Qiwam al-Din al-Fath ibn Ali ibn Muhammad al-Bundari al-Isfahani (Arabic:قوام الدين الفتح إبن علي محمد البنداري الإصفهاني; died after 1241/2), commonly known asBundari (بنداري) oral-Bundari (البنداري‎), was anIranian writer who is known for translating the Persian epic poemShahnameh intoArabic.^[1]

The only information about his life is included in his books. He was most likely from a prominent family, thus hisnisba "Bundari", due to the family's connection with the important administrative office ofbundar.^[1]

Bundari was born and raised in the city ofIsfahan,^[1] located inPersian Iraq (Irāq-i Ajam), a region corresponding to the western part ofIran.^[2] The modern historians al-Ziriklu and Jalili state that he was born in 1190, but theIranologistAzartash Azarnoosh considered this uncertain.^[3] Bundari was one of the many Iranian elites who left their unstable country in the early 13th-century. By 1223, he is reported to have stayed inDamascus inSyria, where he enjoyed the patronage of itsAyyubid ruleral-Mu'azzam Isa (r. 1198–1227). It was to him that Bundari devoted most of his work. Bundari most likely left Damascus after the death of al-Mu'azzam Isa in 1227, possibly returning to Isfahan, which was ruled by theKhwarazmshah. Another possibility is that he went toBaghdad, where he is recorded to have been in 1241/2.^[1]

Bundari is also known to have written two other books, theSana al-Barq al-Shami andZubdat al-nuṣra wa nukhbat al-usra.^[3]

• Azarnoosh, Azartash (2021)."al-Bundārī". InMadelung, Wilferd;Daftary, Farhad (eds.).Encyclopaedia Islamica Online. Brill Online.ISSN 1875-9831.
• Bosworth, C. Edmund (1998)."ʿErāq-e ʿAjam(ī)". InYarshater, Ehsan (ed.).Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. VIII/5: English IV–Eršād al-zerāʿa. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. p. 538.ISBN 978-1-56859-054-7.
• Durand-Guédy, David (2013)."al-Bundārī, al-Fatḥ b. ʿAlī". In Fleet, Kate;Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John;Rowson, Everett (eds.).Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill Online.ISSN 1873-9830.

• Askari, Nasrin (2016).The medieval reception of the Shāhnāma as a mirror for princes. Brill.ISBN 978-90-04-30790-2.
• Peacock, A. C. S. (2015).The Great Seljuk Empire. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 1–378.ISBN 978-0-7486-3826-0.
• Tetley, Gillies (2008).The Ghaznavid and Seljuk Turks: Poetry as a Source for Iranian History. Routledge.ISBN 978-1-134-08438-8.

• Writers from Isfahan
• 13th-century Iranian writers
• 13th-century deaths
• Scholars from the Ayyubid Sultanate

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles containing Arabic-language text
• CS1: long volume value
• Year of death uncertain
• Year of birth unknown