Ibn Abd al-Zahir (; 1223–1293) was an

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

chancery scribe, poet and historian during the

Mamluk period The Mamluk Sultanate (), also known as Mamluk Egypt or the Mamluk Empire, was a state that ruled medieval Egypt, Egypt, the Levant and the Hejaz from the mid-13th to early 16th centuries, with Cairo as its capital. It was ruled by a military c ...

. Several of his works survive, including three biographies of the early Mamluk sultans

Baybars Al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baybars al-Bunduqdari (; 1223/1228 – 1 July 1277), commonly known as Baibars or Baybars () and nicknamed Abu al-Futuh (, ), was the fourth Mamluk sultan of Egypt and Syria, of Turkic Kipchak origin, in the Ba ...

al-Mansur Qalawun (, – November 10, 1290) was the seventh Turkic Bahri Mamluk sultan of Egypt; he ruled from 1279 to 1290. He was called (, "Qalāwūn the Victorious"). After having risen in power in the Mamluk court and elite circles, Qalawun eventually hel ...

and

al-Ashraf Khalil Al-Malik Al-Ashraf Salāh ad-Dīn Khalil ibn Qalawūn (; c. 1260s – 14 December 1293) was the eighth Turkic Bahri dynasty, Bahri Mamluk Sultanate, Mamluk sultan, succeeding his father Qalawun. He served from 12 November 1290 until his assassi ...

. In addition, a diwan of his poetry survives, as does a collection of letters written by

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, h ...

's vizier al-Qāḍī al-Fāḍil which he compiled, and parts of a geographical work entitled ''Kitāb al-Rawḍah al-Bahīyah'' which was used extensively by the later historian

Al-Maqrizi Al-Maqrīzī (, full name Taqī al-Dīn Abū al-'Abbās Aḥmad ibn 'Alī ibn 'Abd al-Qādir ibn Muḥammad al-Maqrīzī, ; 1364–1442) was a medieval Egyptian historian and biographer during the Mamluk era, known for his interest in the Fat ...

for his work "Al-Mawāʿiẓ wa-l-iʾtibār bi-dhikr al-khiṭaṭ wa al-athār." His son Fath al-Din Ibn Abd al-Zahir and grandson Ala al-Din Ibn Abd al-Zahir were also important chancery scribes of the Mamluk period, as was his nephew Shafiʾ ibn ʾAli who also wrote three surviving biographies of sultans Baybars, Qalawun and

al-Nasir Muhammad Al-Malik an-Nasir Nasir ad-Din Muhammad ibn Qalawun (), commonly known as an-Nasir Muhammad (), or by his kunya: Abu al-Ma'ali () or as Ibn Qalawun (1285–1341) was the ninth Mamluk sultan of the Bahri dynasty who ruled Egypt between 129 ...

Writings

*''al-Rawḍ al-zāhir fī sīrat al-Malik al-Ẓāhir'' (ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Khuwayṭir, Riyadh, 1976; partial English translation in ''Baybars I of Egypt'', ed. Syedah Fatima Sadequi, London, 1958)) *''Tashrīf al-ayyām wa-l-ʿuṣūr bi-sīrat al-Malik al-Manṣūr'' (ed. Murad Kāmil, Cairo, 1961) *''al-Alṭāf al-khafiyya min al-sīra al-sharīfa al-sulṭāniyya al-Malikiyya al-Ashrafiyya'', published in ''Ur ʿAbd Allah B. ʿAbd eẓ-Ẓâhir’s biografi over sultanen el-malik al-Aśraf Halîl'' (ed. Axel Moberg, Lund, 1902) *''Al-Durr an-naẓīm min tarassul ʿAbd al-Raḥīm'' (ed. Aḥmad Aḥmad Badawī, Cairo, 1959) *''al-Rawḍa l-bahiyya al-zāhira fī khiṭaṭ al-Muʿizziyya l-Qāhira"" (ed. Ayman Fuʾād Sayyid, Cairo, 1996). *''Dīwān: Dirāsa wa-taḥqīq'' (ed. Gharīb Muḥammad ʿAlī Aḥmad, Cairo, 1990)

References

*Bauden, F., "Ibn ʾAbd al-Ẓāhir"

Encyclopaedia of Islam The ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'' (''EI'') is a reference work that facilitates the Islamic studies, academic study of Islam. It is published by Brill Publishers, Brill and provides information on various aspects of Islam and the Muslim world, Isl ...

III (2017) *Pedersen, J., "Ibn ʿAbd al-Ẓāhir"

II (1972), 679–680. *Amitai, Reuven, "Ibn ʿAbd al-Ẓāhir, Muḥyī al-Dīn (1223-1292)." A Global Encyclopedia of Historical Writing. ed. Woolf, D. R., New York and London: Garland Publishing, (1998) 435f. *Richards, D. S., "Ibn ʿAbd al-Ẓāhir (620-92/1223-92)." Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, Routledge (1998), p. 303. *Strauẞ, E., "Muḥyîʾddîn b. ʿAbdaẓẓâhir." Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 45, (1938), 191-202.

External links

Manuscript of Ibn Abd al-Zahir's biography of QalawunManuscript of Ibn Abd al-Zahir's biography of al-Ashraf Khalil
{{authority control 1223 births 1293 deaths 13th-century Egyptian historians Egyptian historians of Islam