Thursday, March 16, 2023

2023: Ibn Taymiyya - Ibn Zur'a

 



Ibn Taymiyya
Ibn Taymiyya (Taqi ad-Din Ahmad ibn TaymiyyaTaqī al-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Salām ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Taymiyyah) (1263, in Harran, Mesopotamia - September 26, 1328, in Cairo).  Hanbalite theologian and jurist.  Ibn Taymiyya was born in Harran to a family of Hanbali scholars (including his paternal grandfather, uncle, and father).  Ibn Taymiyya was himself a Hanbali in many, though not all, juridical and theological matters, and a Salafi on a wider plane.  He has had a strong influence on conservative Sunni circles and, in the modern period, on both liberals and conservatives.

Ibn Taymiyyah was one of Islam’s most forceful theologians who, as a member of the Pietist school founded by Ibn Ḥanbal, sought the return of the Islamic religion to its sources: the Qurʾān and the sunnah, revealed writing and the prophetic tradition. He is also the source of the Wahhābīyah, a mid-18th-century traditionalist movement of Islam.

Ibn Taymiyyah was born in Harran, Mesopotamia. Educated in Damascus, where he had been taken in 1268 as a refugee from the Mongol invasion, he later steeped himself in the teachings of the Pietist school. Though he remained faithful throughout his life to that school, of whose doctrines he had an unrivalled mastery, he also acquired an extensive knowledge of contemporary Islamic sources and disciplines: the Qurʾān (Islamic scripture), the Ḥadīth (sayings attributed to the Prophet Muhammad), jurisprudence (fiqh), dogmatic theology (kalām), philosophy, and Ṣūfī (Islamic mystical) theology.

The life of Ibn Taymiyyah was marked by persecutions. As early as 1293 Ibn Taymiyyah came into conflict with local authorities for protesting a sentence, pronounced under religious law, against a Christian accused of having insulted the Prophet. In 1298 he was accused of anthropomorphism (ascribing human characteristics to God) and for having criticized, contemptuously, the legitimacy of dogmatic theology.

During the great Mongol crisis of the years 1299 to 1303, and especially during the occupation of Damascus, he led the resistance party and denounced the suspect faith of the invaders and their accomplices. During the ensuing years, Ibn Taymiyyah was engaged in intensive polemic activity: either against the Kasrawān Shīʿah in Lebanon; the Rifāʿīyah, a Ṣūfī religious brotherhood; or the ittiḥādīyah school, which taught that the Creator and the created become one, a school that grew out of the teaching of Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 1240), whose monism he denounced.

In 1306, Ibn Taymiyyah was summoned to explain his beliefs to the governor’s council, which, although it did not condemn him, sent him to Cairo. There he appeared before a new council on the charge of anthropomorphism and was imprisoned in the citadel for 18 months. Soon after gaining his freedom, he was confined again in 1308 for several months in the prison of the qāḍīs (Muslim judges who exercise both civil and religious functions) for having denounced the worship of saints as being against religious law (Sharīʿah).

He was sent to Alexandria under house arrest in 1309, the day after the abdication of the sultan Muḥammad ibn Qalāwūn and the advent of Baybars II al-Jāshnikīr, whom he regarded as a usurper and whose imminent end he predicted. Seven months later, on Ibn Qalāwūn’s return, he was able to return to Cairo. But in 1313 he left Cairo once more with the Sultan, on a campaign to recover Damascus, which was again being threatened by the Mongols.

Ibn Taymiyyah spent his last 15 years in Damascus. Promoted to the rank of schoolmaster, he gathered around him a circle of disciples from every social class. The most famous of these, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah (died 1350), was to share in Ibn Taymiyyah’s renewed persecutions. Accused of supporting a doctrine that would curtail the ease with which a Muslim could traditionally repudiate a wife and thus ease the ill effects of the practice, Ibn Taymiyyah was incarcerated on orders from Cairo in the citadel of Damascus from August 1320 to February 1321.

In July 1326, Cairo again ordered him confined to the citadel for having continued his condemnation of saint worship, in spite of the prohibition forbidding him to do so. He died in prison, deprived of his books and writing materials, and was buried in the Ṣūfī cemetery amid a great public gathering. His tomb still exists and is widely venerated.

Ibn Taymiyyah left a considerable body of work—often republished in Syria, Egypt, Arabia, and India—that extended and justified his religious and political involvements and was characterized by its rich documentation, sober style, and brilliant polemic. In addition to innumerable fatwās (legal opinions based on religious law) and several professions of faith, the most beautiful of which is the Wāsitīyah, two works merit particular attention. One is his As-Siyā-sat ash-sharʿīyah (“Treatise on Juridical Politics”), available in French and English translations. The other, Minhāj as-sunnah (“The Way of Tradition”), is the richest work of comparative theology surviving from medieval Islam.

Ibn Taymiyyah desired a return to the sources of the Muslim religion, which he felt had been altered too often, to one extent or another, by the different religious sects or schools. The sources were the Qurʾān and the sunnah: revealed writing and the prophetic tradition. The ijmāʿ, or community consensus, had no value in itself, he insisted, unless it rested on those two sources. His traditionalism, however, did not prevent Ibn Taymiyyah from allowing analogical reasoning (qiyās) and the argument of utility (maṣlaḥah) a large place in his thought, on the condition that both rested on the objective givens of revelation and tradition. Only such a return to sources, he felt, would permit the divided and disunited Muslim community to refind its unity.

In theodicy (the justification of God as good when evil is observable in the world), Ibn Taymiyyah wished to describe God as he is described in the Qurʾān and as the Prophet did in the sunnah, which led him to side with theological schools in disagreement with contemporary opinion. This position was the point of departure for a critique, often conducted with very subtle argument, of the ideas of such dogmatic theologians as al-Ashʿarī or Fakhr ad-Dīn ar-Rāzī, such philosophers as Avicenna and Averroës, or such mystics as Ibn al-ʿArabī.

Concerning praxes (practices), Ibn Taymiyyah believed that one could only require, in worship, those practices inaugurated by God and his Prophet and that one could only forbid, in social relations, those things forbidden by the Qurʾān and the sunnah. Thus, on the one hand, he favored a revision of the system of religious obligations and a brushing aside of condemnable innovations (bidʿah), and, on the other, he constructed an economic ethic that was more flexible on many points than that espoused by the contemporary schools.

In politics, Ibn Taymiyyah recognized the legitimacy of the first four caliphs, but he rejected the necessity of having a single caliphate and allowed for the existence of many emirates. Within each emirate he demanded that the prince apply the religious law strictly and rely on it for his legal opinion, and Ibn Taymiyyah demanded from those under the prince’s jurisdiction that they obey the established authority except where it required disobedience to God, every Muslim being required to “will the good and forbid the bad” for the benefit of the common welfare.

Though Ibn Taymiyyah had numerous religious and political adversaries in his own time, he has strongly influenced modern Islam for the last two centuries. He is the source of the Wahhābīyah, a strictly traditionist movement founded by Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (d. 1792), who took his ideas from Ibn Taymiyyah’s writings. Ibn Taymiyyah also influenced various reform movements that have posed the problem of reformulating traditional ideologies by a return to sources.

Ibn Taymiyyah left a considerable body of work (350 works listed by his student Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya and 500 by another student al-Dhahabi). His work extended and justified his religious and political involvements and was characterized by its rich content, sobriety, and skillful polemical style.

Extant books and essays written by Ibn Taymiyyah include:

    * A Great Compilation of Fatwa — (Majmu al-Fatwa al-Kubra) This was collected centuries after his death, and contains several of the works mentioned below
    * Minhaj as-Sunnah an-Nabawiyyah — (The Pathway of as-Sunnah an-Nabawiyyah) — Volumes 1–4
    * Majmoo' al-Fatawa — (Compilation of Fatawa) Volumes 1–36
    * al-Aqeedah Al-Hamawiyyah — (The Creed to the People of Hamawiyyah)
    * al-Aqeedah Al-Waasittiyah — (The Creed to the People of Waasittiyah)
    * al-Asma wa's-Sifaat — (Allah's Names and Attributes) Volumes 1–2
    * 'al-Iman — (Faith)
    * al-Jawab as Sahih li man Baddala Din al-Masih (Literally, "The Correct Response to those who have Corrupted the Deen (Religion) of the Messiah"; A Muslim theologian's response to Christianity)—seven volumes, over a thousand pages.
    * as-Sarim al-Maslul ‘ala Shatim ar-Rasul—The Drawn Sword against those who insult the Messenger. Written in response to an incident in which Ibn Taymiyyah heard a Christian insulting Muhammad. The book is well-known because he wrote it entirely by memory, while in jail, and quoting more than hundreds of references.
    * Fatawa al-Kubra
    * Fatawa al-Misriyyah
    * ar-Radd 'ala al-Mantiqiyyin (Refutation of Greek Logicians)
    * Naqd at-Ta'sis
    * al-Uboodiyyah — (Subjection to Allah)
    * Iqtida' as-Sirat al-Mustaqim' — (Following The Straight Path)
    * al-Siyasa al-shar'iyya
    * at-Tawassul wal-Waseela
    * Sharh Futuh al-Ghayb — (Commentary on Revelations of the Unseen by Abdul-Qadir Gilani)

Some of his other works have been translated to English. They include:

    * The Friends of Allah and the Friends of Shaytan
    * Kitab al Iman: The Book of Faith
    * Diseases of the Hearts and their Cures
    * The Relief from Distress
    * Fundamentals of Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil
    * The Concise Legacy
    * The Goodly Word
    * The Madinan Way
    * Ibn Taymiyya against the Greek logicians




Taqi ad-Din Ahmad ibn Taymiyya see Ibn Taymiyya
Taqī al-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Salām ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Taymiyyah   see Ibn Taymiyya


Ibn Tilmidh
Ibn Tilmidh (Amin al-Dawla) (1073-1165).  Christian Arab physician from Baghdad.  He was gifted for languages, skilled in poetry and music, and was also an excellent calligrapher.  Although a priest, he enjoyed the favor of the caliphs.
Amin al-Dawla see Ibn Tilmidh

Ibn Tufayl
Ibn Tufayl (Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Tufayl) (Abubacer) (Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Muhammad ibn Tufail al-Qaisi al-Andalusia) (Abubacer Aben Tofail) (Abu Jaafar Ebn Tophail) (Ibn Tufail) (c. 1105, Guadix, Spain – 1185). Known in the West as Abubacer.  He was a noted Andalusian-Arab Muslim polymath: an Arabic writer, novelist, Islamic philosopher, theologian, physician, vizier, and court official. 

As a philosopher and novelist, Ibn Tufayl is most famous for writing the first philosophical novel, Hayy ibn Yaqzan, also known as Philosophus Autodidactus in the Western world.  As a physician, he was an early supporter of dissection and autopsy, which was expressed in his novel.

He was born in Wadi Ash (today Guadix), near Granada, in Spain, he was educated by Ibn Bajjah (Avempace).  He served as a secretary for the ruler of Granada, and later as vizier and physician for Abu Yaqub Yusuf, the Almohad ruler of Al Andalus, to whom he recommended Ibn Rushd (Averroes) as his own future successor in 1169. 

Ibn Rushd became Ibn Tufayl's successor after he retired in 1182.  He died several years later in Morocco in 1185.  The astronomer Nur Ed-Din al-Betrugi was also a disciple of Ibn Tufayl.

Ibn Tufayl’s mystical philosophy was presented in his novel Hayy ibn Yaqzan (Hayya ibn yaqzhan) (Walk on, you bright boy) where a boy (called Hayy {walk on!}) was brought up in isolation on an island.   All by himself, the boy investigates the universe, and he passes through several stages, each lasting seven years.  At the highest level the boy came to understand the ultimate nature of the universe; the emanations coming from the One that goes from level to level, how spirit takes material form, and how the spirit strives to reach up to the One.  The boy finally meets another human being, and when returning to the world of people, he understands that his ultimate understanding is the same as the revealed religion, but that not all can reach this highest form of understanding.   Moreover, Man is divided into three groups: (1) Those who can understand the highest truth by reason alone (very few); (2) those who can understand by the help of symbols of the religious revelation; and (3) those who accept the laws coming from the symbols of the religious revelation.  Hayy tries to enlighten people, but fails, and returns to his island.  The moral seems to be that each of these groups of people should accept their standing, and not strive for more.

Ibn Tufayl drew the name of the book and most of its characters from an earlier work by Ibn Sina (Avicenna).  Ibn Tufayl's book was neither a commentary on nor a mere retelling of Ibn Sina's work, but rather a new and innovative work in its own right.  It reflects one of the main concerns of Muslim philosophers (later also of Christian thinkers), that of reconciling philosophy with revelation.  At the same time, the narrative anticipates in some ways both Robinson Crusoe and Rousseau's Emile.  It tells of a child who is nurtured by a gazelle and grows up in total isolation from humans.  In seven phases of seven years each, solely by the exercise of his faculties, Hayy goes through all the gradations of knowledge.  The story of Hayy ibn Yaqzan is similar to the later story of Mowgli in Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book in that a baby is abandoned on a deserted tropical island where he is taken care of and fed by a mother wolf.

Iby Tufayl's Hayy ibn Yaqzan (Philosophus Autodidactus) was written as a response to al-Ghazali's The Incoherence of the Philosophers.  In the 13th century, Ibn al-Nafis later wrote the Al-Risalah al-Kamiliyyah fil Siera al-Nabawiyyah (known as Theologus Autodidactus in the West) as a response to Ibn Tufayl's Philosophus Autodidactus.

Hayy ibn Yaqzan (Philosophus Autodidactus) had a significant influence on both Arabic literature and European literature, and it went on to become an influential best-seller throughout Western Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries.  The work also had a "profound influence" on both classical Islamic philosophy and modern Western philosophy.  It became "one of the most important books that heralded the Scientific Revolution" and European Enlightenment, and the thoughts expressed in the novel can be found

in different variations and to different degrees in the books of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Isaac Newton, and Immanuel Kant.

A Latin translation of the work, entitled Philosophus Autodidactus first appeared in 1671, prepared by Edward Pococke the Younger.  The first English translation (by Simon Ockley) was published in 1708.  These translations later inspired Daniel Defoe to write Robinson Crusoe, which also featured a desert island narrative and was the first novel in English.  Ibn Tufayl's novel also inspired the concept of "tabula rasa" developed in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) by John Locke, who was a student of Pococke. 

Ibn Tufayl's work went on to become one of the principal sources of empiricism in modern Western philosophy, and influenced many enlightenment philosophers, such as David Hume and George Berkeley.  Hayy's ideas on materialism in the novel also have some similarities to Karl Marx's historical materialism.  Other European writers influenced by Ibn Tufayl include William Molyneaux, Gottfried Liebniz, Melchisedech Thevenot, John Wallis, Christiaan Huygens, George Keith, Robert Barclay, the Quakers, Samuel Hartlib, and Voltaire.




Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Tufayl  see Ibn Tufayl
Abubacer see Ibn Tufayl
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Muhammad ibn Tufail al-Qaisi al-Andalusia see Ibn Tufayl
Abubacer Aben Tofail see Ibn Tufayl
Abu Jaafar Ebn Tophail see Ibn Tufayl
Ibn Tufail see Ibn Tufayl


Ibn Tulun, Shams al-Din
Ibn Tulun, Shams al-Din (Shams al-Din ibn Tulun) (1473-1546).  Scholar and prolific writer from Damascus.  His historical writings, among them an autobiography, deal with the end of the Mameluke rule and the beginning of Ottoman domination of Syria.
Shams al-Din ibn Tulun see Ibn Tulun, Shams al-Din


Ibn Tumart
Ibn Tumart (Abu Abd Allah Muhammad Ibn Tumart) (Ibnu Tuwmart) (Amghār ibn Tumrt) (c. 1078 - c. 1130).  Berber religious scholar, teacher and later a political leader from the Masmuda tribe who spiritually founded the Berber Almohad dynasty. He is also known as El-Mahdi in reference to his prophesied redeeming. In 1125 he began open revolt against Almoravid rule.

Ibn Tumart was a Muslim reformer of Morocco who was called the Mahdi of the Almohads.  Ibn Tumart was born In Ijili-n-Warghan in Morocco.  Having visited Cordoba, Alexandria, Mecca and Baghdad, he returned in 1116 to the Maghrib.  His uncompromising insistence on the punctilious observance of religious obligations, his piety and learning won him many followers.  In 1121, he openly revolted against the Almoravid ‘Ali ibn Yusuf ibn Tashfin and had himself proclaimed as the Mahdi or restorer of religion and justice.  The siege of Marrakesh by the Almohads in 1130 failed, but did not in fact much hinder the progress of the movement.

The name Ibn Tumart is Berber and means “son of little Umar.” Ibn Tumart was a man with strong conviction who possessed a conservative view of Islam.  His persistence resulted in success, and he was the man behind the group that later came to be known as the Almohads, which became the successors of the Almoravids.

Ibn Tumart began his career in a period which, it is said, was characterized by moral decay and declining intellectual achievement.  The studies that were performed were confined to the books called furu‘, and not the Qur‘an or the hadith. Ibn Tumart met the teachings of Ibn Hazm during a longer stay in Spain.  Later in his life, he became influenced by the teachings of al-Ghazzali, but he never met him, even though it was rumored that he did.  Ibn Tumart went off to Mecca to perform the hajj.  Later he studied in Baghdad and in Damascus.  As he returned to Tunisia by ship, Ibn Tumart started preaching to the sailors and passengers, who responded by reciting the Qur‘an and by offering prayers.  While preaching around Tunisia, Ibn Tumart soon came to formulate the core of his reform program, which included the central tenet: "The one who sees anything wrong, should act to change it by his hand.  If he cannot do it with his hand, he shall do it with his tongue.  If he cannot do it with his tongue, he shall do it in his own heart.  This is what the religion demands you to do."

Ibn Tumart did not win many converts with this doctrine.  Indeed, the local rulers felt their authority threatened, and Ibn Tumart had to seek refuge with a Berber tribe of the region.  While hiding, Ibn Tumart met the man who came to be his foremost disciple, Abdu al-Mu‘min.  After Tunisia, Ibn Tumart traveled back to Morocco overland, and he managed to be banished by the governor of Tlemcen along up in Marrakech, where he lifted his voice against the moral standards of the women.

Ibn Tumart was called upon to meet with the learned men of Marrakech, who belonged to the court of the Almoravid emir.  The learned wanted him executed, but his life was spared by the emir.

Away from Marrakech, and finding a new audience, Ibn Tumart soon began both preaching Koranic doctrines as well as his own ideas.  At the time, the ideas of Ibn Tumart were a mixture of Ash‘ari theology and Shi‘a Islam.  Ibn Tumart attacked the dynasty for living according to untrue doctrines.  He went so far in his teaching that he declared jihad on all who disagreed with him, and he proclaimed himself Mahdi, and had constructed a genealogy originating in Ali.

Ibn Tumart’s power was extended through military actions, like when defeating the people of Tin Mal in the High Atlas Mountains, where 15,000 were massacred.  In 1123, he sent an army under the leadership of Abdu al-Mu‘min against the Almoravids, but they lost, and Ibn Tumart had to seek refuge in Tin Mal.  The number of his followers continued to grow, and this coincided with a weakening position for the Almoravids.  But it was not until after his death, that the Almohads (as his followers were to be known) could really defeat the Almoravids.

Ibn Tumart published a number of works in the Berber language.  His Tawhid survives but only in Arabic translation.

Mahdi of the Almohads see Ibn Tumart
Abu Abd Allah Muhammad Ibn Tumart see Ibn Tumart
Ibnu Tuwmart see Ibn Tumart
Amghār ibn Tumrt see Ibn Tumart


Ibn Tumlus, Abu‘l-Hajjaj
Ibn Tumlus, Abu‘l-Hajjaj (Abu‘l-Hajjaj ibn Tumlus) (Abu-l-Hayyay ibn Tumlus) (Abén Tomlús)  (Abem Tomlús) (1164 - 1223) .  Muslim physician of Spain, known in the West as Alhagiag bin Thalmus.


Abu'l-Hajjaj ibn Tumlus see Ibn Tumlus, Abu‘l-Hajjaj
Alhagiag bin Thalmus see Ibn Tumlus, Abu‘l-Hajjaj
Abu-l-Hayyay ibn Tumlus see Ibn Tumlus, Abu‘l-Hajjaj
Abén Tomlús see Ibn Tumlus, Abu‘l-Hajjaj
Abem Tomlús see Ibn Tumlus, Abu‘l-Hajjaj


Ibn Umayl, al-Hakim al-Sadiq
Ibn Umayl, al-Hakim al-Sadiq (al-Hakim al-Sadiq ibn Umayl).  One of the exponents of the allegorical and mystagogical (inerpretation of religious mysteries) type of alchemy during the tenth century.  He had a special interest in the old Egyptian temples and their wall paintings and actually visited an ancient temple at Busir al-Sidr in the province of al-Jiza, where he saw a statue of Imhotep.
Hakim al-Sadiq ibn Umayl, al- see Ibn Umayl, al-Hakim al-Sadiq


Ibn Wafid, Abu‘l-Mutarrif
Ibn Wafid, Abu‘l-Mutarrif (Abu'l-Mutarrif ibn Wafid) (Ali Ibn al-Husain Ibn al-Wafid) (997-ca.1074).  Andalusian author, known in the West as Abenguefith.

Ali Ibn al-Husain Ibn al-Wafid, known in Latin Europe as Abenguefith, was a pharmacologist and physician from Toledo. He was the vizier of Al-Mamun of Toledo. His main work is Kitab al-adwiya al-mufrada (translated into Latin as De medicamentis simplicibus).
Abenguefith see Ibn Wafid, Abu‘l-Mutarrif
Abu'l-Mutarrif ibn Wafid see Ibn Wafid, Abu‘l-Mutarrif
Ali Ibn al-Husain Ibn al-Wafid see Ibn Wafid, Abu‘l-Mutarrif


Ibn Wahshiyya
Ibn Wahshiyya (Ibn Wahshiyah) (Abu Bakr Ahmed ibn 'Ali ibn Qays al-Wahshiyah al-Kasdani al-Qusayni al-Nabati al-Sufi‎) (Ahmad Bin Abubekr Bin Wahishih) (fl. 9th century/10th century).   Nabataean and Assyrian writer, alchemist, agriculturalist, Egyptologist and historian. Among the many works attributed to him is the Book of the Nabataean Agriculture, which is the subject of vigorous debate among Asian scholars.

Ibn Wahshiyah was a Nabataean and Assyrian writer, alchemist, agriculturalist, Egyptologist and historian born at Qusayn near Kufa in Iraq. He was known in early modern Europe as Ahmad Bin Abubekr Bin Wahishih.

Ibn al-Nadim (in Kitab al-Fihrist) lists a large number of books on magic, statues, offerings, agriculture, alchemy, physics and medicine, that were either written, or translated from older books, by Ibn Wahshiyah.

In agriculture, the Filahât al-Nabâtiyyah (Nabataean Agriculture) of Ibn Wahshîyya is the most influental of all Muslim works on the subject, even though Wahshiyya was not a Muslim. Written in the ninth century of the Christian calendar and drawn mostly from Chaldean and Babylonian sources, the book deals not only with agriculture but also with the esoteric sciences, especially magic and sorcery, and has always been considered to be one of the important books in Arabic on the occult sciences.

Ibn Wahshiyya translated a book called Nabataean Agriculture (Kitab al-falaha al-nabatiya) (c. 904), a major treatise on the subject, which was said to be based on ancient Babylonian sources. The book extols Babylonian-Aramean-Syrian civilization against that of the conquering Arabs. It contains valuable information on agriculture and superstitions, and in particular discusses beliefs attributed to the Sabeans that there were people before Adam, that Adam had parents and that he came from India. These ideas were discussed by the Jewish philosophers Judah ben Samuel Halevi and Maimonides, through which they became an influence on the seventeenth century French Millenarian Isaac La Peyrère.

Ibn Wahshiyya was one of the first historians to be able to at least partly decipher what was written in the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, by relating them to the contemporary Coptic language used by Coptic priests in his time. An Arabic manuscript of Ibn Wahshiyya's book Kitab Shawq al-Mustaham, a work that discusses a number of ancient alphabets, in which he deciphered a number of Egyptian hieroglyphs, was later read by Athanasius Kircher in the 17th century, and then translated and published in English by Joseph Hammer in 1806 as Ancient Alphabets and Hieroglyphic Characters Explained; with an Account of the Egyptian Priests, their Classes, Initiation, and Sacrifices in the Arabic Language by Ahmad Bin Abubekr Bin Wahishih, sixteen years before Jean-François Champollion's complete decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs. This book was known to Silvestre de Sacy, a colleague of Jean-François Champollion. Dr Okasha El Daly, at University College London's Institute of Archaeology, claims that some hieroglyphs had been decoded by Ibn Wahshiyah, eight centuries earlier than Champollion deciphered the Rosetta stone.

A reference to Ibn Wahshiyah is made in the archaeological mystery Labyrinth by Kate Mosse.

Ibn Wahshiyah see Ibn Wahshiyya
Abu Bakr Ahmed ibn 'Ali ibn Qays al-Wahshiyah al-Kasdani al-Qusayni al-Nabati al-Sufi‎ see Ibn Wahshiyya
Ahmad Bin Abubekr Bin Wahishih see Ibn Wahshiyya


Ibn Wasil
Ibn Wasil (Ibn Wasil Gamal ad-Din) (1207/1208, in Hama - 1298, in Hama).  Historian, judge and man of letters of Hamat.  One of his works, which reaches the year 1263, is a valuable source for the history of the Ayyubids.

Ibn Wasil Gamal ad-Din was an Arab politician, diplomat and historian. He held, under the Ayyubid dynasty (dynasty of Saladin), and among the Mamelukes, various offices. Großquadi his hometown. He also worked on various farms in Syria and Egypt.

In 1261, he traveled with Baybars as ambassadors of the Sultan to the South of Italy to negotiate with the Emperor Manfred. He stayed on there, especially in the Apulian town of Barletta. During his stay in Italy, he became acquainted with the political situation in Europe. In particular, he presented the Hohenstaufen dynasty in a very positive light.

Ibn Wasil's reputation as a historian owes much to his work "The diffusers of the fears about the history of the Ayyubid dynasty" (Mufarrij kurub fi al-Ahbar Bani Ayyub). This work is a history of the dynasty of Saladin, which constitutes an important source of the Fifth Crusade, the journey of Frederick II and the Crusade of St. Louis.
Ibn Wasil Gamal ad-Din see Ibn Wasil


Ibn Yunus
Ibn Yunus (Yunus) (Abu al-Hasan 'Ali abi Sa'id 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Ahmad ibn Yunus al-Sadafi al-Misri) (c. 950-1009).  One of the most prominent Muslim astronomers.  His sets of astronomical tables have been relied on by modern scholars.

Ibn Yunus was an important Egyptian Muslim astronomer and mathematician, whose works are noted for being ahead of their time, having been based on almost modern-like meticulous calculations and attention to detail.

Information regarding his early life and education is uncertain. He was born in Egypt between 950 and 952 and came from a respected family in Fustat. His father was a historian, biographer and scholar of hadith, who wrote two volumes about the history of Egypt—one about the Egyptians and one based on traveler commentary on Egypt. A prolific writer, Ibn Yunus' father has been described as "Egypt's most celebrated early historian and first known compiler of a biographical dictionary devoted exclusively to Egyptians". His great grandfather had been an associate of the noted legal scholar al-Shafi.

Early in the life of Ibn Yunus, the Fatimid dynasty came to power and the new city of Cairo was founded. In Cairo, he worked as an astronomer for the Fatimid dynasty for twenty-six years, first for the Caliph al-Aziz and then for al-Hakim. Ibn Yunus dedicated his most famous astronomical work, al-Zij al-Kabir al-Hakimi, to the latter.

In astrology, noted for making predictions and having written the Kitab bulugh al-umniyya ("On the Attainment of Desire"), a work concerning the heliacal risings of Sirius, and on predictions concerning what day of the week the Coptic year will start on.

Ibn Yunus' most famous work in Islamic astronomy, al-Zij al-Kabir al-Hakimi (c. 1000), was a handbook of astronomical tables which contained very accurate observations, many of which may have been obtained with very large astronomical instruments.

Ibn Yunus described 40 planetary conjunctions and 30 lunar eclipses. In the 19th century, Simon Newcomb found Ibn Yunus' observations on conjunctions and eclipses reliable enough to use them in his lunar theory to determine the secular acceleration of the moon. Ibn Yunus also observed more than 10,000 entries for the sun's position for many years using a large monumental astrolabe with a diameter of nearly 1.4 meters.

The crater Ibn Yunus on the Moon is named after him.


Yunus see Ibn Yunus
Abu al-Hasan 'Ali abi Sa'id 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Ahmad ibn Yunus al-Sadafi al-Misri see Ibn Yunus


Ibn Zafar
Ibn Zafar (1104-1170).  Arab scholar and polygraph from Sicily.  His biography of illustrious individuals was translated into Italian, English and Turkish. 


Ibn Zamrak
Ibn Zamrak (Ibn Zumruk) (Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Yusuf ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Surayhi) (1333-1393).  Poet and statesman from Granada.  In his panegyrics (his writings of praise), he celebrates the beauty of Granada’s gardens and palaces. 

Ibn Zamrak was a poet and statesman from Granada, Al-Andalus. Some his poems still decorate the fountains and palaces of Alhambra in Granada.

Ibn Zamrak was of humble origin but thanks to his teacher Ibn al-Khatib he was introduced at the court of the Nasrids. He accompanied Sultan Abu Abd Allah Mohammed V to Morocco and when Mohammed was reinstated on the throne in Granada in 1361 he was appointed as his private secretary and a court poet. When Ibn al-Khatib was dismissed as vizier in 1371, Ibn Zamrak succeeded him and hired a group of assassins to kill Ibn al-Khatib in prison after his arrest in Fez. Later, Ibn Zamrak himself was imprisoned for nearly two years by Yusuf II and was assassinated on the orders of Sultan Muhammad VII while he was reading the Qur'an at home in 1393.
Ibn Zumruk see Ibn Zamrak
Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Yusuf ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Surayhi see Ibn Zamrak


Ibn Zaydan
Ibn Zaydan (Abd al-Rahman ibn Zaydan) (1873/1878-1946).  Moroccan official and historian of Meknes.  His works may be considered as a good source for the history of Meknes and of the Sharifs of Morocco.

Abd al-Rahman ibn Zaydan was a Moroccan historian and literary author. He was a great-grandson of sultan Moulay Ismael and is considered one of the best sources on the history of his native city Meknes, but also on the Alaouite dynasty. After the installation of the French protectorate he accepted the function of vice-director of the military school of Dâr al-Bayda in Meknes, today's military academy of the city. The Ithaf, his main work of 8 volumes contains hundreds of biographies, like those of the sultans Abderrahman and Hassan I.


Ibn Zaydun
Ibn Zaydun (Abu al-Waleed Ahmad Ibn Zaydún al-Makhzumi) (1003-1071).  Poet of Cordoba.  His romantic and literary life was dominated by his stormy relations with the poetess Wallada, the daughter of the Spanish Umayyad Muhammad al-Mustakfi (r.1024-1025).

Ibn Zaydún was a famous Arab poet of Cordoba and Seville. His romantic and literary life was dominated by his relations with the poetess Wallada bint al-Mustakfi, the daughter of the Ummayad Caliph Muhammad III of Cordoba.

Ibn Zaydun was born in Cordoba to an aristocratic Arab family of the tribe of Makhzum. He grew up during the decline of the Umayyad caliphate and was involved in the political life of his age. He joined the court of the Jahwarid Abu al-Hazm of Cordoba and was imprisoned by him after he was accused of conspiring against him and his patrons.

His relationship with the Umayyad princess Wallada was quickly terminated by Wallada herself. Some attributed this change of heart to Ibn Zaydun's early anti-Umayyad activities, while others mention his rivalry with the rich minister Ibn Abdus, a former friend of Ibn Zaydun, who supposedly gained Wallada's favor and supported her. It is suggested that Ibn Abdus himself was the one who instigated Abu al-Hazm ibn Jahwar against Ibn Zaydun.

Ibn Zaydun sought refuge with Abbad II of Seville and his son al-Mu'tamid. He was able to return home for a period after the ruler of Seville conquered Cordoba. Much of his life was spent in exile and the themes of lost youth and nostalgia for his city are present in many of his poems.
Abu al-Waleed Ahmad Ibn Zaydún al-Makhzumi see Ibn Zaydun


Ibn Zayla
Ibn Zayla (d. 1048).  Pupil of Ibn Sina.  He was a mathematician and an excellent musician.


Ibn Ziba‘ra
Ibn Ziba‘ra.  Seventh century poet of the Quraysh who satirized the Prophet and his followers.


Ibn Zuhr
Ibn Zuhr. Patronymic of a family of scholars in Spain from the eleventh through twelfth centuries.  The physician Abu‘l-‘Ala‘ ibn Zuhr (d. 1130) was known to medieval western scholars as Abulelizor or Albuleizor and was a famous physician of Seville.  Some nine works of his are known, but he owed his reputation to his skill as a practising physician.  Another physician of this family, Abu Marwan ibn Zuhr (1092-1161), was known as Abhomer or Avenzoar.
Abu'l-'Ala' ibn Zuhr see Ibn Zuhr.
Abulelizor see Ibn Zuhr.
Abuleizor see Ibn Zuhr.
Abu Marwan ibn Zuhr see Ibn Zuhr.
Abhomer see Ibn Zuhr.
Avenzoar see Ibn Zuhr.


Ibn Zuhr, Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik ibn Zuhr
Ibn Zuhr, Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik ibn Zuhr (Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik ibn Zuhr) (Avenzoar) (Abū Merwān ’Abdal-Malik ibn Zuhr) (Abumeron) (Ibn-Zohr) (1091–1161).  One of the greatest physicians, clinicians and parasitologists of the Middle Ages.  Some historians of science have declared Ibn Zuhr to be the greatest among the Muslim physicians after Ar-Razi (Rhazes) of Baghdad.  Some of his contemporaries called Ibn Zuhr the greatest physician since Galen.

Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik ibn Zuhr was born at Seville, Spain in 1091.  He graduated from Cordova (in Arabic, Qurtuba) Medical University.  After a brief stay in Baghdad and Cairo, he returned to Spain and worked as a physician.  Later, Ibn Zuhr worked for ‘Abd al-Mu‘min, the first Muwahid ruler, both as physician and a minister.  He worked his entire career in Seville and died in 1161.

Ibn Zuhr confined his work to medicine, contrary to the prevailing practice of his contemporary Muslim scientists who typically worked in several fields.  By focusing on one field, Ibn Zuhr made many original and long-lasting contributions.  He emphasized observation and experiment in his work.  Ibn Zuhr was proficient in the art of dissecting dead human bodies and knew anatomy in detail.  His operative technique was superb.

Ibn Zuhr made several breakthroughs as a physician.  He was the first to test different medicines on animals before administering them to humans.  Also, he was the first to describe in detail scabies, the itch mite, and is thus regarded as the first parasitologist.  He was also the first to give a full description of the operation of tracheotomy and practiced feeding through the gullet in those cases where normal feeding was not possible.  As a clinician, Ibn Zuhr provided clinical descriptions of intestinal phthisis (a progressive wasting disease), inflammation of the middle ear, pericarditis (inflammation of the membranous sac enclosing the heart), and mediastinal tumors (tumors between the two lungs) among others.

Ibn Zuhr wrote many monumental books for the medical specialist and for the common people.  Several of his books were translated into Latin and Hebrew and were in great demand in Europe until the late eighteenth century.  Only three of his great books have survived.  Ibn Zuhr wrote Kitab al-Taisir fi al-Mudawat wa al-Tadbir at the request of Ibn Rushd (Averroes).  In English, it is entitled The Book of Simplification Concerning Therapeutics and Diet.  It contains many of his original contributions.  This book discusses pathological conditions and therapy in detail.  The second book Kitab al-Iqtisad fi Islah al-Anfus wa al-Ajsad (Book of the Middle Course Concerning the Reformation of Souls and Bodies) summarizes different diseases, therapeutics and the hygiene.  It also discusses the role of psychology in treatment.  The third book Kitab al- Aghziya (Book on Foodstuffs) discusses numerous drugs and the importance of food and nutrition. 

Ibn Zuhr’s influence on the development of medical science was pronounced for several centuries throughout the world.


Abhomer see Ibn Zuhr, Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik ibn Zuhr
Avenzoar see Ibn Zuhr, Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik ibn Zuhr
Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik ibn Zuhr see Ibn Zuhr, Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik ibn Zuhr
Abumeron see Ibn Zuhr, Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik ibn Zuhr
Ibn Zohr see Ibn Zuhr, Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik ibn Zuhr
Abū Merwān ’Abdal-Malik ibn Zuhr see Ibn Zuhr, Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik ibn Zuhr


Ibn Zur‘a
Ibn Zur‘a (943-1008).  Jacobite Christian philosopher, apologist and translator of Baghdad.  Among other works of Aristotle, he translated the Historia Animalium.

Ibn Zur'a was born in 943 in Baghdad in a family of Christian Jacobites. He studied science, medicine and philosophy under the tutelage of his master, Yahya ibn Adi. Ibn Zur'a was also a merchant, but was accused of trafficking with Byzantium, he was arrested and tried. His property was seized and he died in Baghdad in 1008.


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