|
Al-Qifti
Jamāl al-Dīn Abū al-Ḥasan 'Alī ibn Yūsuf ibn Ibrāhīm ibn 'Abd al-Wahid al-Shaybānī (), called al-Qifṭī (; – 1248), was an Egyptian Arab historian, biographer, encyclopedist and administrator under the Ayyubid rulers of Aleppo. His biographical dictionary ''Kitāb Ikhbār al-'Ulamā' bi Akhbār al-Ḥukamā'' (, tr. 'History of Learned Men') is an important source of Islamic biography. Much of his vast literary output is lost, including his histories of the Seljuks, Buyids and the Maghreb, and biographical dictionaries of philosophers and philologists. Life 'Alī al-Qifṭī, known as Ibn al-Qifṭī, was a native of Qift, Upper Egypt, the son of ''al- Qāḍī al-Ashraf'', Yūsuf al-Qifṭī (b.548/1153), and the grandson of Ibrāhīm ibn 'Abd al-Wāḥid, ''al-Qāḍī al-Awḥad'' in the Ayyūbid court. Alī succeeded his father and grandfather into court administration but displayed scholarly inclinations. When the family left Qift in 1177, following the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Qift
Qift ( ; ''Keft'' or ''Kebto''; Egyptian Gebtu; ''Coptos'' / ''Koptos''; Roman Justinianopolis) is a city in the Qena Governorate of Egypt about north of Luxor, situated a little south of latitude 26° north, on the east bank of the Nile. In ancient times its proximity to the Red Sea made it an important trading emporium between India, Punt, Arabia Felix and the North. It was important for nearby gold and quartzite mines in the Eastern Desert, and as a starting point for expeditions to Punt (in modern Somalia) by way of the path through the Wadi Hammamat to the Red Sea port at Tjau (modern El Qoseir). History Pharaonic Period In ancient Egypt, Qift, known then as Gebtu, was an important center for administration, religion, and commerce, being the chief city of the fifth Upper Egyptian nome of Harawî (Two Hawks). From Qift and Qus, trading expeditions heading for the Red Sea and many mining expeditions into the Eastern Desert left the Nile Valley. Gebtu was at the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
An-Nasir Yusuf
An-Nasir Yusuf (; AD 1228–1260), fully al-Malik al-Nasir Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn al-Aziz ibn al-Zahir ibn Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shazy (), was the Ayyubid Kurdish Emir of Syria from his seat in Aleppo (1236–1260), and the Sultan of the Ayyubid Empire from 1250 until the sack of Aleppo by the Mongols in 1260. Background An-Nasir Yusuf was the great-grandson of Saladin. He became the Ayyubid ruler of Aleppo when he was seven-years-old after the death of his father Al-Aziz Muhammad. He was placed under a four-man regency council, consisting of the vizier Ibn al-Qifti, the emir Shams al-Din Lu'lu' al-Amini, the emir 'Izz al-Din 'Umar ibn Mujalli and Jamal al-Dawla Iqbal. The last was the representative of an-Nasir's grandmother, Dayfa Khatun, daughter of Al-Adil I, who was the effective ruler until her death in 1242. Thereafter until his death in 1251, Shams al-Din was an-Nasir's commander-in-chief and most influential advisor. His most loyal troops were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Saladin
Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known as Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from a Kurdish family, he was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, he spearheaded the Muslim military effort against the Crusader states in the Levant. At the height of his power, the Ayyubid realm spanned Egypt, Syria, Upper Mesopotamia, the Hejaz, Yemen, and Nubia. Alongside his uncle Shirkuh, a Kurdish mercenary commander in service of the Zengid dynasty, Saladin was sent to Fatimid Egypt in 1164, on the orders of the Zengid ruler Nur ad-Din. With their original purpose being to help restore Shawar as the vizier to the teenage Fatimid caliph al-Adid, a power struggle ensued between Shirkuh and Shawar after the latter was reinstated. Saladin, meanwhile, climbed the ranks of the Fatimid government by virtue of his military successes against Crusader assaults and his personal closeness to al-Adid. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Ibn Al-Haytham
Ḥasan Ibn al-Haytham (Latinization of names, Latinized as Alhazen; ; full name ; ) was a medieval Mathematics in medieval Islam, mathematician, Astronomy in the medieval Islamic world, astronomer, and Physics in the medieval Islamic world, physicist of the Islamic Golden Age from present-day Iraq.For the description of his main fields, see e.g. ("He is one of the principal Arab mathematicians and, without any doubt, the best physicist.") , ("Ibn al-Ḥaytam was an eminent eleventh-century Arab optician, geometer, arithmetician, algebraist, astronomer, and engineer."), ("Ibn al-Haytham (d. 1039), known in the West as Alhazan, was a leading Arab mathematician, astronomer, and physicist. His optical compendium, Kitab al-Manazir, is the greatest medieval work on optics.") Referred to as "the father of modern optics", he made significant contributions to the principles of optics and visual perception in particular. His most influential work is titled ''Book of Optics, Kit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Julius Lippert
Julius Lippert (9 July 1895 – 30 June 1956) was a German Nazi Party politician who served as the ''Staatskommissar'' (State Commissioner) for Berlin from 1933 to 1937 and as its ''Oberbürgermeister'' and ''Stadtspräsident'' (City President) from 1937 to 1940. Early life Born in Basel, Switzerland, Lippert became an extreme antisemite in his youth after reading works by antisemitic writers such as Joseph Arthur Comte de Gobineau and Houston Stewart Chamberlain. He was educated in the ''gymnasium (Germany), gymnasium'' in Wiesbaden and passed his abitur in 1914. He joined the Imperial German Army at the outbreak of the First World War, was wounded twice, and ended the war as a ''Leutnant'' of reserves in the artillery. Between 1918 and 1922 he studied political science and received his degree from the Humboldt University of Berlin, Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin. Lippert was a member of the Black Reichswehr, and then worked as a journalist and editor at several newspa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Mongol Invasions Of The Levant
Starting in the 1240s, the Mongols made repeated invasions of Syria or attempts thereof. Most failed, but they did have some success in 1260 and 1300, capturing Aleppo and Damascus and destroying the Ayyubid dynasty. The Mongols were forced to retreat within months each time by other forces in the area, primarily the Egyptian Mamluks. The post-1260 conflict has been described as the Mamluk–Ilkhanid War. First invasion During the governorship of Bachu in Persia, the Mongolian army under Yisaur attacked Syria in 1244. The reasons for the attack are unclear, but it may have been in retaliation for the Syrian participation on the Seljuk side in the Battle of Köse Dağ. In the autumn 1244, Yisaur concentrated the Mongol forces in the upper Tigris valley where they subjugated the Kurdish province of Akhlat. Moving across, the Mongolian army encountered no resistance and ravaged the area en route. The fortified cities were untaken in his advance because Yisaur was not prepared ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Al-Kutubi
Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad ibn Shākir al-Dārānī al-Dimashqī al-Kutubī (1287–1363) was a Syrian merchant and historian. Born into a poor family in Dārayyā in 1287, al-Kutubī later moved to Damascus and entered the book trade, where he made a fortune. His nickname, ''al-Kutubī'', means "the bookseller". He spent his most of his life in Damascus and never held an official position either civic or religious. For these reasons, little is known about his life. He was a friend of al-Dhahabī and Ibn Kathīr. His funeral was held on 24 June 1363. Al-Kutubī is known for two surviving works in Arabic. The ''ʿUyūn al-tawārīkh'' (The Historical Springs) is a general history of the Islamic world from the first year of the Hegira (AD 622–623) until 1359. It contains many bibliographies of scholars. It is a derivative but not completely unoriginal work, especially for the author's own time. The autograph manuscript An autograph or holograph is a manuscript or documen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Al-Ṣafadī
Khalīl ibn Aybak al-Ṣafadī, or Ṣalaḥ al-Dīn al-Ṣafadī (; full name - Ṣalaḥ al-Dīn Abū al-Ṣafa Khalīl ibn Aybak ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Albakī al-Ṣafari al-Damascī Shafi'i. (1296 – 1363) was a Turkic Mamluk author and historian. He studied under the historian and Shafi'i scholar, al-Dhahabi. He was born in Safad, Palestine under Mamluk rule. His wealthy family afforded him a broad education, memorising the Quran and reciting the books of Hadith. He excelled in the social sciences of grammar, language, philology and calligraphy. He painted on canvas, and was especially passionate about literature. He taught himself poetry, its systems, transmitters and meters. His teachers Among Ṣafadī’s many teachers from Safad, Damascus, Cairo and Aleppo were: * Al-Ḥāfīz Fatḥ al-Dīn ibn Sayyid al-Nās (d.734AH / 1333), with whom he studied literature in Cairo. * Ibn al-Nabatah Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Farqī al-Maṣrī (d.768AH / 1367) * Abū Hayyan al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Shams Al-Din Lu'lu' Al-Amini
Shams al-Dīn Luʾluʾ al-Amīnī (died 3 February 1251) was one of the regents of Aleppo for the Ayyūbid ruler al-Nāṣir Yūsuf and later his chief advisor and the commander-in-chief of his armies. He dominated the government of al-Nāṣir from 1242 until his death. Early life and regency Shams al-Dīn Luʾluʾ. was a native of Mosul of Armenian origin. He was a freedman (''ʿatīq'') of Amīn al-Dīn Yumn, who was in turn a freedman of Nūr al-Dīn Arslān Shāh ibn Masʿūd, ruler of Mosul. In 1225 or 1226, he invited his fellow Mosul native, Ibn Bāṭīsh, back to Aleppo, where the latter had previously lived in 1205–1206 and 1223. According to Ibn al-ʿAdīm's biographical dictionary of Aleppo, Ibn Bāṭīsh lived with Shams al-Dīn, who relied on his advice in conducting his affairs. According to ʿIzz al-Dīn ibn Shaddād, Shams al-Dīn founded a school in Aleppo. By 1236, Shams al-Dīn held the rank of emir. In that year, he was one of two emirs appointed to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Vizier
A vizier (; ; ) is a high-ranking political advisor or Minister (government), minister in the Near East. The Abbasids, Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was at first merely a helper but afterwards became the representative and successor of the ''dapir'' (official scribe or secretary) of the Sasanian Empire, Sassanian kings. In modern usage, the term has been used for government Minister (government), ministers in much of the Middle East and beyond. Several alternative spellings are used in English, such as ''vizir'', ''wazir'', and ''vezir''. Etymology Vizier may be derived from the Arabic ''wazara'' (), from the Semitic root ''W-Z-R''. The word is mentioned in the Quran, where Aaron is described as the ''wazir'' (helper) of Moses, as well as the word ''wizr'' (burden) which is also derived from the same root. It was later adopted as a title, in the form of ''wazīr āl Muḥammad'' () by the proto-Shi'a leaders ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Yaqut Al-Hamawi
Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) () was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th–13th centuries). He is known for his , an influential work on geography containing valuable information pertaining to biography, history and literature as well as geography. Life ''Yāqūt'' (''ruby'' or '' hyacinth'') was the '' kunya'' of Ibn Abdullāh ("son of Abdullāh"). He was born in Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, called in Arabic al-Rūm, whence his '' nisba'' "al-Rūmi". Captured in war and enslaved, Yāqūt became " mawali" to ‘Askar ibn Abī Naṣr al-Ḥamawī, a trader of Baghdad, Iraq, the seat of the Abbasid Caliphate, from whom he received the '' laqab'' "al-Hamawī". As ‘Askar's apprentice, he learned about accounting and commerce, becoming his envoy on trade missions and travelling twice or three times to Kish in the Persian Gulf. In 1194, ‘Askar stopped his salar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Az-Zahir Ghazi
Al-Malik az-Zahir Ghiyath ud-din Ghazi ibn Yusuf ibn Ayyub (commonly known as az-Zahir Ghazi; 1172 – 8 October 1216) was the Kurdish Ayyubid emir of Aleppo between 1186 and 1216. He was the third son of Saladin and his lands included northern Syria and a small part of Mesopotamia. Biography In 1186, when az-Zahir was 15 years of age, his father appointed him governor of Aleppo, Mosul and supporting areas which had recently been taken from the Zengids. At the same time his two older brothers were appointed, respectively, as governor of Syria ( al-Afdal) and Egypt ( al-Aziz). The lands that az-Zahir received had been under the control of his uncle, Saladin's brother al-Adil, and al-Adil took an avuncular interest in az-Zahir. As the third son, when he inherited in 1193 he was to owe suzerainty to his eldest brother, al-Afdal, in Damascus. However, he conducted his affairs independently from his brothers, and thus stayed out of their quarrels with his uncle Al-Adil for a while. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
