Abu ’l-Ḥusayn Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Sulaymān ibn Wahb al-Kātib () (flourished in the second half of the tenth century CE, d. after 946–947), commonly known as Ibn Wahb al-Kātib, is noted as the author of the rhetorical treatise ''Kitāb al-Burhān fī wujūh al-bayān'' (كِتَاب البُرهَان فِي وُجُوهِ البَيَان) — The Book of the Demonstration of the Aspects of Bayān.

Life

Ibn Wahb al-Kātib came from a distinguished family of scribes and secretaries. His grandfather Sulaymān had been a minister to al-Muhtadī and

al-Muʿtamid Abu’l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Muʿtamid ʿalā’Llāh (; – 14 October 892), better known by his regnal name al-Muʿtamid ʿalā 'llāh (, 'Dependent on God'), was the caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate fr ...

, but had been imprisoned during the reign of

al-Muwaffaq Abu Ahmad Ṭalḥa ibn Al-Mutawakkil, Jaʿfar ibn al-Mu'tasim, Muḥammad ibn Harun al-Rashid, Hārūn al-Muwaffaq bi'Llah (; 29 November 843 – 2 June 891), better known by his as Al-Muwaffaq Billah (), was an Abbasid dynasty, Abbasid prince ...

, dying in prison in 905. Little is known of ibn Wahb's own life, but his ''Kitāb al-Burhān fī wujūh al-bayān'' was composed after the death of

ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā ibn dāʾūd ibn al-jarrāḥ Ali ibn Abi Talib (; ) was the fourth Rashidun caliph who ruled from until his assassination in 661, as well as the first Shia Imam. He was the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Born to Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib and ...

(1 August 946).P. Shinar, “Ibn Wahb”, in ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'', 2nd edn ed. by P. Bearman and others, 12 vols (Leiden: Brill, 1960-2005), .

Work

According to his surviving writing, ibn Wahb was author of works entitled ''Kitāb al-Ḥujja'', ''Kitāb al-Īḍāḥ'', ''Kitāb al-Taʿabbud'' and ''Kitāb Asrār al-Ḳurʾān''. It appears that these are lost (and not mentioned by other sources). However, ibn Wahb's ''Kitāb al-Burhān fī wujūh al-bayān'', also known as ''Naqd al-nathr'' (, ''Book on Prose Criticism''), survives; it is a study of Arabic style, rhetoric, and the art of the secretary composed from a Shīʿī perspective, and attempts to deploy Greek, Muʿtazilī and Imāmī ideas in examining Arabic writing. This work was in the early twentieth century misattributed to ibn Wahb's contemporary

Qudama ibn Ja'far Qudāma ibn Jaʿfar al-Kātib al-Baghdādī (; c. 873 – c. 932/948), was a Syriac scholar and administrator for the Abbasid Caliphate. Life Little is known with certainty about Qudama's life and work. He was probably born ca. 873/874, possib ...

, until a more complete manuscript was discovered in the

Chester Beatty Collection The Chester Beatty Library, now known as the Chester Beatty, is a museum and library in Dublin. It was established in Ireland in 1953, to house the collections of mining magnate, Sir Alfred Chester Beatty. The present museum, on the grounds of ...

by ʿAlī Ḥasan ʿAbd al-Qādir, showing the correct attribution.

Editions

* ʾAbū ʾal-Faraj Qudāmah̲ bin Jaʻfar ʾal-Kātib ʾal-Bag︠h︡dādī isattributed '' Kitāb naqd ʾal-nat︠h︡r'', ed. by Ṭaha Ḥusayn wa-ʻAbd ʼal-Ḥamīd ʼal-ʻAbbādī (Būlāq: ʼal-Maṭbaʻah ʼal-ʼAmīrīyah, 1941). * ''al-Burhān fā wujūh al-bayān'', ed. by Aḥmad Maṭlūb and Khadīja al-Ḥadīthī (Baghdad: Maṭbaʿat al-ʿīnī, 1967). * ''al-Burhān fā wujūh al-bayān'', ed. by Ḥifnī Muḥammad Sharaf (Cairo, 1969).

References

{{reflist 10th-century scholars 10th-century writers Officials of the Abbasid Caliphate Scholars from the Abbasid Caliphate Arabists 10th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate