The Ibn ʿAsākir family (Banū ʿAsākir) was prominent in mediaeval Damascus. It produced several notable Shāfiʿī scholars who occupied prestigious scholarly and judicial positions in Damascus and Syria and shaped intellectual and religious life there between the fifth/eleventh and eighth/fourteenth centuries. Even though each male member of the family was known by the name of Ibn ʿAsākir (along with an honorific peculiar to each), the reference when used on its own in mediaeval literature refers inva…

Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan Ibn Fūrak al-Iṣfahānī (d. 406/1015–6) was an important proponent of the early Ashʿarī school of theology and a Shāfiʿī legal scholar. Judging from his nisba, he was probably from the city of Isfahan. Ibn Fūrak’s theological training began in Baghdad, under the tutelage of a direct disciple of Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī (d. 324/935–6), the little known Abū l-Ḥasan al-Bāhilī (fl. fourth/tenth century), who also instructed Abū Isḥāq al-Isfarāyīnī (d. 418/1027) and Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī (d. 403/1013), …

Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. Khafīf b. Isfakshādh (Iskafshādh) al-Ḍabbī al-Shīrāzī (c.268–371/882–982), known as Ibn Khafīf, was a Ṣūfī, ascetic, and prolific writer of Shirazi origin with an Ashʿarī orientation. By virtue of his many encounters with the great masters, his immense achievements, and his long life, he was considered the “seal of Ṣūfism” ( khātam al-ṣūfiyya; Junayd, 38–9). 1. Life His mother was of Nīshāpūrī descent, and his father, mostly absent, served as a Daylamī commander in the army of the Ṣaffārid ʿAmr b. Layth (r. 265–87/879–900) (al-Daylamī, Sīrat, 9) (the Ṣaffā…

Abū Sharāḥīl (or Shuraḥbīl) (al-)Rammāḥ b. Abrad b. Thawbān (d. 149/766), known as Ibn Mayyāda, was a Bedouin poet. His tribe was the Murra, a branch of the Dhubyān (a subtribe of the Ghaṭafān). He lived in western Najd (in the north-central Arabian Peninsula), in or near a place called Ḥimā Ḍariyya, close to the Ḥijāz. His father was a shepherd, despite being a descendant of al-Ḥārith b. Ẓālim (d. 600 C.E.), the leader of the Ghaṭafān, and a grandson of Salmā, the daughter of the famous poet Kaʿb b. Zuhayr (…

Sharaf al-Dīn Abū l-Maḥāsin Muḥammad b. Naṣrallāh al-Kūfī al-Dimashqī Ibn ʿUnayn (d. 630/1233) was a poet of the Ayyūbid era, most famous for his invective and satirical poems against the ruling elite in his hometown of Damascus. Trained by eminent scholars, including the traditionist and historian Ibn ʿAsākir (d. 571/1176), the physician and eclectic author ʿAbd al-Rahmān al-Shayzarī (d. after 565/1169), and the jurist al-Shahrazūrī (d. 586/1190), he is said to have memorised the exhaustive lexicon al-Jamhara fī l-lugha of Ibn Durayd (d. 321/933). Ibn ʿUnayn’s poetry rev…

Abū l-Fityān Muḥammad b. Sulṭān b. Muḥammad Ibn Ḥayyūs (394–473/1003–80) was a prominent Syrian poet descended from the Arabian Ghanī tribe. The scion of a notable Damascene family, he started his career as a eulogist of Anūshtakīn al-Dizbirī, the Fāṭimid governor of Damascus and Syria (419–33/1028–42), on whom he composed forty odes that celebrated his just rule and victories over his enemies, both the Byzantines and the local Arab tribes and rulers that opposed Fāṭimid rule. He also eulogised some of …

Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm b. ʿAlī b. Salama b. ʿĀmir  Ibn Harma al-Fihrī al-Madanī (d. mid-to-late second/eighth century), was an Arab poet of Medina, whose lifetime spanned the Umayyad and ʿAbbāsid eras. His poetry praises, among others, prominent figures of both dynasties and descendants of the fourth caliph, ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib. His nasab, or lineage—albeit in a shorter form—is known from Ibn al-Sikkīt (d. 244/858) (followed by Abū l-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī, d. 356/967, in al-Aghānī), who left out b. ʿĀmir, and by Ibn al-Nadīm (d. 380/990), who calls him only Ibrāhīm b. ʿAlī b. H…

Ibn Rushayd (657–721/1259–1321), the greatest traditionist of his time in the Islamic West, possessed great intellectual authority and social prestige due to his extensive knowledge. He was recognised by his contemporaries and is still admired today. He is renowned for the seven-volume account of his three-year journey (riḥla) of pilgrimage and study to more than twenty-seven cities. His full name was Muḥibb al-Dīn Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. ʿUmar b. Muḥammad b. ʿUmar b. Muḥammad b. Idrīs b. ʿAbdallāh b. Saʿīd b. Masʿūd b. Ḥasan/Ḥusayn b. Muḥammad b. ʿ…

Jamāl al-Dīn Abū l-Faḍl Muḥammad b. Mukarram b. ʿAlī b. Aḥmad Ibn Manẓūr al-Anṣārī al-Ruwayfiʿī al-Ifrīqī al-Miṣrī is most famous for having compiled the Lisān al-ʿArab (“The tongue of the Arabs”), a lexicon that comprises five earlier works and is considered one of the most authoritative in the tradition. He was born in Cairo on 22 Muḥarram 630/8 November 1232 and died on 10–11 Shaʿbān 711/23–24 December 1311. He was called al-Ruwayfiʿī after Ruwayfiʿ b. Thābit, a Companion of the prophet Muḥammad. He served in the dīwān al-inshāʾ (chancery) in Cairo and then as qāḍī of Tripoli. He beca…

Abū Yaʿlā Ḥamza b. Asad al-Tamīmī, better known by his family name of Ibn al-Qalānisī (c. 465–555/1073–1160), was a Damascene official and littérateur. He is well known to modern historians for his chronicle Dhayl taʾrīkh Dimashq (“Continuation of the history of Damascus”), which constitutes one of the few sources available for the Muslim response to the Crusades of the late fifth/eleventh and early sixth/twelfth centuries. Yet despite this, actual knowledge about his life is sparse. Most of our information comes from the great biographical dictionary Taʾrīkh madīnat Dimashq (“His…

The Ibn al-Mudabbir brothers, Ibrāhīm and Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh (or ʿUbaydallāh) b. al-Mudabbir, were courtiers and fiscal officials who worked for the ʿAbbāsid caliphate in the mid-third/ninth century. Aḥmad was reportedly older than Ibrāhīm (al-Ṣafadī, 8:38). 1. Ibrāhīm Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm b. al-Mudabbir (d. 279/892–3) was a bureaucrat for several ʿAbbāsid caliphs, from al-Wāthiq (r. 227–32/842–7) to al-Muʿtamid (r. 256–79/870–92). He was a favourite of al-Mutawakkil (r. 232–47/847–61) and helped him stage the downfall of the…

ʿUbaydallāh Ibn Qays al-Ruqayyāt (d. 80/699; his correct ism is ʿUbaydallāh, not ʿAbdallāh, as given in several sources) was an Umayyad poet and a member of the Quraysh tribe. In some sources, he is described as the best poet of the Quraysh after the coming of Islam. He lived in Medina (al-Ṣafadī, 19:263). His mother, Qutayla bt. Wahb, was from the Kināna tribe. Al-Ruqayyāt (plural of the name Ruqayya) is a nickname of the poet, meaning “Ibn Qays” of the Ruqayyas. According to some scholars, it is a nic…

ʿAbdallāh b. ʿĀmir (or ʿAmr) Ibn al-Ḥaḍramī (d. c.38/658) is remembered in the sources as the agent sent by the Umayyad caliph Muʿāwiya (r. 41–60/661–80) to Basra in order to garner the support of its inhabitants after the Battle of Ṣiffīn (37/657). Some explanation for the choice of Ibn al-Ḥaḍramī is to be found in prosopographical and genealogical details. Ibn al-Ḥaḍramī was probably, at some point, the governor of Basra for the Rightly Guided caliph ʿUthmān b. ʿAffān (r. 23–35/644–56). This fact wa…

Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad b. Idrīs b. al-Mundhir al-Ḥanẓalī al-Rāzī (240–327/854–5–938), known as Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī, was a transmitter (rijāl) critic, traditionist, and exegete, who was born in Rayy (north-eastern Iran) to a family originating from the village of Jazz near Iṣfahān. His chief mentors included his father, Abū Ḥātim (195–277/810–1–90), and Abū Zurʿa al-Rāzī (200–64/815–6–78), both towering third/ninth-century ḥadīth experts. During his travels (riḥlāt) in pursuit of knowledge (255–64/869–78), which encompassed the Ḥijāz, Iraq, Eg…

ʿUmar b. ʿAlī b. al-Murshid b. ʿAlī Ibn al-Fāriḍ al-Saʿdī (576-632/1181-1235) is the most celebrated Ṣūfī Arab poet in the history of Islam. He was born in Cairo on 4 Dhū l-Qaʿda 576/23 March 1181 after his father had moved there from Hama, probably to serve in the judiciary, where he was a women’s advocate in legal proceedings involving their share of inheritance (fāriḍ), hence ʿUmar’s eventual title of Ibn al-Fāriḍ. ʿUmar’s father oversaw his son’s education in the religious sciences, and in Arabic language, literature, and poetry. ʿUmar also studied ḥadīth with al-Qāsim Ibn ʿAsākir…

Muhadhdhab al-Dīn Abū l-Ḥusayn Aḥmad b. Munīr b. Aḥmad b. Mufliḥ al-Ṭarābulusī (or al-Aṭrābulusī) al-Raffāʾ (the darner), known as Ibn Munīr al-Ṭarābulusī (b. 473/1080–1, d. 548/1153), was a Syrian poet famous for his panegyrics—especially those written for the Zangid rulers ʿImād al-Dīn Zangī (r. 521–41/1127–46) and his son Nūr al-Dīn (r. 541–65/1146–74)—and for several love poems and the Qaṣīda Tatariyya. Ibn Munīr was born in Ṭarābulus (Tripoli, Lebanon) the son of a darner, hence his laqab al-Raffāʾ. His father used to recite Shīʿī poetry in the markets of Tripoli,…

Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdallāh b. Muḥammad b. Saʿīd Ibn Sinān al-Khafājī al-Ḥalabī (422–66/1031–74) was a poet and literary critic from Aleppo. He is best known for his work on eloquence and articulateness titled Sirr al-faṣāḥa (“The secret of articulateness”). This work and his dīwān (the collection of his poetry) have survived and are available in modern published editions. Notable amongst his lost works (for a list, see al-Ṣafadī, 17:272) is a book on ṣarfa, the idea that the Qurʾān is inimitable because God prevented people from being able to imitate it, not because its…

The Syrian poet Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. Naṣr b. Ṣaghīr al-ʿAkkāwī al-Ḥalabī, known as al-Qaysarānī or Ibn al-Qaysarānī (478–548/1085–1153), is famous for his panegyrics, especially those he composed for ʿImād al-Dīn Zangī (r. 521–41/1127–46) and his son Nūr al-Dīn b. Zangī (r. 541–65/1146–74), and his love poems about people from the region of Anṭākiya. Ibn al-Qaysarānī was born in ʿAkkā (Acre, Palestine) in 478/1085 and grew up in nearby Qaysāriyya (Caesarea Maritima) until his family fled to Damascus (probably in 494/1101) to take refuge from t…

Ibn al-Muzawwiq (d. 833/1430), also known as Ibn al-Sadīd, Fakhr al-Dīn Mājid b. Abī l-Faḍāʾil b. Sanā l-Mulk, and sometimes as ʿAbdallāh b. al-Sadīd al-Qibṭī (for his Coptic ancestry), was a judge and a secretary of the Mamlūk sultanate. His entire career was tied to his special relationship with his patron, the powerful secretary Ibrāhīm Ibn Ghurāb (d. 808/1406), who effectively ruled the sultanate in 808/1405–6, during the reign of Sulṭān al-Nāṣir Faraj (r. 801–8/1399–1405, 808–15/1405–12). Ibn al-Muzawwiq is first mentioned when he succeeded Ibn Ghurāb, on 29 Rabīʿ …

Abū l-Faḍl Muḥammad b. Abī l-Ḥusayn Ṭāhir b. ʿAlī b. Aḥmad al-Maqdisī al-Shaybānī (448–507/1056–1113), known by his contemporaries as Ibn al-Qaysarānī or Ibn Ṭāhir, was a renowned transmitter of Prophetic traditions and the author of many works, including Ṣūfī treatises. Born in Jerusalem in Shawwāl 448/December 1056 to a family from Caesarea, in Palestine (whence his nisbas al-Maqdisī and Ibn al-Qaysarānī), he first heard ḥadīth recited in his native town at the age of twelve. After his first pilgrimage to Mecca and his visit to Baghdad on his way back in 4…