Ahmad Ibn Yahya ibn Jabir al-Baladhuri | |
|---|---|
| Title | Al-Baladhuri |
| Personal life | |
| Born | c. 820 |
| Died | 892 (aged 71–72)[1][2] Baghdad, Abbasid Caliphate |
| Era | Islamic golden age (Abbasid Era) |
| Region | Mesopotamia |
| Main interest(s) | History |
| Notable work(s) | Kitab Futuh al-Buldan andAnsab al-Ashraf |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Islam |
| Jurisprudence | Sunni |
ʾAḥmad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Jābir al-Balādhurī (Arabic:أحمد بن يحيى بن جابر البلاذري) was a 9th-century West Asian historian. One of the eminentMiddle Eastern historians of his age, he spent most of his life inBaghdad and enjoyed great influence at the court of the caliphal-Mutawakkil. He travelled inSyria andIraq, compiling information for his major works.
His full name was Ahmad Bin Yahya Bin Jabir Al-Baladhuri (Arabic:أحمد بن يحيى بن جابر البلاذري), Balazry Ahmad Bin Yahya Bin Jabir Abul Hasan[3] or Abi al-Hassan Baladhuri.[4]
Al Baladhuri's ethnicity has been described asPersian by his contemporaries includingIbn Nadim,[5][6][7] but some scholars have surmised that he was ofArab descent solely since he spent most of his life inBaghdad.[7][8] Baladhuri was aPersian speaker who translatedMiddle Persian works toArabic.[8] Nonetheless, his sympathies seem to have been strongly with the Arabs, forMasudi refers to one of his works in which he rejects Baladhuri's condemnation of non-Arab nationalismShu'ubiyya.[2] He is certainly not the first Persian scholar to have sympathies with the Arabs, scholars of the same era such asIbn Qutayba were also vocal opponents of Shu'ubiyaa.[9]
He lived at the court of thecaliphsal-Mutawakkil andAl-Musta'in and was tutor to the son ofal-Mutazz. He died in 892 as the result of a drug calledbaladhur (hence his name).[2] (Baladhur isSemecarpus anacardium, known as the "marking nut"; medieval Arabic and Jewish writers describe it as a memory-enhancer).[10]
His chief extant work a condensation of a longer history,Kitab Futuh al-Buldan (فتوح البلدان), "Book of the Conquests of Lands", translated byPhillip Hitti (1916) andFrancis Clark Murgotten (1924) inThe Origins of the Islamic State, tells of the wars and conquests of the Arabs from the 7th century, and the terms made with the residents of the conquered territories. It covers the conquests of lands from Arabia west to Egypt, North Africa, and Spain, and east to Iraq, Iran, and Sind.
His history, in turn, was much used by later writers.Ansab al-Ashraf (أنساب الأشراف, "Lineage of the Nobles"), also extant, is a biographical work in genealogical order devoted to the Arab aristocracy, from Muhammad and his contemporaries to the Umayyad and Abbāsid caliphs. It contains histories of the reigns of rulers.[11]
His discussions of the rise and fall of powerful dynasties provide a political moral. His commentaries on methodology are sparse, other than assertions of accuracy.[12]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Balādhurī".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 233.Baladhuri was probably of Persian origin: he lived and wrote in Baghdad, and died in 892.
In the second half of the ninth century, an Iranian historian named Aḥmad b. Yaḥy āl-Balādhurī wroteThe Conquests of the Lands, an Arabic history about the Islamic conquest of the Near East and the formation of the Caliphate.
Media related toAhmad ibn Yahya al-Baladhuri at Wikimedia Commons
Quotations related toAl-Baladhuri at Wikiquote