Ibn al-Fuwati

Kamāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Razzāḳ ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Fuwaṭī (Arabic: عبد الرزاق بن أحمد بن الفوطي) best known as Ibn al-Fuwati (25 June 1244 – 1323), was a medieval librarian and historian who wrote a great deal, but whose works have mostly been lost. His most important extant work is the Talḵīṣ, a biographical dictionary.

Biography

Ibn al-Fuwati was born on 25 June 1244 in Baghdad.[1] His family originated in Marw al-Rudh in Khurasan.[2] His nisba indicates that one of his parents was a seller of waist wraps (Arabic: fūṭa, plural: fowaṭ).[2] Aged 14, he was enslaved and incarcerated by the Mongols at the Siege of Baghdad (1258) and was subsequently brought to Adharbayjan.[1][2] In 1261/2, he joined Nasir al-Din al-Tusi in Maragheh and was appointed librarian of the Maragheh observatory by Tusi.[1] While in Maragheh, Ibn al-Fuwati wrote a biographical dictionary of astronomers, the Taḏkerat man qaṣada’l-raṣad (non-extant).[2] He stayed in Maragheh together with Tusi's son and successor Asil al-Din.[2] In 1281, Ibn al-Fuwati returned to Baghdad on the request of Ata-Malik Juvayni and was appointed director of the Mustansiriya School.[1][2]

Ibn al-Fuwati visited Adharbayjan at least three times between 1304 and 1316.[2] He retired to Baghdad after the execution of Rashid-al-Din Hamadani in 1318.[2] Charles P. Melville suggests that some of Ibn al-Fuwati's works were destroyed during the subsequent sack of the Rashidiya quarter.[2] Ibn al-Fuwati's religious beliefs were not strictly categorizable, for he is variously claimed to have been a Hanbalite, Shafi'ite, Shi'ite, and Sufi.[2] He drank wine and was renowned for his calligraphical works.[2] He died in 1323 in Baghdad.[2]

Literary output

Ibn al-Fuwait's most important extant work is his biographical dictionary, the Talḵīṣ.[2] The Talḵīṣ is believed to be an abridgement of the Majmaʿal-ādāb fī moʿjam al-alqāb.[2] However, it may be that the Majmaʿal-ādāb fī moʿjam al-alqāb never even existed.[2] Melville notes that even if the work did exist, it was probably never completed.[2] The Talḵīṣ itself was also never completed, for many entries are unfinished or left blank.[2] The exact scope of the Talḵīṣ is not clearly defined, as it appears to include a wide array of people whose names Ibn al-Fuwati had come across.[2] Most entries cover people from present-day Iraq and present-day western and central Iran, especially Isfahan.[2] Melville notes that the Talḵīṣ contains a wealth of information about the intellectual and cultural life of the Ilkhanate.[2]

Ibn al-Fuwati studied Mongolian and Persian; although he did not write books in Persian, he did own a memorabilia book (majmu'a) for Persian poetry.[2] In his Talḵīṣ, Ibn al-Fuwati occasionally quotes Persian poetry.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Rosenthal 1971, p. 769.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Melville 1997, pp. 25–26.

Sources

  • Melville, Charles (1997). "EBN AL-FOWAṬĪ, KAMĀL-AL-DĪN ʿABD-AL-RAZZĀQ". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. VIII, Fasc. 1. pp. 25–26.
  • Rosenthal, F. (1971). "Ibn al-Fuwaṭī". In Lewis, B.; Ménage, V. L.; Pellat, Ch. & Schacht, J. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume III: H–Iram. Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 769–770. OCLC 495469525.

Further reading

  • Komaroff, Linda (2006). Beyond the Legacy of Genghis Khan. Brill. pp. 1–678. ISBN 9789004243408.
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