Abū Shāma Shihāb al-Dīn al-Maḳdisī (10 January 1203 – 13 June 1267) was an
Arab
Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world.
Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...
historian.
Abū Shāma was born in
Damascus
Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...
, where he passed his whole life save for one year in
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
, a fortnight in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
and two pilgrimages to the
Ḥijāz
Hejaz is a historical region of the Arabian Peninsula that includes the majority of the western region of Saudi Arabia, covering the cities of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah, Tabuk, Yanbu, Taif and Al-Bahah. It is thus known as the "Western Province" ...
. He was an eyewitness to and provides the most precise information about the
siege of Damascus in May–June 1229. He received a diverse
Sunnī
Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Musli ...
education and wrote on a variety of topics. In 1263, he became a professor in the Damascene
madrasa
Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes Romanization of Arabic, romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any Educational institution, type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whet ...
s of al-Rukniyya and al-Ashrafiyya. He died five years later in Damascus.
Five works by Abū Shāma survive. All the rest have been lost, some in a fire that destroyed his library. He is best known today for his three historical writings, especially his two volumes on
Syria
Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
in the
Zengid
The Zengid or Zangid dynasty, also referred to as the Atabegate of Mosul, Aleppo and Damascus (Arabic: أتابكة الموصل وحلب ودمشق), or the Zengid State (Old Anatolian Turkish: , Modern Turkish: ; ) was initially an '' Atabegat ...
and
Ayyubid
The Ayyubid dynasty (), also known as the Ayyubid Sultanate, was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egyp ...
periods:
*''Kitāb al-rawḍatayn fī akhbār al-dawlatayn al-Nūriyya wa-l-Ṣalāḥiyya'' (The Book of the Two Gardens, Concerning Affairs of the Reigns of Nūr al-Dīn and Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn), a chronological account of the reigns of
Nūr al-Dīn (1146–1174) and
Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (1174–1193). He is careful to cite his sources. His main ones are ''al-Barḳ al-Shāmī'' of
ʿImād al-Dīn al-Iṣfahānī
Muhammad ibn Hamid (; 1125 – 20 June 1201), commonly known as Imad al-Din al-Isfahani (), was a historian, scholar, and rhetorician. He left a valuable anthology of Arabic poetry to accompany his many historical workshttp://www.crusades-encycl ...
, ''Sīrat Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn'' of
Ibn Abī Ṭayy and the epistles (''Rasāʾil'') of
al-Ḳāḍī al-Fāḍil. He usually quotes his sources verbatim, with the exception of ʿImād al-Dīn.
*''al-Dhayl ʿalaʾl-rawḍatayn'' (Sequel to the Two Gardens), a continuation of the previous work down to contemporary events. His main source in the first part is the ''Mirʾāt al-Zamān'' of
Sibṭ ibn al-Jawzī and in the second part himself as eyewitness.
*''Taʾrīkh Dimashḳ'' (History of Damascus), a summary of the eponymous work of
Ibn ʿAsākir
Ibn Asakir (; 1105–c. 1176) was a Syrian Sunni Islamic scholar, who was one of the most prominent and renowned experts on Hadith and Islamic history in the medieval era. and a disciple of the Sufi mystic Abu al-Najib Suhrawardi. Ibn Asakir was a ...
(died 1175). It survives in two versions.
Abū Shāma's works are important sources for the history of the
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...
. There are partial translations in French and German. Abū Shāma also wrote commentaries on:
*the ''Ḳaṣīda al-Shāṭibiyya'' of
al-Shāṭibī (died 1194)
*seven poems on
Muḥammad
Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...
by his teacher ʿAlam al-Dīn al-Sakhāwī (died 1245)
Notes
References
Works cited
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{{Authority control
1203 births
1267 deaths
People from Damascus
13th-century Syrian historians
Arab historians