Influenced by Al-Shafi‘i | ||
Born November , 1273 Damascus Other names Abu Al-fida' Isma'il Ibn 'ali Died 27 October 1331, Hama, Syria Other name Abu Al-fida' Isma'il Ibn 'ali Books Concise History of Humanity, The memoirs of a Syrian prince Similar Al‑Shafi‘i, Fakhr al‑Din al‑Razi, Heinrich Leberecht Fleischer, Ibn al‑Nafis, Ahmad ibn Hanbal | ||
Abu al-Fida (Arabic: أبو الفداء; November 1273 – October 27, 1331), fully Abu Al-fida' Isma'il Ibn 'ali ibn Mahmud Al-malik Al-mu'ayyad 'imad Ad-din and better known in English as Abulfeda, was a Kurdish historian, geographer and local governor of Hama. He was a prince of the Ayyubid dynasty and the author of The memoirs of a Syrian prince: Abu'l-Fidāʼ, Sultan of Ḥamāh. The crater Abulfeda on the Moon, is named after him.
Contents
Life
Abu'l-Fida was born in Damascus, where his father Malik ul-Afdal, brother of Emir Al-Mansur Muhammad II of Hama, had fled from the Mongols.
In his boyhood he devoted himself to the study of the Qur'an and the sciences, but from his twelfth year onward, he was almost constantly engaged in military expeditions, chiefly against the crusaders.
In 1285 he was present at the assault of a stronghold of the Knights of St. John, and took part in the sieges of Tripoli, Acre and Qal'at ar-Rum. In 1298 he entered the service of the Mamluk Sultan Malik al-Nasir and after twelve years was invested by him with the governorship of Hama. In 1312 he became prince with the title Malik us-Salhn, and in 1320 received the hereditary rank of sultan with the title Malik ul-Mu'ayyad.
For more than twenty years all together he reigned in tranquillity and splendour, devoting himself to the duties of government and to the composition of the works to which he is chiefly indebted for his fame. He was a munificent patron of men of letters, who came in large numbers to his court. He died in 1331.