marriage") or Kitab al-hajj ("Book of the Pilgrimage"). That this was the intention of both the author and the learned member of Ahl al-bait is emphasized by the author when he says that Sharif al-Din had asked him for this work despite the fact that he had copied or heard from him the traditions of 145 books.

Another element in the work that stresses that it was conceived as a reference book to help ordinary Shi'ites in the practice of the legal requirements of Islam is the general absence of the Isnads or traditions. The isnads - or the chain of authorities by which the tradition had been received from the Prophet or one of the Imams - was, and is, an all-important feature of the science of traditions. Therefore, this book was not meant to be a work for scholars, who would want to check the authorities. Scholars could check the isnads in the numerous individual studies compiled by al-Shaykh al-Saduq. This book was a summary of the study of legal traditions by one of the great scholars of traditions.

Al-Shaykh al-Saduq also gives an account of some of the earlier works which he referred to. These works were the books of Hariz ibn 'Abd Allah al-Sijistani - who died during the life time of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq; the book of 'Ubaid Allah ibn 'Ali al-Halabi - who was also a contemporary of Imam Ja'far; the books of Ali ibn Mahziyar - who took traditions from Imam 'Ali al-Rida, Imam Muhammad al-Jawad and Imam al-Hadi; the books of al-Husayn ibn Sa'id - who also heard traditions from those three Imams; the Nawadir of Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn 'Isa - who died in 297 A.H./909 and also heard traditions from those three Imams; the Kitab nawadir al-hikma of Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn 'Imran al-Ash'ari; Kitab al-rahma of Sa'd ibn 'Abd Allah - who died in 299 A.H./911 or 301 A.H./913; the Jami' of Muhammad ibn al-Hasan - who was one of the teachers of the Shaykh and died in 343 A.H./954; the Nawadir of Muhammad b. Abi 'Umayr - who died in 218 A.H./833; the Kitab al-Mahasin of Ahmad ibn Abi 'Abd Allah al-Barqi (i.e. Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Khalid al-Barqi) who died in 274 A.H./887 or 280 A.H./893; and the Risala which his father had written to him. The Shaikh goes on to mention that he also consulted many other works whose names occur in the book-lists. This inclusion of the list of some of the works consulted is useful evidence that the works of both al-Shaykh al-Saduq and his predecessor, al-Kulayni, who compiled the first of the four major books of Shi'ite traditions, al-Kafi, represent the culmination of works of traditions which had been compiled in a continuous process from the earliest times and at least from the time of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq.

In addition to these references, which the author gives in his introduction, he frequently refers to his own works during the course of the book.

Another feature of the work is the method used by the author. He does not leave the traditions to speak for themselves but frequently draws rules from the traditions or explains their meaning. In a summary of the various traditions on the pilgrimage, he gives a long outline of all the rituals which should be performed by the faithful with very few traditions intervening in his outline.

The book covers most of the points concerned with the furu' (practices) of fiqh jurisprudence. It is not arranged in chapters (kutub) but in smaller sections (abwab), with the various categories such as fasting and pilgrimage following closely after each other. As indicated, its lack of isnads and al-Shaykh al-Saduq's own explanations make it an extremely useful compendium of law for ordinary Shi'ite Muslims of the period.

The book, as one of the four major works of traditions, has had many commentaries written on it. Among the significant Shi'ite writers who have written such commentaries are al-Sayyid Ahmad b. Zain al-'Abidin al-'Alawi al-'Amili (died 1060 A.H./1650) and Muhammad Taqi al-Majlisi al-Awwal (died 1070 A H./1660).

Other works of al-Shaykh al-Saduq include:

1. Kamal al-din wa tamam al-ni'mah ( the perfection of the religion and the end of the blessings) which is about Imam Zaman, including questions and answers about the Occultation to the non-believers.

2. Ma'ani al-Akhbar in which al-Shaykh al-Saduq explains the shades of the complexities and the problems of interpretations of traditions and the Quranic verses.

3. Uyun Akhbar al-Rida which was dedicated to Sahib ibn-e Ebad, the wise minister of Alle buyeh dynasty, including some of Imam Rida's traditions.

4. al-Khisal which is about moral instructions, points of scientific, historical and legal origins which had been organized according to the numerical hierarchies.

5. Aamali (Majalis)(sessions), a book in which his students had collected all of his speeches and lessons.

6. Ilal al-shara'i (the cause of the situations) which includes the reasons behind the Philosophy of the Islamic ordinances.

Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Babawayh see Ibn Babawayh, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad
Saduq, al- see Ibn Babawayh, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad
Al-Shaykh al-Saduq see Ibn Babawayh, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad
Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn Babawaih al-Qummi see Ibn Babawayh, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad
Ibn Babawaih see Ibn Babawayh, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad

Ibn Badis
Ibn Badis (Al- Muʻizz ibn Bādīs) (Arabic:  المعز بن باديس‎); 1008–1062) was the fourth ruler of the Zirids in Ifriqiya, reigning from 1016 to 1062.

Al-Muizz ascended the throne as a minor following the death of his father Badis ibn Mansur,  with his aunt acting as regent. In 1016 there was a bloody revolt in Ifriqiya in which the Fatimid residence Al-Mansuriya was completely destroyed and 20,000 Shiites were massacred. The unrest forced a ceasefire in the conflict with the Hammadids of Algeria, and their independence was finally recognized in 1018.

Al-Muizz took over the government in 1022 following the overthrow of his aunt. The relationship with the Fatimids was strained, when in 1027 they supported a revolt of the Zanatas in Tripolitania which resulted in permanent loss of control of the region. His son Abdallah shortly ruled Sicily in 1038-1040, after intervening with a Zirid army in the civil war that broke out in the island.

The political turmoil notwithstanding, the general economic well-being initially made possible an extensive building program. However, the kingdom found itself in economic crisis in the 1040s, reflected in currency devaluation, epidemic and famine. This may have been related to the high level of tribute which the Zirids were compelled to pay annually to the Fatimids (one million gold dinars a year).

When al-Muizz (under the influence of Sunni jurists in Kairouan, growing Sunni public pressure in his realm and a violent backlash against the Shi'ite minority) recognized the Abbasids in Baghdad as rightful Caliphs in 1045 and adopted Sunni orthodoxy, the break with the Fatimids was complete. He even denounced the Fatimids and their followers as heretics in newly minted coinage.

The Fatimids then deported the Bedouin tribes of the Banu Hilal and the Banu Sulaym fromEgypt to Ifriqiya. The invasion of the Bedouin (1051–1052) led to great hardship after the defeat at Jabal Haydaran, severely impacting agriculture in Ifriqiya. The conquest of Kairouan in 1057 resulted in further anarchy. The Zirids lost control over the hinterland and were only able to retain the coastal areas, the capital being moved to Mahdia. With the growth of Bedouin Emirates and the continuing insecurity inland, the economy of Ifriqiya looked increasingly towards the Mediterranean, with the result the coastal cities grew in importance through maritime trade and piracy.

Al-Muizz was succeeded by his son Tamim ibn Muizz. 

Al-Muizz ibn Badis is usually thought to be the author of the famous Kitab `umdat al-kuttab wa `uddat dhawi al-albab (Staff of the Scribes). It is divided in twelve chapters.  Al-Muizz wrote on (amongst others) on the excellence of the pen, on the preparation of types of inks, the preparation of colored inks, metallic inks (including ones prepared from silver filings and alcohol), the coloring of dyes and mixtures, secret writing, the making of paper and the Arabic gum and glue. 

Ibn Badis, ‘Abd al-Hamid
Ibn Badis, ‘Abd al-Hamid (‘Abd al-Hamid ibn Badis) (Abdelhamid Ben Badis) (Ben Badis) (December 4, 1889 - April 16, 1940).   Founder of an orthodox reformist movement in Algeria.  He founded a newspaper and a monthly review which, from 1930 onwards, propagated reform and nationalism, strongly tinged with Arabism, and attacked marabout societies and gallicization.

‘Abd al-Hamid ibn Badis was born in Constantine, Algeria, to a prominent Berber family renowned for its scholarship, wealth, and influence.  Ibn Badis received an Islamic education and in 1908 attended the famous Zaytunah Mosque in Tunis.  There, he was educated by scholars who had been influenced by the teachings of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (d. 1897) and Muhammad ‘Abduh (d. 1905) and introduced Ibn Badis to the reformist ideas of the Salafiyah movement.  After obtaining the degree of ‘alim (scholar of religion), Ibn Badis returned in 1913 to Algeria and, until his death in 1940, devoted his entire career to teaching, reforming Islam, and defining the Arab and Islamic basis of Algerian nationalism.

The French colonial administration had closed down many centers of Arab and Islamic education, appropriated the financial institutions that backed them, restricted the teaching of Arabic and the Qur‘an, and spread French schooling and culture.  It also encouraged missionary activities and supported the mystical Sufi orders, which disseminated acquiescent attitudes among the Algerians.  To quell the disorienting effects of French policies and the advocates of assimilation (evolues), Ibn Badis initiated a reform movement that sought to assert the national identity of Algeria, defend the cultural integrity of its people, and prepare them for eventual independence from France.  In 1925, he founded a weekly paper, Al-muntaqid (The Critic), in which he disseminated Salafi ideas and attacked the “un-Islamic” practices of the Sufi orders.  Al-muntaqid was banned after eighteen issues, and Ibn Badis replaced it with Al-shihab (The Meteor), in which he maintained a more moderate tone.

In 1931, Ibn Badis and other religious scholars formed the Association of Algerian ‘Ulama‘, which he headed and which promoted the Arab and Islamic roots of the Algerian nation, the reform and revival of Islam, and criticism of the Sufi orders and the assimilationists.  The Association demanded religious freedom, restoration of the hubus (religious endowment, waqf) properties, and recognition of Arabic as the national language.  It opened hundreds of free schools and mosques to teach Arabic, Islam, and modern subjects, published its own papers to spread religious, cultural, and social reform, campaigned against the marabouts‘ (local venerated men) corrupt practices, and sent delegations to France and opened branches to involve Algerian residents there.  In 1938, the Association issued a formal fatwa (legal opinion), which declared naturalized Algerians to be non-Muslims.  Its activities disturbed the French administration, which tried to restrict the activities of its members.

Ibn Badis perceived his mission as “not to produce books, but educated people.”  His thought is discernible in the numerous articles that he wrote and in his interpretation of the Qur‘an.  He shared many viewpoints of the Salafiyah movement, blaming the deterioration of the Muslims on internal weakness, disunity, despotism, and the spread of non-Islamic practices.

Ibn Badis stressed education to purify Islam from popular accretions and improve the condition of the individual as a step toward reviving the entire society.  He offered a modernist interpretation of the Qur‘an and emphasized reasoning and free will.  His major contribution lies in linking reform and education with the promotion of an Algerian nationalism.  He identified Islam, Arabism, and nationalism as the three components of the Algerian national character.

Ibn Badis and the Algerian ‘Ulama‘ laid the foundation for the national identity of the Algerian people.  Throughout the Algerian war against France (1954-1962), the Association aligned with the Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN), and was later represented in the provisional government of the Algerian Republic after independence.

On April 16, 1940, Ibn Badis died in his birthplace of Constantine. He was buried in the presence of 20,000 people and his funeral took the aspect of a gigantic humanistic demonstration; anti-colonialist and democratic; the very principles practiced in the life of this Algerian hero.



'Abd al-Hamid ibn Badis see Ibn Badis, ‘Abd al-Hamid
Abdelhamid Ben Badis see Ibn Badis, ‘Abd al-Hamid
Ben Badis see Ibn Badis, ‘Abd al-Hamid

Ibn Bajja, Abu Bakr Muhammad
Ibn Bajja, Abu Bakr Muhammad (Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Bajja) (Abū-Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn al-Sāyigh) (d. 1138). Muslim philosopher and vizier at Saragossa, Spain, known in the West as Avempace.

Abū-Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn al-Sāyigh, known as Ibn Bājjah, was an Andalusian-Arab Muslim polymath: an astronomer, logician, musician, philosopher, physician, physicist, psychologist, poet and scientist. He was known in the West by his Latinized name, Avempace. He was born in Zaragoza in what is today Spain and died in Fes, Morocco in 1138. Avempace worked as vizier for Abu Bakr ibn Ibrahim Ibn Tîfilwît, the Almoravid governor of Zaragoza. Avempace also wrote poems (panegyrics and 'muwasshahat') for him, and they both enjoyed music and wine. Avempace joined in poetic competitions with the poet al-Tutili. He later worked, for some twenty years, as the vizier of Yahyà ibn Yûsuf Ibn Tashfin, another brother of the Almoravid Sultan Yusuf Ibn Tashfin (died 1143) in Morocco.

Ibn Bajja's philosophic ideas had a clear effect on Ibn Rushd and Albertus Magnus. Most of his writings and book were not completed (or well organized) because of his early death. He had a vast knowledge of medicine, mathematics and astronomy. His main contribution to Islamic philosophy is his idea on soul phenomenology, but unfortunately was not completed.

His beloved expressions were Gharib and Mutawahhid, two approved and popular expressions of Islamic Gnostics.

Though many of his works have not survived, his theories on astronomy and physics were preserved by Ibn Maymun (Maimonides) and Ibn Rushd (Averroes) respectively, which had a subsequent influence on later astronomers and physicists in the Islamic civilization and Renaissance Europe, including Galileo Galilei.

In his commentary on Aristotle's Meteorology, Ibn Bajjah presented his own theory on the Milky Way galaxy. Aristotle believed the Milky Way to be caused by "the ignition of the fiery exhalation of some stars which were large, numerous and close together" and that the ignition takes place in the upper part of the atmosphere, in the region of the world which is continuous with the heavenly motions. On the other hand, Aristotle's Arabic commentator Ibn al-Bitriq considered the Milky Way to be a phenomenon exclusively of the heavenly spheres, not of the upper part of the atmosphere and that the light of those stars makes a visible patch because they are so close. Ibn Bajjah's view differed from both, as he considered the Milky Way to be a phenomenon both of the spheres above the moon and of the sublunar region.

Ibn Bajjah had also observed the transit of Venus and transit of Mercury. He observed them as the two planets as black spots on the face of the Sun, evidently due to the transit of Venus and/or Mercury. In the 13th century, the Maragha astronomer Qotb al-Din Shirazi referred to Ibn Bajjah's observation and identified it as the transit of Venus and Mercury.

In Islamic physics, Ibn Bajjah's law of motion was equivalent to the principle that uniform motion implies absence of action by a force. This principle would later form the basis of modern mechanics and have a subsequent influence on the classical mechanics of physicists such as Galileo Galilei. Ibn Bajjah's definition of velocity was also equivalent to Galileo's definition of velocity:

    Velocity = Motive Power - Material Resistance

where the motive power is measured by the specific gravity of the mobile body and the material resistance is the resisting medium whose resistive power is measured by its specific gravity.

Ibn Bajjah was also the first to state that there is always a reaction force for every force exerted, a precursor to Gottfried Leibniz's idea of force which underlies Newton's third law of motion or law of reciprocal actions.

Ibn Bajjah also had an influence on Thomas Aquinas' analysis of motion.

In Islamic psychology, Ibn Bajjah based his psychological studies on physics. In his essay, Recognition of the Active Intelligence, Ibn Bajjah wrote that active intelligence is the most important ability of human beings, and he wrote many other essays on sensations and imaginations. He concluded that knowledge cannot be acquired by senses alone but by Active Intelligence, which is the governing intelligence of nature. He begins his discussion of the soul with the definition that bodies are composed of matter and form and intelligence is the most important part of man—sound knowledge is obtained through intelligence, which alone enables one to attain prosperity and build character. He viewed the unity of the rational soul as the principle of the individual identity, and that by its contact with the Active Intelligence, it becomes one of those lights that gives glory to God. His definition of freedom is that when one can think and act rationally. He also writes that the aim of life should be to seek spiritual knowledge and make contact with Active Intelligence and thus with the Divine.


Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Bajja see Ibn Bajja, Abu Bakr Muhammad
Avempace see Ibn Bajja, Abu Bakr Muhammad
Abū-Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn al-Sāyigh  see Ibn Bajja, Abu Bakr Muhammad
Ibn Bajjah see Ibn Bajja, Abu Bakr Muhammad

Ibn Banna‘ al-Marrakushi
Ibn Banna‘ al-Marrakushi (Ibn al-Banna al-Marrakushi al-Azdi) (Abu'l-Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Uthman al-Azdi) (December 29, 1256 – c. 1321).  Versatile Moroccan scholar of mathematics, astronomy, astrology and occult sciences.  His knowledge was highly esteemed by Ibn Khaldun.

Ibn al-Banna al-Marrakushi al-Azdi, also known as Abu'l-Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Uthman al-Azdi, was an Arab mathematician and astronomer. The crater Al-Marrakushi on the Moon is named after him.

Ibn al-Banna, the son of an architect, was born in Marrakesh in 1256. Having learned basic mathematical and geometrical skills he proceeded to translate Euclid's Elements into Arabic.

Ibn al-Banna wrote between 51 to 74 treatises, encompassing such varied topics as algebra, astronomy, linguistics, rhetoric, and logic. One of his works, called Talkhis amal al-hisab (Summary of arithmetical operations), includes topics such as fractions, sums of squares and cubes etc. Another, called Tanbih al-Albab, covers topics related to:

    * calculations regarding the drop in irrigation canal levels,
    * arithmetical explanation of the Muslim laws of inheritance
    * determination of the hour of the Asr prayer,
    * explanation of frauds linked to instruments of measurement,
    * enumeration of delayed prayers which have to be said in a precise order,and
    * calculation of legal tax in the case of a delayed payment

Yet another work by Ibn al-Banna was Raf al-Hijab (Lifting the Veil) which included topics such as computing square roots of a number and theory of continued fractions. This work was also the first mathematical work since Brahmagupta to use an algebraic notation, which was then further developed by his successor Abū al-Hasan ibn Alī al-Qalasādī two centuries later.
Ibn al-Banna al-Marrakushi al-Azdi see Ibn Banna‘ al-Marrakushi
Abu'l-Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Uthman al-Azdi see Ibn Banna‘ al-Marrakushi

Ibn Baraka
Ibn Baraka.  Ibadi author from Oman of the tenth century.  He wrote several historical and juridical works, among them a book on the state of Oman in the time of the Imam al-Salt ibn Malik of the ninth century.

Ibn Barrajan
Ibn Barrajan.  Andalusian mystic theologian who taught in Seville during the twelfth century.  In Marrakesh, he is still known by the name Sidi Berrijal (Sidi Abu‘l-Rijal).
Sidi Berrijal see Ibn Barrajan.
Berrijal, Sidi  see Ibn Barrajan.
Sidi Abu'l-Rijal see Ibn Barrajan.
Abu'l-Rijal, Sidi see Ibn Barrajan.

Ibn Barri, Abu Muhammad ‘Abd Allah
Ibn Barri, Abu Muhammad ‘Abd Allah (Abu Muhammad ‘Abd Allah ibn Barri) (1106-1187).  Arab grammarian of Egypt.  He was said to have the greatest knowledge of his generation of Arabic grammar and vocabulary.


Abu Muhammad 'Abd Allah ibn Barri see Ibn Barri, Abu Muhammad ‘Abd Allah

Ibn Bashkuwal, Abu‘l-Qasim
Ibn Bashkuwal, Abu‘l-Qasim (Abu‘l-Qasim ibn Bashkuwal) (1101-1183).  Andalusian scholar.  In his The Continuation he continued the History of the Scholars of al-Andalus by Ibn al-Faradi (d. 1013), and gathered 1400 biographies of men of letters.  

Ibn Bashkuwal supplemented al-Farazi's work Tarikh Ulma-al Andalus (which is now extant) in 1139 and named it Al Silah fi Tarikh Aimmat al-Andalus. This is one of the two surviving works of Ibn-Bashkuwal, who was credited with some fifty works.

Ibn Bashkuwal was born at Cordoba.

  
Abu'l-Qasim ibn Bashkuwal see Ibn Bashkuwal, Abu‘l-Qasim

Ibn Bassam al-Shantarini
Ibn Bassam al-Shantarini (d. 1147).  Andalusian poet, a native of Santarem.  He owes his fame to an anthology compiled with a sound judgment on the quality of the works collected.

Ibn Bassam (Ibn Bassam Al-Shantarini), was a poet and historian from al-Andalus. He was born in Santarém (altern. spelling Shantarin or Xantarin) and died in 1147. Especially well-known is his anthology "Dhakhira fî mahâsin ahl al-Gazira" (The Treasury concerning the Merits of the People of Iberia) one of the most important sources of information in the field of history, literature and culture of the Almoravid dynasty. It was edited in eight volumes by Ihsan Abbas, written in rhymed prose, many of its biographies are contemporary and filled out with details taken from the Kitab al-Matin of Ibn Hayyan. The parts taken from that book are easily distinguishable, because Ibn Bassam prefixes the words qala Ibn Hayyan ("Ibn Hayyan says") and concludes the extract with intaha kalam Ibn Hayyan ("here ends lbn Hayyan's words").

Ibn Batta
Ibn Batta (al-‘Ukbari) (917-997).  Hanbali theologian and jurisconsult in Baghdad.  He is an example of the Sunni opposition to the Buyid regime and, to a lesser degree, to Mu‘tazilism and philosophy.
'Ukbari, al- see Ibn Batta

Ibn Battuta
Ibn Battuta (Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Battuta) (Ibn Batuta) (Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Abdullah Al Lawati Al Tanji Ibn Battuta) (February 24, 1304–1368/1369/1377).  One of the world’s most renowned travellers and authors of travel books.  Between 1325 and 1353, his journeys brought him from his native Tangiers to Egypt, Syria, Mecca, Iraq, the Red Sea and Yemen, Oman, Istanbul, Transoxiana, Afghanistan, the Indus, the Maldives, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Bengal, Sumatra and the Chinese port of Zaytun (Ts‘uan-chou), Sardinia, Granada, and across the Sahara to the country of the Niger.  

His “Travel-book” -- his Rihlah (Travels) --  is in fact a description of the then known world, and was translated into many languages.   Ibn Battuta’s Rihlah (Travels), which was finished in 1357, is thus an important source for the history and geography of the medieval Muslim world.  

Ibn Battuta was a Berber born in Tangiers into a family of lawyers.  His full name was Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Battuta.  Beginning with his first journey in 1325, a religious pilgrimage to Mecca, he covered some 120,000 kilometers (some 75,000 miles), extending from Spain in the West to China in the East, from Timbuktu, in West Africa, to the Steppes of Russia.  His book -- his Rihlah -- includes descriptions of the Byzantine court of Constantinople and the Black Death of Baghdad (c.1348).

At the age of 21 (in 1325), Ibn Battuta began his travels when he went on the pilgrimage (the hajj) to Mecca to fulfill his religious obligation and to add to his qualifications as a lawyer by consulting the scholars he met.  While at Mecca, he was seized by a desire for further travel, and for the next 25 years he wandered from Constantinople to China, and from the Crimea to the Maldive Islands.  During his first pilgrimage to Mecca he vowed never, so far as possible, to cover a second time any road that he had once traveled, and he certainly journeyed more extensively than any other recorded medieval traveler.

In 1331, he sailed down the east African coast, at least as far south as Kilwa.  His description of that region is the only extant first-hand account between the anonymous Periplus of the Erythraean Sea of the first century of the Christian calendar and Portuguese records of the early sixteenth century.  

On his third journey, Ibn Battuta spent two or three years in Mecca.  His interest began to turn from piety alone to an ethnographic interest in the cultures and peoples he saw.  He then traveled overland in North Africa and Syria, exploring Arabia, Mesopotamia, Persia, and Asia Minor.  With the assistance of various Muslim sultans and religious authorities, he made a journey by way of Constantinople (in the retinue of the khan of the Golden Horde) and Samarkand to India, where he resided almost eight years at the court of the sultan of Delhi, Muhammad ibn Tughluq, who deputed Ibn Battuta to China as one of his ambassadors in 1342.  

In all, Ibn Battuta’s third journey was an adventurous journey.  He was delayed in Calicut, the Maldive Islands, the Coromandel and Malabar coasts, Bengal, Assam, and Sumatra, landing finally in Zayton (Quanzhou, in Fujian), and then journeying to Beijing.  Ibn Battuta’s stay in China was relatively short.

During this journey, Ibn Battuta served as a judge in India, and served again as a judge, for 18 months, in the Maldive Islands, where he objected to the women’s scanty dress, which did not conform to Muslim standards.   Ibn Battuta was interested in all that he saw, but he seems to have been remarkably casual in practical matters.  In one place, he married a wife who bore him a daughter, but wanderlust soon possessed him again and he set off leaving wife and child behind.  

In 1347, he returned to the West by way of Sumatra and the Malabar coast, arriving in Tangier around 1350.  Later he went to Spain and traveled in West Africa.

During his last great journey in 1353, Ibn Battuta visited West Africa, leaving a vivid description of the Mali Empire.  At this professedly Muslim court, he saw the king present a delegation of visiting cannibals with an attractive young girl, who was promptly cut up and publicly eaten by the guests.  

Ibn Battuta retired to Fez in 1354 to put together the narrative of his travels.  His contemporaries regarded him as a romancer, but his reports, where they can be verified, are accurate.  Ibn Battuta dictated his travels to Ibn Juzayy, who put the work into literary style.  Ibn Battuta often conflated his experiences into a somewhat artificial itinerary.  The full text of his work was rediscovered in North Africa in the early nineteenth century.  

Between 1325 and 1354, Ibn Battuta visited and described in detail virtually every known Muslim region of the world, from Southern Spain and West Africa, to East Africa, Russia, India and China.  Ibn Battuta’s glowing description of India was treated with skepticism by contemporaneous Arabs but is, on the whole, borne out by comparison with works by Indian historians.  His account of his travels in China is not as detailed as much as the rest of his work, perhaps because he viewed his experiences in China as outside the cultural and social history of Islam.  

After returning home from his travels in 1354 and at the instigation of the Sultan of Morocco, Abu Inan Faris, Ibn Battuta dictated an account of his journeys to Ibn Juzayy, a scholar whom he had met previously in Granada. The account, recorded by Ibn Juzayy and interspersed with the latter's own comments, is the only source of information on his adventures. The title of the manuscript may be translated as A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling but is often simply referred to as the Rihla, or "The Journey".

After the completion of the Rihla in 1355, little is known about Ibn Battuta's life. He was appointed a judge in Morocco and died in 1368 or 1369 or 1377.


Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Battuta see Ibn Battuta
Ibn Batuta see Ibn Battuta
Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Abdullah Al Lawati Al Tanji Ibn Battuta see Ibn Battuta

Ibn Bazzaz al-Ardabili
Ibn Bazzaz al-Ardabili.  Son and first successor of Shaykh Safi al-Din al-Ardabili, the founder of the Sufi order of the Safawiyya and, as ancestor of Shah Isma‘il I, the eponym of the Safavids.  One of his works was used for the genealogy of the Safavids, who claimed descent from the seventh Imam Musa al-Qazim.

Ibn Bibi, al-Husayn ibn Muhammad
Ibn Bibi, al-Husayn ibn Muhammad (al-Husayn ibn Muhammad ibn Bibi).  Historian of the Saljuqs of Rum in the thirteenth century.  His work, written in Persian and covering the period from 1192 until 1280, can be classed as memoirs in that he handed down what he himself had heard and seen at the court of the Rum Saljuqs.

Ibn Bibi is author of the primary source for the history of the Seljuq Sultanate of Rum during the 13th century. He served as head of the chancellery of the Sultanate in Konya and reported on contemporary events.

Ibn Bibi’s father, a native of Gorgan, lived for a time at the court of the Jalal al-Din Kwarezmshah and later worked at the Seljuq chancellery. His mother was a famous astrologer from Nishapur invited to Konya by Kayqubad I. The family was part of an exodus of Persian intellectuals from Mongol-dominated Iran.

Ibn Bibi’s memoir is written in Persian and covers the period between 1192 and 1280. A single manuscript, produced for Kaykhusraw III, survives in Istanbul. An abridged Persian version called Mukhtaṣar was produced during the author's lifetime in 1284-85. An Ottoman Turkish adaptation, sometimes called the Seljukname, is included in the Oğuzname of the early 15th century court historian Yazicioğlu Ali. Several manuscripts of the latter survive in Ankara, Berlin, Istanbul, Leiden, St Petersburg, Moscow, and Paris.

Husayn ibn Muhammad ibn Bibi, al- see Ibn Bibi, al-Husayn ibn Muhammad

Ibn Burd
Ibn Burd.  Name of an Andalusian family, two representatives of whom enjoy some fame: (1) Ibn Burd al-Akbar (d. 1027), who as the head of the chancellery under the Spanish Umayyad Hisham II al-Mu‘ayyad, drew up the act of investiture for the “major domo” ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi ‘Amir (Sanchuelo) in 1008; and (2) Ibn Burd al-Ashgar (1005-1054) was an author and poet.

Ibn Butlan
Ibn Butlan (d. 1038/1052/1066).  Christian physician and theologian of Baghdad.  His main work is a synopsis of hygiene and macrobiotics, to which al-Ghazali refers in the preface of his The Revival of Religious Sciences.

Ibn Butlan was an Iraqi Christian physician. He wrote the Taqwim al-Sihhah (The maintenance of health). The work treated matters of hygiene, dietetics, and exercise. It emphasized the benefits of regular attention to personal physical and mental well-being. The continued popularity and publication of this medieval text of Middle Eastern origin into the sixteenth century is thought to demonstrate the influence that Arabic culture had on early modern Europe.

Ibn Daniyal
Ibn Daniyal (c. 1248-1310).  Arab writer in Egypt.  He was the author of the earliest shadow plays in medieval Egypt.

Ibn Darraj al-Qastalli
Ibn Darraj al-Qastalli (958-1030).  Andalusian poet of Berber origin.  He is considered one of the greatest poets of Muslim Spain and the main representative of the golden age of Arabo-Andalusian poetry.

Ibn Dawud
Ibn Dawud (d. 909).  Zahiri jurist and the first codifier of Arabic “courtly love.”

Ibn Dirham
Ibn Dirham.  Patronym of an eminent family of Maliki jurists and judges, originally from Basra.  They flourished between 717 and 971.

Ibn Durayd
Ibn Durayd (837-933).  Arab philologist and lexicographer.  He wrote a monumental work called al-Jamhara, in which he included a large number of loanwords, tracing as far as possible their origins.

Ibn Fadl Allah al-‘Umari
Ibn Fadl Allah al-‘Umari (1301-1349).  Author and administrator of the Mameluke period.  He was a writer and expert on a wide variety of subjects related to politics and administration.

Ibn Fadlan
Ibn Fadlan (Ahmad ibn Fadlān ibn al-Abbās ibn Rašīd ibn Hammād).  Arabic writer of the tenth century.  He left an account of the diplomatic mission sent by the ‘Abbasid Caliph al-Muqtadir to the king of the Bulghars of the Volga in 921.

Ahmad ibn Fadlān ibn al-Abbās ibn Rašīd ibn Hammād was a 10th century Arab Muslim writer and traveler who wrote an account of his travels as a member of an embassy of the Abbasid Caliph of Baghdad to the king of the Volga Bulgars, the Kitāb ilā Mulk al-Saqāliba. His account is most known for providing a description of the Volga Vikings, including an eye-witness account of a ship burial.

For a long time, only an incomplete version of the account was known, as transmitted in the geographical dictionary of Yāqūt (under the headings Atil, Bashgird, Bulghār, Khazar, Khwārizm, Rūs), published in 1823 by Fraehn. Only in 1923 was a manuscript discovered by the Turkic scholar of Bashkir origin Zeki Validi Togan in the Astane Quds Museum, Mashhad, Iran/Persia. The manuscript dates from the 13th century (7th century Hijra). Besides other geographical treatises, it contains a fuller version of Ibn Fadlan's text.

Ibn Fadlan was sent from Baghdad in 921 to serve as the secretary to an ambassador from the Abbasid Caliph al-Muqtadir to the iltäbär (vassal-king under the Khazars) of the Volga Bulgaria, Almış.

The embassy's objective was to have the king of the Bolğars pay homage to Caliph al-Muqtadir and, in return, to give the king money to pay for the construction of a fortress. Although they reached Bolğar, the mission failed because they were unable to collect the money intended for the king. Annoyed at not receiving the promised sum, the king refused to switch from the Maliki rite to the Hanafi rite of Baghdad.

The embassy left Baghdad on June 21, 921. It reached the Bulghars after much hardship on May 12, 922. (This day is an official religious holiday in modern Tatarstan.) The journey took Ibn Fadlan from Baghdad to Bukhara and Khwarizm (south of the Aral Sea). Although promised safe passage by the Oghuz warlord, or Kudarkin, they were waylaid by Oghuz bandits but luckily were able to bribe their attackers. They spent the winter in Gorgan, Iran before travelling north across the Ural River until they reached the towns of the Bulghars at the three lakes of the Volga north of the Samara bend.

After arriving in Bolğar, Ahmad ibn Fadlan made a trip to Wisu and recorded his observations of trade between the Volga Bolğars and local Finnic tribes.

A substantial part of Ibn Fadlan's account is dedicated to the description of a people he called the Rūs or Rūsiyyah. Most scholars identify them with the Rus or Varangians, which would make Ibn Fadlan's account one of the earliest portrayals of Vikings.

The Rūs

appear as traders that set up shop on the river banks nearby the Bolğar camp. They are described as having bodies tall as palm-trees, with blond hair and ruddy skin. They were tattooed from "fingernails to neck" with dark blue or dark green "tree patterns" and other "figures" and that all men were armed with an axe and a long knife.

Ibn Fadlan describes the Rus as having perfect bodies, with high cheekbones in the face. In contrast to their physical beauty, he describes the hygiene of the Rūsiyyah as disgusting (while also noting with some astonishment that they comb their hair every day) and considers them vulgar and unsophisticated. In that, his impressions contrast those of the Persian traveler Ibn Rustah. He also describes in great detail the funeral of one of their chieftains (a ship burial involving human sacrifice). Some scholars believe that it took place in the modern Balymer complex.

Elements of Ibn Fadlan's account are used in the novel Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton (filmed as The 13th Warrior with Antonio Banderas as Ibn Fadlan), in which the Arab ambassador is taken even further north and is involved in adventures inspired by the Old English epic Beowulf. Indeed Crichton designed "Eaters of the Dead" as being a fictional version of the historic events which created the basis of the epic "Beowulf".

A major Arabic TV series, The Roof of the World or Saqf al-Alam, was produced in 2007 charting Ibn Fadlan's journey from a contemporary perspective. The 30 one-hour episodes tackle the relations between Islam and Europe at two moments: the time of Ibn Fadlan and the present. The motivation for the series was the 2005 Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy in Denmark.

Ahmad ibn Fadlān ibn al-Abbās ibn Rašīd ibn Hammād see Ibn Fadlan

Ibn Fahd
Ibn Fahd.  Name of an important Meccan family who, through four successive generations (the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries), boasted of productive historians whose chief interest lay in local history and biography.

Ibn Faraj al-Jayyani
Ibn Faraj al-Jayyani.  Poet, anthologist, and historian of Muslim Spain during the tenth century.  He is the author of a remarkable anthology of Andalusian poetry.

Ibn Farighun
Ibn Farighun.  Author from the upper Oxus lands of the tenth century.  He wrote a concise Arabic encyclopedia of the sciences.

Ibn Faris
Ibn Faris (d. 1004).  Arab philologist of Persia.  He wrote some 40 works, but lexicography was his favorite domain.  To the Arab world he remained “the grammarian.”
The Grammarian see Ibn Faris

Ibn Ghalbun
Ibn Ghalbun.  Ruler of Molina de Aragon during the eleventh century.  He was the son of a convert and was brought up in Islam.  He became a loyal subject of El Cid.

Ibn Ghalib
Ibn Ghalib (Muhammad ibn Ghalib al-Rusafi) (d. 1177).  Poet, historian and geographer living in Granada during the twelfth century.  In his geographical work he gives details about the habitats of the Arab tribes in Spain.  
Muhammad ibn Ghalib al-Rusafi see Ibn Ghalib

Ibn Ghannam, Abu Tahir
Ibn Ghannam, Abu Tahir (Abu Tahir ibn Ghannam).  Author of a treatise on oneiromancy -- on divination by means of dreams.  He led this discipline away from the traditional paths by renouncing the plan inspired by that of the Book of Dreams of Artemidorus of Ephesus.
Abu Tahir ibn Ghannam see Ibn Ghannam, Abu Tahir

Ibn Gharsiya
Ibn Gharsiya (Abu Amir Ahmad Ibn Gharsiya al-Bashqunsi) (d. 1084).  Andalusian writer and poet of the eleventh century.   Of Basque origin, he was a fervent Muslim but wrote a violent, insulting and bitter treatise against the Arabs, glorifying the Slavs, the Rum and all the non-Arabs.

Abu Amir Ahmad Ibn Gharsiya al-Bashqunsi was an 11th century Muwallad poet and katib (writer) in the taifa court of Denia. He is usually referred to as Ibn Gharsiya by modern historians and scholars. The poet, Ibn Gharsiya, should not be confused with a Cordoban faqih of the same name.

Ibn Gharsiya was born into a Christian Basque family, but was taken prisoner in his childhood and raised in the Islamic faith. He grew up proficient and eloquent in both Classical Arabic and the Andalusi Arabic dialect. Ibn Gharsiya was proud of his Basque origin and remained a life long fervent Muslim throughout his lifetime. His surname "al-Bashqunsi" is the Arabic word for Basque, and therefore, signified his Basque heritage.

He served under the Slavic Emir of Denia, Mujahid al-Amiri, and his son, Ali ibn Mujahid. Like Ibn Gharsiya, the ruling family of Denia were also Muladi and had broken free from the Caliphate of Cordoba after the turbulent year of 1009. Like other taifas, his kingdom had sought to distance itself from the Umayyad period. Ibn Gharsiya subsequently spent most of his life as a katib at the court of Denia.

Ibn Gharsiya was a leading proponent and advocate of the Shu'ubiyya thought in Al-Andalus. The Shu'ubiyyah movement demanded equality of power, wealth and status of the Non-Arab Berbers and Muwalladun by Arabs. The Shu'ubiyyah Movement of Al-Andalus was active like the Arabs in promoting the Arab-Islamic culture and language and claimed their integration with the Arab ethnic groups.

Between 1051 and 1056 Ibn Gharsiya wrote an epistle against the Arab ascendancy in Al-Andalus, which concurrently praises non-Arab Islam. Opponents of this work have called it violent, insulting and bitter in its attack on the Arabs and, contrary to prevailing tradition, it criticizes Arab Muslims as being inferior in rank and lineage. Simultaneously it is said to glorify non-Arab Muslims, such as the Berbers, and also those converts from the Visigoths, Slavs, and Romans.

In the epistle, Ibn Gharsiya tried to show that Non-Arab rule in Denia was much better than those of the other taifas. By doing so, he attempted to formulate and legitimize a non-Arab alternative to Arab rule which involved combining Arab and non-Arab traditions, which were mainly Persian and Byzantine. This gave him an opportunity to debate with the Arab Islamic scholar, Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn al-Jazzar, who had been present at the court of Ibn Sumadih, Emir of Almeria. However, according to the Escorial manuscript, the letter was addressed to a certain, Abu Abd'allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn al-Haddad al-Quaisi. However, despite this difference, it is clear that the addressee was linked to the court of Ibn Sumadih and to the taifa state of Almeria.

Ibn Gharsiya's epistle addresses some of the most fundamental and important questions in the Muslim community of Al-Andalus at the time, such as the relationshp between the Arabs and Berbers of the Islamic faith with the Muwalladun, who were the descendants of the indigenous Iberian converts to Islam. Ibn Gharsiya stressed that a sound interpretaion of Islam should also be of value to the non-Arab Muslims. This epistle represents the adoption of the Eastern Shu'ubi ideology by many indigenous Andalusian Muslims, which argued against Arab exclusivity, as expressed in their treatises comparing the Arabs unfavorably with the Persians and the Byzantines.

Ibn Gharsiya's epistle was written in Arabic courtly prose. Therefore, it did not represent a rejection of Arabic literary culture, but only of Arab lineage. The epistle elicited at least seven refutations, only five of which actually survive. Like the original, the refutations seem to have been written in imitation of eastern models. Only one of the refutations was specifically directed against Ibn Gharsiya.

Besides the epistle, the only words from Ibn Gharsiya that have been preserved are some lines by the 12th century Andalusian geographer, historian and writer, Ibn Said al-Maghribi. These lines are believed to have been composed in praise of Ibn Gharsiya's lord, Ali ibn Mujahid.
Abu Amir Ahmad Ibn Gharsiya al-Bashqunsi see Ibn Gharsiya

Ibn Ghidhahum
Ibn Ghidhahum (Ben Ghedahem) (c.1815-1867).  Leader of the 1864 revolution in Tunisia.  The revolt against the Khaznadar government was started in 1864 as a result of a doubling of taxes.  It was crushed in the same year and Ibn Ghidhahum died in prison.
Ben Ghedahem see Ibn Ghidhahum

Ibn Habib, Badr al-Din
Ibn Habib, Badr al-Din (Badr al-Din ibn Habib) (1310-1377). Scholar and jurist.  He wrote a history in rhymed prose of the Mameluke Empire from its beginning in 1250 down to his own time.
Badr al-Din ibn Habib see Ibn Habib, Badr al-Din

Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani
Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani (Al-Haafidh Shihabuddin Abu'l-Fadl Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Muhammad) (February 18, 1372 -February 2, 1449).  Egyptian scholar of hadith, judge and historian.  He is one of the greatest and most typical representatives of Muslim religious scholarship.  He wrote a great commentary on the Sahih of al-Bukhari, and some large biographical dictionaries.

Al-Haafidh Shihabuddin Abu'l-Fadl Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Muhammad, better known as Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani (Ibn Hajar due to the fame of his forefathers, al-Asqalani due to his origin) was a medieval Shafiite Sunni scholar of Islam who represents the entire realm of the Sunni world in the field of Hadith.

Ibn Hajar was born in Cairo in 1372, the son of the Shafi'i scholar and poet Nur al-Din 'Ali. Both of his parents died in his infancy, and he and his sister, Sitt al-Rakb, became wards of his father's first wife's brother, Zaki al-Din al-Kharrubi, who enrolled Ibn Hajar in Qur'anic studies when he was five. There he excelled, learning Surah Maryam in a single day, and progressing to the memorization of texts such as the Qur'an, then the abridged version of Ibn al-Hajib's work on the foundations of fiqh.

When he accompanied al-Kharrubi to Mecca at the age of 12, he was considered competent to lead the Tarawih prayers during Ramadan. When his guardian died in 1386, Ibn Hajar's education in Egypt was entrusted to hadith scholar Shams al-Din ibn al-Qattan, who entered him in the courses given by al-Bulqini (d. 1404) and Ibn al-Mulaqqin (d. 1402) in Shafi'i fiqh, and Hafiz al-Iraqi (d. 1404) in hadith, after which he travelled to Damascus and Jerusalem, to study under Shams al-Din al-Qalqashandi (d. 1407), Badr al-Din al-Balisi (d. 1401), and Fatima bint al-Manja al-Tanukhiyya (d. 1401). After a further visit to Mecca, Medina, and Yemen, he returned to Egypt.

In 1397, at the age of twenty-five, Ibn Hajar married Anas Khatun, who was a hadith expert in her own right, holding ijazas from Hafiz al-Iraqi. She gave celebrated public lectures to crowds of ulema, including al-Sakhawi.

Ibn Hajar went on to be appointed to the position of Egyptian chief-judge (Qadi) several times.

Ibn Hajar died after Isha prayers on February 2, 1449. His funeral in Cairo was attended by an estimated fifty thousand people, including the sultan and the caliph.

Ibn Hajar authored more than fifty works on hadith, hadith terminology, biographical evaluation, history, Quranic exegesis , poetry and Shafi'i jurisprudence.  These works include:

    * Fath al-Bari – considered the most prominent and reliable commentary on al-Bukhari's Jami` al-Sahih: In 1414 (817 A.H.), Ibn Hajar commenced the enormous task of assembling his commentary on Sahih Bukhari. Ibn Rajab had begun to write a huge commentary on Sahih Bukhari in the 1390s with the title of Fath al-Bari, thus Ibn Hajar decided to name his own commentary with the same title, Fath al-Bari, which in time became the most valued commentary of Sahih Bukhari. When it was finished, in December 1428 (Rajab 842 A.H.), a celebration was held near Cairo, attended by the ulema, judges, and leading Egyptian personalities. Ibn Hajar read the final pages of his work, after which poets recited eulogies and gold was distributed.
    * al-Durar al-Kamina – a biographical dictionary of leading figures of the eighth century.
    * Tahdhib al-Tahdhib – an abbreviation of Tahdhib al-Kamal, the encyclopedia of hadith narrators by Yusuf ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Mizzi
    * Taqrib al-Tahdhib – the abridgement of Tahdhib al-Tahdhib
    * Ta'jil al-Manfa'ah – biographies of the narrators of the Musnads of the four Imams, not found in al-Tahdhib.
    * al-Isaba fi tamyiz al-Sahaba – the most comprehensive dictionary of the Companions.
    * Bulugh al-Maram min adillat al-ahkam – on hadith used in Shafi'i fiqh.
    * Nata'ij al-Afkar fi Takhrij Ahadith al-Adhkar
    * Lisan al-Mizan – a reworking of Mizan al-'Itidal by al-Dhahabi.
    * Talkhis al-Habir fi Takhrij al-Rafi`i al-Kabir
    * al-Diraya fi Takhrij Ahadith al-Hidaya
    * Taghliq al-Ta`liq `ala Sahih al-Bukhari
    * Risala Tadhkirat al-Athar
    * al-Matalib al-`Aliya bi Zawa'id al-Masanid al-Thamaniya
    * Nukhbat al-Fikar along with his explanation of it entitled Nuzhah al-Nathr in hadith terminology
    * al-Nukat ala Kitab ibn al-Salah – commentary of the Muqaddimah of Ibn al-Salah
    * al-Qawl al-Musaddad fi Musnad Ahmad a discussion of hadith of disputed authenticity in the Musnad of Ahmad
    * Silsilat al-Dhahab
    * Ta`rif Ahl al-Taqdis bi Maratib al-Mawsufin bi al-Tadlis

Al-Haafidh Shihabuddin Abu'l-Fadl Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Muhammad see Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani

Ibn Hajar al-Haytami
Ibn Hajar al-Haytami (Ibn Hajar al-Haytami al-Makki) (Shihab al-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Hajar al-Haytamī al-Makkī) (1503/1504-1566/1567).  Scholar and prolific writer of the Shafi‘i school of law.  His main work is a commentary on Muhyi al-Din al-Nawawi’s Path of the Students.

Ibn Hajar al-Haytami was a student of Zakariyya al-Ansari, and he represents the foremost resource for legal opinion (fatwa) in the late Shafi`i school.

Ibn Hajar al-Haytamī was born in Abū Haytam, western Egypt. He was the Shāfiʿī Imām of his time, a brilliant scholar of in-depth applications of Sacred Law, and with al-Imām Aḥmad al-Ramlī, represents the foremost resource for fatwa (legal opinion) for the entire late Shāfiʿī school. He was educated at al-Azhar, but later moved to Makkah, where he authored major works in Shāfiʿī jurisprudence, hadīth, tenets of faith, education, hadīth commentary, and formal legal opinion. His most famous works include Tuhfah al-muḥtāj bi sharh al-Minhāj, a commentary on al-Imām al-Nawawī’s Minhāj al-ṭālibīn whose ten volumes represent a high point in Shāfiʿī scholarship; the four volume al-Fatāwā al-kubrā al-fiqhiyyah; and al-Zawājir ʿan iqtirāf al-kabāʾir, which with its detailed presentation of Qurʾān and Hadīth evidence and masterful legal inferences, remains unique among Muslim works dealing with taqwa (godfearingness) and is even recognized by Hanafi scholars as a source of authoritative legal texts valid in their own school. After a lifetime of outstanding scholarship, the Ibn Hajar al-Haytami died and was buried in Mecca (Makkah).

The works of Ibn Hajar al-Haytami include:

    * al-Sawa'iq al-Muhriqah
    * Asma al-Matalib
    * Tahrir al-Maqal fi Adab wa Ahkam fi ma yahtaj ilay-ha Mu'addibu al-Atfal

Ibn Hajar al-Haytami al-Makki see Ibn Hajar al-Haytami
Shihab al-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Hajar al-Haytamī al-Makkī see Ibn Hajar al-Haytami

Ibn Hamdis
Ibn Hamdis (c.1055/1056-1132/1133). Arab poet of Muslim Sicily.  He exulted in the failure of the expedition mounted by Roger II of Sicily against al-Mahdiyya in Tunisia in 1123.

Ibn Hamdis was born in Noto, near Syracuse. When he was 31, his town was captured by the Normans and he was forced to move to Andalusia, then still under Muslim control, at Sevilla, where he made friends with Prince Al Mutamid, who was also a poet. After the death of the latter in an Almoravid prison of Maroc (1095), Ibn Hamdis moved to Algeria under the protection of Prince al-Mansur. When the latter died, he then moved to Madhiyya in Tunisia, as a guest of the Zirid rulers.

Ibn Hamdis continued to move about most of the Mediterranean Islamic countries until his death at Majorca in 1133. His works include about 6,000 verses, many of them devoted to his lost Sicily.

Ibn Hamdun
Ibn Hamdun.  Name of the members of the Banu Hamdun family in Baghdad who were “boon companions” of the caliphs and who flourished mainly in the first half of the ninth century.

The Hamdanid dynasty was a Shi'a Muslim Arab dynasty of northern Iraq (Al-Jazirah) and Syria (890-1004). They claimed to have been descended from the ancient Banu Taghlib Christian tribe of Mesopotamia Anizzah northern Arabia.

The Hamdanid dynasty was founded by Hamdan ibn Hamdun (after whom it is named), when he was appointed governor of Mardin in southeast Anatolia by the Abbasid Caliphs in 890.

His son Abdallah (904-929) was in turn appointed governor of Mosul in northern Iraq (906) and even governed Baghdad (914). His sons were installed as governors in Mosul and Aleppo.

The rule of Hassan Nasir ad-Daula (929-968), governor of Mosul and Diyarbakır, was sufficiently tyrannical to cause him to be deposed by his own family.

His lineage still ruled in Mosul, a heavy defeat by the Buyids in 979 notwithstanding, until 990. After this, their area of control in northern Iraq was divided between the Uqailids and the Marwanids.

Ali Saif al-Daula ('Sword of the State') ruled (945-967) Northern Syria from Aleppo, and became the most important opponent of the Byzantine Empire's (Christian) expansion. His court was a center of culture, thanks to its nurturing of Arabic literature, but it lost this status after the Byzantine conquest of Aleppo.

To stop the Byzantine advance, Aleppo was put under the suzerainty of the Fatimids in Egypt, but in 1003 the Fatimids deposed the Hamdanids anyway.

A listing of the Hamadanid rulers reads as follows:

Hamdanids in Al-Jazira

   1. Hamdan ibn Hamdun (868-874)
   2. al-Husayn ibn Hamdan (895-916)
   3. Abdullah ibn Hamdan (906-929)
   4. Nasir ad-Daula (929-967)
   5. Adid ad-Daula (967-980)
   6. Abul Tahir Ibrahim ibn al-Hasan (989-997)
   7. Abu Abdillah al-Husayn ibn al-Hasan (989-997)

Hamdanids in Aleppo

   1. Sayf al-Daula (945-967)
   2. Saad al-Daula (967-991)
   3. Said al-Daula (991-1002)
   4. Abul Hasan Ali (1002–1004)
   5. Abul Ma'ali Sharif (1004–1004)

Ibn Hamid
Ibn Hamid (d. 1012).  One of the most prominent Hanbali scholars of Baghdad under the Buyids.

Ibn Hanbal
Ibn Hanbal (Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal) (Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Hanbal Abu `Abd Allah al-Shaybani) (780-855).  Founder of the Hanbalite school of Islamic law.  Ibn Hanbal was a student of al-Shafi‘i and was widely traveled, as was the custom for students of traditional learning. Ibn Hanbal was in strong sympathy with the Traditionists and adamantly opposed to speculative theology, particularly that of the Mu‘tazilites.  Under the ‘Abbasid caliphs, when Mu‘tazilism became the state religion, Ibn Hanbal was persecuted, flogged, and imprisoned because of his adherence to Traditionist beliefs.  Only with the return of the state to orthodoxy under al-Mutawakkil was he saved from further persecution, by which time Ibn Hanbal had a wide reputation as a staunch defender of the faith.  Ibn Hanbal’s most famous work, the Musnad, was compiled by his son ‘Abdullah.  The Musnad actually pertains to hadith rather than being a treatise on fiqh.  Indeed, some commentators (most notably the historian Muhammad ibn Jarir at-Tabari) have not regarded Ibn Hanbal as being an authority on fiqh.  However, Ibn Hanbal’s views on jurisprudence are quite clearly set forth in the form of opinions on disputed points of law.  Upon his death in Baghdad in 855, Ibn Hanbal was given an elaborate burial, and his tomb became the object of veneration, despite his opposition to such veneration.  

Ibn Hanbal’s Traditionist stance has marked the character of the Islamic legal school named after him.  Ibn Hanbal rejected judicial discretionary opinion and even the more restrictive analogic reasoning, preferring to base law on the Qur‘an and the Sunna.  For this reason Hanbalites have a tendency to prefer weak traditions to any form of judicial reasoning.  This preoccupation with tradition led to one of the best analyses of hadith, by Ibn Abu Hatim.  

The Hanbalite school adopted a strong moral approach to law and was consequently opposed to the strategems of the Hanafites.  On the question of consensus -- on ijma -- the Hanbalites rejected the notion that it was possible to obtain agreement among all the qualified jurists, and the famous Hanbalite jurist Ibn Taymiyya reserved the theoretical right of a type of independent judgment -- of ijtihad -- which had been discarded by the other schools on the basis of consensus.  The seeming conservative nature of the Hanbalite school has led, because of its emphasis on the Qur‘an and tradition to a greater degree of individual responsibility in contractual obligations, including marriage, and allows greater freedom to women than the other schools.  The Hanbalite school did not enjoy dominance in any particular geographic area, although its influence was pervasive, until its adoption by the Wahhabis


Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal see Ibn Hanbal

Ibn Hani‘ al-Andalusi
Ibn Hani‘ al-Andalusi (c.934-c.973).  Court poet of the Banu Hamdun, rulers of Masila, and of the last Fatimid Caliph of Ifriqiyya al-Mu‘izz li-din Allah.  He is considered the first great poet of the Muslim West.

Poetry has always been central to the spiritual life of Islam, particularly among the Sufis and other esoteric traditions of the faith. Through the ages, it has been composed in classical languages and local dialects to express love and devotion for God, and for Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Although a large body of the great poetry of Islam has been translated into English, the poetry of the Ismailis, except for a small portion, is still only accessible in the original languages.

Among the arts, the cultivation of poetry was especially encouraged by the Fatimid Caliph-Imams. As was customary with most ruling Muslim dynasties, the Fatimids maintained a staff of a few professional poets, ranked according to their skills, who performed important roles in the court rituals and public ceremonials.

The most famous of the court poets was Muhammad ibn Hani al-Andalusi, who entered the service of the Fatimids in 958, after fleeing from persecution in Muslim Spain. He was reputed as the foremost Arabic poet of the Maghrib (present-day Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia) and his poetry was widely admired. He was the official court poet of Imam al-Mansur and Imam al-Mu’izz

Ibn Hatim
Ibn Hatim.  State official and historian under the Rasulid sultan of Yemen al-Muzaffar Yusuf (r.1249-1295).

Ibn Hawqal
Ibn Hawqal (Mohammed Abul-Kassem ibn Hawqal).  Arab geographer of Nisibis in Upper Mesopotamia in the tenth century.  With his contemporary al-Muqaddasi, he is one of the best exponents of geography based on travel and direct observation.  He began his series of journeys in 943 and was engaged in the activities of a merchant and a supporter of Fatimid policy.  His journeys brought him to North Africa, Spain, and the southern edge of the Sahara (947-951), Egypt, Armenia and Azerbaijan (955), al-Jazira, Iraq, Khuzistan, and Fars (961-969), Khwarazm and Transoxiana (c.969), and finally Sicily (973).  His main work is called Configuration of the Earth (The Face of the Earth), which is more original than that of his senior and predecessor, al-Istakhri, whom he met.  Ibn Hawqal was formerly credited with having been the earliest known Arabic chronicler to cross the Sahara.  Recent research, however, has indicated that his brief description of the ancient Ghana Kingdom was based on second hand information.  Nevertheless, he did leave a useful description of the trans-Saharan trade network.

Ibn Hawqal was born in Nisibis. His most famous work, written in 977, is called Surat al-Ardh ("The face of the Earth").

What little is known of his life is extrapolated from his book, which was a revision and extension of the Masalik ul-Mamalik of Istakhri (951). That itself was a revised edition of the Suwar al-aqalim of Ahmed ibn Sahl al-Balkhi, who wrote it around 921.

Ibn Hawqal was clearly more than an editor. He was a traveler who spent much of his time writing about the areas and things he had seen. He spent the last 30 years of his life traveling to remote parts of Asia and Africa. One of his travels brought him 20° south of the equator along the East African coast. One of the things he noticed was that there were large numbers of people living in areas that the Greeks, working from logic rather than experience, said must be uninhabitable.

His descriptions were accurate and very helpful to travelers. Surat al-Ardh included a detailed description of Muslim-held Spain, Italy and particularly Sicily, and the "Lands of the Romans," the term used by the Muslim world to describe the Byzantine Empire. In it, among other things, he describes his first-hand observation that 360 languages are spoken in the Caucasus, with Azeri and Persian languages being used as Lingua Franca across the Caucasus, he also gives a description of Kiev, and is said to have mentioned the route of the Volga Bulgars and the Khazars, perhaps by Sviatoslav I of Kiev. He also mentions the geography and culture of Sindh.

Mohammed Abul-Kassem ibn Hawqal see Ibn Hawqal

Ibn Hayyan
Ibn Hayyan (Abu Marwán Hayyán Ibn Jalaf Ibn Hayyan al-Qurtubi)  (987-1075/1076).  Historian of the Middle Ages in all Spain, both Muslim and Christian.  His history of al-Andalus is an assemblage of earlier writings.  His original work covers the history of his own times.

Abu Marwán Hayyán Ibn Jalaf Ibn Hayyan al-Qurtubi, usually known as Ibn Hayyan, was a Muslim historian from Al-Andalus.  Born at Córdoba, he was an important official at the court of the Andalusian ruler al-Mansur and published several works on history which have only survived in part. His books constitute one of the most important sources for the study of the Andalusian history, especially the history of Córdoba and the kings of the taifas.

Like Ibn Hazm he defended the dynasty of the Umayyads and deplored its fall and the following dissolution of the Andalusian state and the coming of the taifas.

He died in Córdoba.

The following works are ascribed to Ibn Hayyan:

    * Tarikh fuqaha Cordova
    * Al-Kitab al ladi jama'a fihi bayna kitbay al-Qubbashi wa Ibn Afif
    * Intijab al-Jamil li Ma'athir Banu Khatab
    * Al-Akhbar fi'l dawla al-Amiriya (in 100 volumes)
    * Al-Batsha al-Kubra (in ten volumes).
    * Al-Muqtabis fi Tarikh al-Andalus (in ten volumes)
    * Kitab al-matin.

His best known works are al-Muqtabis and al-Matin.

Abu Marwán Hayyán Ibn Jalaf Ibn Hayyan al-Qurtubi  see Ibn Hayyan