Abu Muhammad Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Ibrahim also known as Muhammad ibn Arabshah (; 1389–1450), 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 ...

writer and traveller who lived under the reign of

Timur Timur, also known as Tamerlane (1320s17/18 February 1405), was a Turco-Mongol conqueror who founded the Timurid Empire in and around modern-day Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia, becoming the first ruler of the Timurid dynasty. An undefeat ...

(1370–1405). Arabshah was born and grew up in Damascus. Later when Timur invaded

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 ...

, he moved to

Samarkand Samarkand ( ; Uzbek language, Uzbek and Tajik language, Tajik: Самарқанд / Samarqand, ) is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central As ...

and later to

Transoxiana Transoxiana or Transoxania (, now called the Amu Darya) is the Latin name for the region and civilization located in lower Central Asia roughly corresponding to eastern Uzbekistan, western Tajikistan, parts of southern Kazakhstan, parts of Tu ...

. Arabshah later moved to

Edirne Edirne (; ), historically known as Orestias, Adrianople, is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the Edirne Province, province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, Edirne was the second c ...

and worked in the court of Sultan

Mehmed I Mehmed I (; – 26 May 1421), also known as Mehmed Çelebi (, "the noble-born") or ''Kirişçi'' (, "lord's son"), was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1413 to 1421. Son of Sultan Bayezid I and his concubine Devlet Hatun, he fought with hi ...

translating Arabic books to Turkish and

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

. He later returned to Damascus after having been absent from the city for 23 years. In his critical biography of Timur, ''Aja'ib al-Maqdur'', written in Arabic, Arabshah highlighted Timur's illiteracy of Arabic and his preference for Persian literature. Later he moved to

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 ...

and died there. The famous Muslim scholar, Abd al-Wahhab ibn Arabshah, was his son.

His works

* Aja'ib al-Maqdur fi Nawa'ib al-Taymur (The Wonders of Destiny of the Ravages of Timur), which he finished in Damascus on 12 August 1435. This book was translated and printed first time in Latin; ''Ahmedis Arabsiadae Vitae & rerum gestarum Timuri, qui vulgo Tamerlanes dicitur, historia. Lugduni Batavorum, ex typographia Elseviriana,'' 1636. * al-Ta'lif al-tahir fi shiyam al-Malik al-Zahir (Life of Zahir) * Fakihat al-Khulafa' wa Mufakahat al-Zurafa' * Jami' al-Hikayat; translated from Persian to Turkish. * al-'Aqd al-Farid fi al-Tawhid * Ghurrat al-Siyar fi Duwal al-Turk wa al-Tatar * Muntaha al-Adab fi Lughat al-Turk wa al-Ajam wa al-'Arab

References

Sources

* 1389 births 1450 deaths Arab writers 14th-century Arab people 15th-century Arab people Hanafis Maturidis Translators from Arabic {{Maturidi