ʾAḥmad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Jābir al-Balādhurī () was a 9th-century West Asian historian. One of the eminent
Middle Eastern historians of his age, he spent most of his life in
Baghdad
Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...
and enjoyed great influence at the court of the caliph
al-Mutawakkil. He travelled in
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 ...
and
Iraq
Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
, compiling information for his major works.
His full name was Ahmad Bin Yahya Bin Jabir Al-Baladhuri (), Balazry Ahmad Bin Yahya Bin Jabir Abul Hasan
[Salaam Knowledge](_blank)
/ref> or Abi al-Hassan Baladhuri.
Biography
Al Baladhuri's ethnicity has been described as Persian by his contemporaries including Ibn Nadim, but some scholars have surmised that he was of 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 ...
descent solely since he spent most of his life in Baghdad
Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...
. Baladhuri was a Persian speaker who translated Persian works to Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
. Nonetheless, his sympathies seem to have been strongly with the Arabs, for Masudi refers to one of his works in which he rejects Baladhuri's condemnation of non-Arab nationalism Shu'ubiyya. He is certainly not the first Persian scholar to have sympathies with the Arabs, scholars of the same era such as Ibn Qutayba were also vocal opponents of Shu'ubiyaa.
He lived at the court of the caliph
A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of ...
s al-Mutawakkil and Al-Musta'in and was tutor to the son of al-Mutazz. He died in 892 as the result of a drug called '' baladhur'' (hence his name). (''Baladhur'' is ''Semecarpus anacardium'', known as the "marking nut"; medieval Arabic and Jewish writers describe it as a memory-enhancer).[Bos, Gerrit: " 'Baladhur' (Marking-Nut): A Popular Medieval Drug for Strengthening Memory", ''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies'', University of London, Vol. 59, No. 2 (1996), pp. 229–236](_blank)
/ref>
Works
His chief extant work a condensation of a longer history, '' Kitab Futuh al-Buldan'' (فتوح البلدان), "Book of the Conquests of Lands", translated by Phillip Hitti (1916) and Francis Clark Murgotten (1924) in ''The Origins of the Islamic State'', tells of the wars and conquests of the Arabs from the 7th century, and the terms made with the residents of the conquered territories. It covers the conquests of lands from Arabia west to Egypt, North Africa, and Spain and east to Iraq, Iran, and Sind.
His history, in turn, was much used by later writers. '' Ansab al-Ashraf'' (أنساب الأشراف, "Lineage of the Nobles"), also extant, is a biographical work in genealogical order devoted to the Arab aristocracy, from Muhammad and his contemporaries to the Umayyad and Abbāsid caliphs. It contains histories of the reigns of rulers.
His discussions of the rise and fall of powerful dynasties provide a political moral. His commentaries on methodology are sparse, other than assertions of accuracy.
See also
* Al-Haytham ibn 'Adi
* List of Islamic scholars
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
*
Al-Balādhurī, ''britannica.com''
*
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Baladhuri, Ahmad Ibn Yahya
892 deaths
9th-century Iranian historians
Year of birth unknown
9th-century Arabic-language writers
Court scholars
Courtiers from the Abbasid Caliphate
Iranian historians of Islam
820s births