Ibn Wāsil

Abū ʿAbdallāh Jamāl ad-Dīn Muhammad ibn Sālim Ibn Wāsil ( Arabic أبو عبد الله جمال الدين محمد بن سالم ابن واصل, DMG Abū ʿAbdallāh Ǧamāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Sālim Ibn Wāṣil ; * April 20, 1208 in Hama , Syria; † August 1, 1298 in Hama) was an Arab politician , diplomat and historian.

Life

Ibn Wasil was the son of a respected judge in his hometown of Hama. In 1225 the family moved to Jerusalem , where the father took on a job as a teacher at the Madrasa as-Salahiya, while ibn Wasil received a philological and theological training. Ibn Wasil was so successful that in 1228, when his father made a pilgrimage to Mecca , he was able to take over teaching on his behalf, which was unusual for such a young man. 1230-1231 ibn Wasil stayed in Aleppo for study purposes . In 1231 father and son came to al-Karak to the court of the Ayyubid ruler there an-Nasir Dawud . There ibn Wasil gained an insight into court life and entered into a closer relationship with some courtiers, especially scholars.

In 1244 ibn Wasil moved to Egypt. He had already sought the favor of the Egyptian ruler al-Salih and had been diplomatically active for him in Mosul . He made such an advantageous impression on as-Salih that in 1247 he made him head of the mosque al-Aqmar and teaching there. At the same time ibn Wasil was one of the respected courtiers. Even under the son and successor of al-Salih, the young and inexperienced Turan Shah , ibn Wasil belonged to the immediate circle of the ruler. He survived the fall of the Ayyubid dynasty and their replacement by the Mamluks well; The new ruler Baibars I also favored him.

In 1261 he traveled to southern Italy as Baibars' ambassador , where he stayed for two years at the court of King Manfred of Sicily. This made him familiar with the political situation in Europe.

He returned to his Syrian homeland around the mid-1960s. He took over a judge's office in Hama and worked as a writer. At the end of his life he went blind. He died on August 1, 1298 and was buried in Hama.

Apparently ibn Wasil remained unmarried and childless, which was unusual for a Muslim and Arab at the time. Studies and teaching were the focus of his life. His extraordinary diligence and excellent education impressed contemporary scholars.

Works

Ibn Wasil was considered a universal scholar. He not only emerged as a historian, but was also a poet and, in addition to writings on philosophical and theological subjects, also wrote philological and astronomical works, some of which have not survived. Among the lost works are four writings on logic, the titles of which have survived.

He owes his reputation as a historian above all to his annalistic work "The Dispenser of Fears Regarding the History of the Ayyubids" ( Mufarrig al-kurub fi ahbar bani Ayyub ), a story of the Ayyubids (the Saladin dynasty ), which he continued into the Mamluk period ; it covered the period up to 1261. Two additional annual reports for 1262 and 1263 were inserted by a later sequel. Mufarrig is an important source for Damiette's crusade and Frederick II's stay in the Orient and for the conditions at the Egyptian court. It also provides valuable information on cultural, literary and educational history.

Text output

• Gamal ad-Din ibn Wasil: Mufarrig al-kurub fi ahbar bani Ayyub. Cairo 1953–1977 and Sayda-Beirut 2004;
  • Volume 1-3. Published by Gamal ad-Din as-Sayyal. Maṭbaʿat ǧāmiʿat Fuād al-auwal, Cairo 1953–1960;
  • Volume 4-5. Edited by Hasanayn Muhammad Rabi. Maṭbaʿat dār al-kutub, Cairo 1972–1977;
  • Volume 6. Edited by Umar Abd as-Salam Tadmuri. al-Maktabah al-ʿAṣrīyah, Sayda-Beirut 2004, ISBN 9953-34-295-4 (incorrect, outdated).
• Mohamed Rahim (ed.): The chronicle of ibn Wasil. Critical edition of the last part (646 / 1248–659 / 1261) with commentary. Fall of the Ayyubids and beginning of Mamluk rule. = Mufarriǧ al-kurūb fī aḫbār Banī Ayyūb (= Arabic studies. Vol. 6). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-447-06149-0 (Also: Jena, University, dissertation, 2006: Ibn-Wāṣil, Muḥammad Ibn-Sālim: Mufarriǧ al-kurūb fi aḫbār Banī Ayyūb. ).

Translations

• Francesco Gabrieli (Ed.): The Crusades from an Arab perspective. Selected and translated from Arabic sources. German by Barbara von Kaltenborn-Stachau and Lutz Richter-Bernburg . License issue. Bechtermünz-Verlag, Augsburg 2000, ISBN 3-8289-0371-1 .