Ṣafī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ṭabāṭabā (; 1262–1309), also known as Ibn al-Tiqtaqa, was a historian and ''naqib'' of
Alids
The Alids are those who claim descent from Ali ibn Abi Talib (; 600–661 CE), the fourth Rashidun caliph () and the first imam in Shia Islam. Ali was also the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The main branches are th ...
in
Ḥilla
Hillah ( ''al-Ḥillah''), also spelled Hilla, is a city in central Iraq. On the Hilla branch of the Euphrates River, it is south of Baghdad. The population was estimated to be about 455,700 in 2018. It is the capital of Babylon Province and is ...
.
He was a direct descendant of
Ḥasan ibn
Ali ibn Abi Ṭalib. According to
E.G. Browne's English version of Mīrzā Muhammad b. ‛Abudi’l-Wahhāb-i—Qazwīni's edition of ‛Alā-ad-Dīn ‛Ata Malik-i-Juwaynī's ''Ta’rīhh-i-Jahān Gushā'' (London 1912, Luzac, p.ix), Ibn al-Tiqtaqā's name was Safiyu’d-Din Muhammad ibn ‛Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Tabātabā.
Around 1302 he wrote a popular compendium of Islamic history called ''al-Fakhri''.
According to the political scientist
Vasileios Syros, the philosophy of ibn al-Ṭabāṭabā can be compared to that of
Niccolò Machiavelli
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527) was a Florentine diplomat, author, philosopher, and historian who lived during the Italian Renaissance. He is best known for his political treatise '' The Prince'' (), writte ...
.
References
*''Encyclopedia of Islam'', vol. ii, (Leiden 1927, Brill), pp. 423–4.
Note by Professor H. A. R. Gibb in Arnold J. Toynbee's ''A Study of History''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ibn Al-Tiqtaqa
1262 births
1310 deaths
Iraqi Shia Muslims
13th-century Arab people