Ibn Abi al-Dam

Shihāb al-Dīn Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Munʿim ibn Abī al-Dam al-Ḥamawī^[a] (29 July 1187 – 18 November 1244), known as Ibn Abī al-Dam,^[b] was an Arab historian and Shāfiʿī jurist.^[1]

Life

Ibn Abī al-Dam was born in Ḥamāt under Ayyūbid rule on 29 July 1187.^[2] He studied in Baghdad, the capital of the ʿAbbāsid Caliphate; taught in the Ayyūbid cities of Ḥamāt, Aleppo and Cairo; and was in 1225 appointed qāḍī (chief judge) of Ḥamāt.^[3] In his own writings, he insists that he played no role in the coming to power of his patron, Emir al-Nāṣir Qilij Arslān, in 1221.^[4]

Ibn Abī al-Dam belonged to the Shāfiʿī school of jurisprudence (fiqh).^[5] al-Muẓaffar II, who replaced al-Nāṣir as emir of Ḥamāt in 1229, sent him on a diplomat mission to Baghdad in AH 641 (1243/1244). The following year, he was sent back to inform the Abbasid court of al-Muẓaffar's death. He fell ill with dysentery on the journey at al-Maʿarra and returned to Ḥamāt, where he died on the same day he entered the town, 18 November 1244.^[6]

Works

Ibn Abī al-Dam wrote several works in Arabic. His only preserved historical work, al-Shamārīkh min al-Taʾrīkh,^[c] is a short annalistic history from the time of Muḥammad down to AH 628 (1230/31).^[7] It is found in at least two manuscripts: Oxford, Bodleian Library, ms. Marsh 60 (Uri 728) and Alexandria, Municipal Library, ms. 1292b.^[8] It is dedicated to al-Muẓaffar II.^[2] Ibn Abī al-Dam includes in it a copy of the diploma by which the Sultan al-Kāmil invested al-Muẓaffar with Ḥamāt. He defended the sultan's policy towards the Sixth Crusade, which resulted in the return of Jerusalem to crusader rule in 1229.^[9]

Ibn Abī al-Dam's other known work of history, a massive biographical dictionary in six volumes entitled al-Taʾrīkh al-Muẓaffarī, is lost.^[10] It is probably the "large history" (al-taʾrīkh al-kabīr) that he refers to in the Shamārīkh. It was written first and was dedicated to al-Muẓaffar at his accession in 1229.^[11] According to al-Sakhāwī's Iʿlān, it was arranged alphabetically beginning with "a biography of the Prophet, followed, successively, by the caliphs, philosophers-theologians, ḥadîṯ scholars, ascetics, grammarians, lexicographers, Qurʾân commentators, wazîrs, (army) leaders, and poets." Persons with the name Muḥammad were listed first and women last.^[12]

Besides his historical works, Ibn Abī al-Dam wrote commentaries on al-Ghazālī's Wasīṭ and Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī's Tanbīh. His Tadqīq al-ʿināya fī taḥqīq al-riwāya is on the transmission of ḥadīth.^[2] He also wrote works on Islamic sects and the conduct of judges (adab al-qaḍāʾ).^[13] His legal opinions were discussed by Taqī al-Dīn and Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī.^[2]

Excerpts

The following is the account in al-Shamārīkh of the siege of Damascus in 1229:

This year al-Malik al-Ašraf returned from Tall al-ʿAğūl and camped about Damascus at the beginning of Rabīʾ I, putting it under siege for [the months of] Rabīʾ and the two Ğumādā-s. The Sultan al-Malik al-Kāmil arrived and camped there, and there were many engagements, which are well-known, until the situation of the city's garrison became serious. There was nothing left for al-Malik al-Nāsir [Dāʾūd] but to throw himself on the mercy of the Sultan al-Malik al-Kãmil and to sue for his clemency. So he went out to meet him fearfully and fell to the ground before him and kissed his feet.^[14]

Notes

1. Arabic: أبو إسحاق شهاب الدين إبراهيم بن عبد الله الحموي. For the full name, see Rosenthal 1968, p. 492, and Krauss-Sánchez 2016.
2. ابن أبي الدم, also romanized Ibn Abi ʾl-Dam or Ibn Abī al-Damm.
3. Richards 1993, p. 184, Kitāb al-Shamārīkh fī al-tawārīkh.

References

1. Krauss-Sánchez 2016.
2. Rosenthal 1971.
3. Rosenthal 1971, Krauss-Sánchez 2016 and Richards 1993, p. 184.
4. Richards 1993, pp. 184–185.
5. Massignon 1982, p. 29 and Krauss-Sánchez 2016.
6. Rosenthal 1971 and Richards 1993, p. 183.
7. Rosenthal 1968, p. 148 n3.
8. Rosenthal 1968, p. 148 n3, Rosenthal 1971 and Krauss-Sánchez 2016.
9. Richards 1993, pp. 185–186.
10. Rosenthal 1971 and Krauss-Sánchez 2016.
11. Richards 1993, pp. 183–184.
12. Rosenthal 1968, p. 492.
13. Rosenthal 1971. For adab al-qaḍāʾ, see Tanzil-ur-Rahman 1966.
14. Richards 1993, p. 189.

Bibliography

• Al-Jomard, Jazeel Abdul Jabbar (1984). A Critical Edition of "al-Taʾrīkh al-Islāmī al-Mukhtaṣar" by Shihāb al-Dīn Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī al-Dam al-Ḥamawī (583/1187–642/1244) (PhD diss.). University of St. Andrews.
• Krauss-Sánchez, Heidi R. (2016). "Ibn Abī al-Dam". In Graeme Dunphy; Cristian Bratu (eds.). Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle. Brill Online. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
• Massignon, Louis (1982). The Passion of Al-Hallaj, Mystic and Martyr of Islam, Volume 4: Biography and Index. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-65723-3.
• Richards, Donald S. (1993). "The Crusade of Frederick II and the Ḥamāh Succession: Extracts from the Chronicle of Ibn Abī al-Damm". Bulletin d'études orientales. 45: 183–200. JSTOR 41608365.
• Rosenthal, Franz (1968). A History of Muslim Historiography (2nd ed.). E. J. Brill.
• Rosenthal, Franz (1971). "Ibn Abi ʾl-Dam". In Lewis, B.; Ménage, V. L.; Pellat, Ch. & Schacht, J. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Volume III: H–Iram (2nd ed.). Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 683. OCLC 495469525.
• Tanzil-ur-Rahman (1966). "Adab al-Qādī". Islamic Studies. 5 (2): 199–207. JSTOR 20832838.