Ibn al-Athir

Biography

Ibn al-Athir belonged to the Shayban lineage of the large and influential Arab tribe Banu Bakr, which lived across upper Mesopotamia and gave its name to the city of Diyar Bakr. He is also described to have been of Kurdish origin.1. Philip G. Kreyenbroek , Oral Literature of Iranian Languages al-Athir..a historian and biographer of Kurdish origin

2. Yasir Suleiman, "Language and identity in the Middle East and North Africa", Curzon Press, 1996, , p. 154. Ibn al-Athir, (d.1233), a Kurdish historian and biographer...

In the analysis of *Sharafnama *, historian Naji Ma'ruf notes that its author, Emir Sharaf Khan Bidlisi, explicitly identified a number of scholars and families of Arab origin, stating their lineage without ambiguity. However, in the Arabic translation of the work, these same individuals are often presented in a way that may lead readers to assume they were Kurds, despite the original text confirming their Arab heritage. According to Ma'ruf, Arabs constitute more than half of the figures mentioned in Sharafnama, even though the work primarily concerns the history of Kurdish states and emirates. As an example, Ma'ruf cites the historian Ibn al-Athir al-Jazari and his brothers Diyā' ad-Dīn Ibn Athir and Majd ad-Dīn Ibn Athir, who, according to all major Arabic biographical sources, were Arabs of the Banu Shayban tribe. In the translator’s footnotes to the Arabic edition, Ibn al-Athir is described as Kurdish, a claim that is unfounded and contrary to Sharaf Khan's own statements.

As above mentioned, Ibn al-Athir was the brother of Majd ad-Dīn Ibn Athir and Diyā' ad-Dīn Ibn Athir. al-Athir lived a scholarly life in Mosul, often visited Baghdad, and for a time traveled with Saladin's army in Syria. He later lived in Aleppo and Damascus. His chief work was a history of the world, al-Kamil fi at-Tarikh (The Complete History).

Death

Main article: Tomb of the Girl

Ibn al-Athir died in 1232/1233 and was buried in a cemetery in Mosul, at the district of Bab Sinjar. His tomb was built in the 20th century and was located in the middle of a road, after the cemetery was cleared for modernization. It became a site of an erroneous legend, which identified it as a tomb of a female mystic. However, the government later installed a marble stele to indicate that it was Ibn al-Athir's tomb. His tomb was also regarded in local Yazidi folklore as being the grave of a girl who married the Emir of Mosul but died of poisoning.

The tomb of Ibn al-Athir was bulldozed by members of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (in June 2014.

Works

• Al-Kāmil fī al-tārīkh (الكامل في التاريخ): "The Complete History"; 11 volumes
• al-Usd al-ghābah fi ma‘rifat al-ṣaḥābah: "The Lions of the Forest and the knowledge about the Companions"
• Al-Qawl al-Jamil fi 'Ilm al-Jarh wa at-Ta'dil
• Al-Tārīkh al-bāhir fī al-Dawlah al-Atābakīyah bi-al-Mawṣil
• Al-Lubāb fī tahdhīb al-ansāb

Notes

References

1. [http://www.al-islam.org/thaqalayn/nontl/Nar4-7.htm Fourth to Seventh century]
2. "الشافي شرح مسند الشافعي 1-3 ج3". Dar Al-Kotob Al-Ilmiyah.
3. (2020). "Islamic Interpretive Tradition and Gender Justice: Processes of Canonization Subversion and Change". [[McGill-Queen's University Press]].
4. 'Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn al-Tahir. "دور أبي ذر الهروي في نشر الأشعرية بالمغرب". [[w:ar:الرابطة المحمدية للعلماء.
5. (16 October 2018). "Early Sunnī Historiography A Study of the Tārīkh of Khalīfa B. Khayyāṭ". [[Brill Academic Publishers.
6. Kamaruzaman, A.F., Jamaludin, N., Fadzil, A.F.M., 2015. [Ibn Al-Athir’s Philosophy of History in Al-Kamil Fi Al-Tarikh https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281910057_Ibn_Al-Athir's_Philosophy_of_History_in_Al-Kamil_Fi_Al-Tarikh]. Asian Social Science 11(23).
7. "Ibn al-Athīr". Oxford University Press.
8. Donner, Fred McGraw. “The Bakr B. Wā'il Tribes and Politics in Northeastern Arabia on the Eve of Islam.” Studia Islamica, no. 51, 1980, pp. 5–38. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1595370.
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10. Trudy Ring, Noelle Watson, Paul Schellinger. 1995. International Dictionary of Historic Places. Vol. 3 Southern Europe. Routledge. P 190.
11. Canard, M., Cahen, Cl., Yinanç, Mükrimin H., and Sourdel-Thomine, J. ‘[https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/diyar-bakr-COM_0173 Diyār Bakr]’. Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Ed. P. Bearman et al. Brill Reference Online. Web. 16 Nov. 2019. Accessed on 16 November 2019.
12. a. ''Historiography of the Ayyubid and Mamluk epochs'', Donald P. Little, '''The Cambridge History of Egypt''', Vol.1, ed. M. W. Daly, Carl F. Petry, (Cambridge University Press, 1998), 415.
    b. ''Ibn al-Athir'', '''The A to Z of Islam''', ed. Ludwig W. Adamec, (Scarecrow Press, 2009), 135.
    c. Peter Partner, ''God of Battles: Holy wars of Christianity and Islam'', (Princeton University Press, 1997), 96.
    d. ''Venice and the Turks'', Jean-Claude Hocquet, '''Venice and the Islamic world: 828–1797''', edited by Stefano Carboni, (Editions Gallimard, 2006), 35 n17.
    e. Marc Ferro, ''Colonization: A Global History'', (Routledge, 1997), 6.
    f. Martin Sicker, ''The Islamic World in Ascendancy: From the Arab Conquests to the Siege of Vienna'', (Praeger Publishers, 2000), 69.
13. Ma'ruf, Naji. (1977). "عروبة العلماء المنسوبين إلى البلدان الأعجمية في بلاد الروم، الجزيره،و شهرزور،و اذربيجان". al-Shaʿb Press.
14. "عز الدين بن الاثير وقبر البنت".
15. "عز الدين بن الاثير وقبر البنت".
16. (2023-11-21). "قبر البنت في باب سنجارفي الموصل".
17. (20 July 2014). "الموصل بعد 150 عاماً !".
18. "عز الدين بن الاثير وقبر البنت".
19. (2023-11-21). "قبر البنت في باب سنجارفي الموصل".
20. Isra' al-Rubei'i. "Iraqi forces ready push after Obama offers advisers." ''Reuters'', June 20, 2014.[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-security-idUSKBN0EV0PB20140620]
21. [https://archive.org/details/WAQkamilt Al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh (Arabic)]