Kamāl al-Dīn Abū ʾl-Ḳāsim ʿUmar ibn Aḥmad ibn Hibat Allāh Ibn al-ʿAdīm (1192–1262; ) 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 ...

biographer and historian from

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

. He is best known for his work ''Bughyat al-Talab fī Tārīkh Ḥalab'' (; ''Everything Desirable about the History of Aleppo''), a multi-volume collection of biographies of famous men from Aleppo, introduced with a volume on the geography and traditions of the region. It is saved in part in manuscripts in the library of sultan Ahmed III in Topkapi Palace. He also published a chronicle version of the work, ''Zubdat al-Halab fi ta'arikh Halab'' (; ''The Cream of the History of Aleppo''), a copy of which reached the library of

Jean-Baptiste Colbert Jean-Baptiste Colbert (; 29 August 1619 – 6 September 1683) was a French statesman who served as First Minister of State from 1661 until his death in 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. His lasting impact on the organization of the countr ...

and then the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

, and selections of which were published with Latin translation by

Georg Freytag Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Freytag (19 September 1788 – 16 November 1861) was a German philologist. Background Freytag was born in Lüneburg. He studied philology and theology at the University of Göttingen, where from 1811 to 1813 he worke ...

in 1819. His historical sources are various, some oral and some written, and two of the more famous are

Usama ibn Munqidh Majd ad-Dīn Usāma ibn Murshid ibn ʿAlī ibn Munqidh al-Kināni al-Kalbī (also Usamah, Ousama, etc.; ) (4 July 1095 – 17 November 1188) or Ibn Munqidh was a medieval Arab Muslim poet, author, '' faris'' (knight), and diplomat from the Ban ...

and

Ibn al-Qalanisi Abū Yaʿlā Ḥamzah ibn al-Asad ibn al-Qalānisī (; c. 1071 – 18 March 1160) was an Arab politician and chronicler in 12th-century Damascus. Biography Abu Ya'la ('father of Ya'la'), whose surname was al-Qalanisi ('the Hatter'), descended fro ...

(Lewis 1952). Another work is a guide for the making of perfumes, ''Kitab al-Wuslat (or Wasilat) ila al-Habib fi Wasf al-Tayibat wal-tibb'' (الوصلة إلى الحبيب في وصف الطيّبات والطيب) (Houtsma 1927). He is an important source of knowledge on the Syrian Assassins, first analyzed by Silvester de Sacy (Lewis 1952). Numerous

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 ...

rulers entrusted Ibn al-Adim as a diplomatic ambassador. On his last mission in 1260, he was sent to Egypt seeking military assistance against the Mongols.''Ibn al-Adim'', David Morray, ''Medieval Islamic Civilization:An Encyclopedia'', Vol. 1, ed. Josef W. Meri, (Routledge, 2006), 342.

Notes

References

*Freytag, G.
Selecta ex historia Halebi
' Paris: Typographia Regia, 1819. *Kamāl al-Dīn (1896)
Histoire d'Alep
in Revue de l'Orient Latin *Kamāl al-Dīn ʻUmar ibn Aḥmad Ibn al-ʻAdīm, Edgar Blochet (1900)
Histoire d'Alep
*Houtsma, M. Th., ed. ''E. J. Brill's first encyclopaedia of Islam 1913-1936'', BRILL, *Ibn al-'Adîm, ''Bughyat al-talab fî târîkh Halab / Everything desirable about the History of Aleppo''. Set of 11 volumes: I-X. ed. F. Sezgin; XI. Register of Biographies, compiled by David W. Morray. 1986-1990. * Lewis, Bernard, "The Sources for the History of the Syrian Assassins", ''Speculum'' Vol. 27, No. 4 (Oct., 1952), pp. 475–489 *Morray, David W., ''An Ayyubid Notable and his World: Ibn al-'Adim and Aleppo as Portrayed in His Biographical Dictionary of People Associated with the City'', Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994 {{DEFAULTSORT:Ibn Al-Adim Writers from Aleppo 1192 births 1262 deaths 13th-century Arab people 13th-century Syrian historians Syrian Muslims