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Ahmad ibn Yahya al-Baladhuri
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Muslim historian Islamic golden age |
|
|---|---|
| Name: | Ahmad Ibn Yahya al-Baladhuri |
| Title: | al-Baladhuri |
| Birth: | |
| death: | 297 AH (892) [1][2] |
| Ethnicity: | Persian |
| Region: | Iraq |
| Main interests: | History |
| works: | Kitab Futuh al-Buldan and Ansab al-Ashraf |
Ahmad Ibn Yahya al-Baladhuri Arabic (أحمد بن يحيى بن جابر البلاذري) was an 9th century Persian historian. One of the eminent middle-eastern historians of his age , he spent most of his life in Baghdad and enjoyed great influence at the court of the caliph al-Mutawakkil. He traveled in Syria and Iraq, compiling information for his major works. He is regarded as a reliable source for the history of the early Arabs and the history of Muslim expansion.[3]
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Ahmad Bin Yahya Bin Jabir Al Biladuri (Arabic: أحمد بن يحيى بن جابر البلاذري) or Balazry Ahmad Bin Yahya Bin Jabir Abul Hasan[4] or Abi al-Hassan Baladhuri.[5]
A Persian by birth, though his sympathies seem to have been strongly with the Arabs, for Masudi refers to one of his works in which he refuted the Shuubites.[2]
He lived at the court of the caliphs al-Mutawakkil and Al-Musta'in and was tutor to the son of al-Mutazz. He died in 892 as the result of a drug called baladhur (hence his name).[2] (Baladhur is Semecarpus anacardium, known as the "marking nut"; medieval Arabic and Jewish writers describe it as a memory-enhancer) [6]
His chief extant work, a condensation of a longer history, *Kitab Futuh al-Buldan (فتوح البلدان)("Book of the Conquests of Lands"), translated by Phillip Hitti in (The Origins of the Islamic State, 1916, 1924), tells of the wars and conquests of the Arabs from the 7th century. It covers the conquests of lands from Arabia west to Egypt, North Africa, and Spain and east to Iraq, Iran, and Sind.
His history, in turn, was much used by later writers. *Ansab al-Ashraf (أنساب الأشراف) (“Lineage of the Nobles”), also extant, is a biographical work in genealogical order devoted to the Arab aristocracy, from Muhammad and his contemporaries to the Umayyad and Abbāsid caliphs. It contains histories of the reigns of rulers.[7]
- ^ Translation of Futuh al-Buldan by Hitti
- ^ a b c This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- ^ The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright © 2001-05 Columbia University PressThe Columbia Encyclopedia
- ^ http://www.salaam.co.uk/knowledge/biography/viewentry.php?id=460
- ^ http://www.answering-ansar.org/answers/fadak/en/chap2.php
- ^ Bos, Gerrit: " 'Baladhur' (Marking-Nut): A Popular Medieval Drug for Strengthening Memory", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 59, No. 2 (1996), pp. 229-236 (full-text via JSTOR; article's first page available for all)
- ^ "Balādhurī, al-." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica 2007 Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2006.