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Ali ibn Makula

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Ali ibn Makula
ابن ماكولا
Born1030
Died1083, 1086 or 1095
Cause of deathMurder
Academic work
EraLater Abbasid era,
(Islamic Golden Age)
Main interestsbiography history, genealogy, etymology, orthography
Notable worksKitāb al-Ikmāl

Abū Naṣr Alī ibn Hibat Allāh ibn Ja'far ibn Allakān ibn Muḥammad ibn Dulaf ibn Abī Dulaf al-Qāsim ibn ‘Īsā al-Ijlī, surnamed Sa’d al-Muluk and known as Ibn Mākūlā (Arabic: ابن ماكولا; 1030/31–1082/83) was a highly regarded Arab muḥaddith (Ḥadīth scholar) and historian who authored several works. His magnum opus was his biographical-genealogical history on etymology and orthography of Islamic names, Al-Ikmāl.

Life

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Abū Naṣr ibn Mākūlā was born in the village Ukbara on the Tigris north of Baghdad to a noble Arab family. He was the son of Hibat Allah ibn Makula, vizier to the Buyid ruler of Basrah, Jalal al-Dawla.

He gained the title ‘al-Amīr’ (أمير), or ‘prince’, maybe in his own right, or in reference to his famous ancestor Abu Dulaf al-Ijli. [1] His family had originally come from Jarbāzakān, between Hamadan and Isfahan in Iran, but his paternal uncle, was a muḥaddith (traditionist), and qāḍī (chief justice) in Baghdād where Ibn Mākūlā began his studies. He continued his education by travelling to the regional centres of learning across Irāq, Khurasan, Syria, Egypt, and Fars. In the last years of his life he held various official posts in the imperial administration of the Seljuk Empire, and once led an embassy to Bukhara to obtain the recognition of the new Abbasid Caliphate caliph al-Muqtadi (1075-1094).[2]

One anecdote tells of a personal application made by Ibn Mākūlā on behalf of the grammarian Al-Akhfash al-Asghar|al-Akhfash the Younger, requesting a pension from the vizier Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Isa. This was angrily rejected it seems and the scholar was left in abject poverty.[3]

In the account of his eventual assassination the sources differ on details of location and date. It seems that sometime, either in 475 h. [1082/1083] or 487 h. [1094/95], or 479 h. [1086/87], he was on a trip for Khurasan when he was murdered and robbed by his Mamluk guards,[n 1] either in Jurjan in Golestan Province, or al-Ahvaz in Khuzestan; or in Kirman, Iran.[4]

Works

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— In 1232, muhaddith Ibn Nukta (ابن نقطة), published Takmila al-Ikmāl (تكملة الإكمال), as an addendum to Al-Ikmāl.

  • Kitāb Tahdhib mustamar al-Awham ‘alā dhuī al-ma’rifat wa awwalī al-Afhām (تهذيب مستمر الأوهام على ذوي المعرفة وأولي الأفهام)[5]
  • Mufākharat al-qalam wa’l-sayf wa’l-dīnār (مفاخرة القلم والسيف والدينار);[6]
  • Taʾrīkh al-Wuzarā ('History of the Viziers').

Notes

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  1. ^ Khallikān describes them as his Turkish slaves

References

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  1. ^ Khallikān (Ibn) 1843, p. 505 n., II.
  2. ^ Khallikān (Ibn) 1843, p. 248, II.
  3. ^ Khallikān (Ibn) 1843, pp. 245–246, II.
  4. ^ Khallikān (Ibn) 1843, p. 249, II.
  5. ^ Mākūlā (ibn) 1962.
  6. ^ Kâtip Çelebi, Hajji Khalifa (1835). Kašf al-Zunūn. Vol. VI. Leipzig. p. 8.

External links/References

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See also

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