'Alī al-Qifṭī, known as Ibn al-Qifṭī, was a native ofQift, UpperEgypt, the son ofal-Qāḍī al-Ashraf, Yūsuf al-Qifṭī (b.548/1153), and the grandson of Ibrāhīm ibn 'Abd al-Wāḥid,al-Qāḍī al-Awḥad in theAyyūbid court. Alī succeeded his father and grandfather into court administration but displayed scholarly inclinations. When the family left Qift in 1177, following the rising of aFāṭimidPretender, his father, Yūsuf, took up official posts in Upper Egypt and 'Alī completed his early education in Cairo.
In 583/1187 Yūsuf al-Qifṭī was appointed deputy toal-Qāḍī al-Fāḍil, chancellor and adviser toṢalāh al-Dīn at Jerusalem, and patron and benefactor ofMaimonides,[3] Al-Qifṭī spent many years studying and collecting material for his later works. When Ṣalāh al-Dīn died in 598/1201 and his brother, Malik al-'Ādil, usurped his nephew's position to occupy Jerusalem, Ibn al-Qifṭī's father fled toḤarran into the service of Ṣalāh al-Dīn's sonAshraf. Ibn al-Qifṭī sought patronage inAleppo as secretary to the former governor of Jerusalem and Nablus, Fāris al-Din Maimūn al Qaṣrī, the then vizier to the Ayyubid emir Ṣalāh al-Dīn's third son,Malik aẓ-Ẓāhir Ghāzi. He was recognised as an effective administrator of the fiefs and when the vizier died in 610/1214 aẓ-Ẓāhir appointed himkhāzin of the Dīwān of Finance, despite his own preference for study. On aẓ-Ẓāhir's death in 613/1216 al-Qifti retired but was re-appointed three years later by aẓ-Ẓāhir's successor. He remained in office until 628/1231. According to his protégé and biographer,Yaqūt, writing before 624/1227[4] al-Qifti already held the honorific title "al-Qāḍī 'l-Akram al-Wazir" (most noble judge chief minister).[2] After a five-year sabbatical al-Qifṭī took up the office ofvizier in 633/1236 and held it up to his death in 646/1248.[5] During that time he was also a member, along withShams al-Din Lu'lu' al-Amini, of the regency council that governed on behalf ofan-Nasir Yusuf.[6]
Throughout his life al-Qifṭī advocated scholarship and sought to pursue a literary career despite heavy constraints of high office. When Yaqūt had fled the Mongol invasion to Aleppo, he had received shelter from al-Qifti, who had assisted him in the compilation of his great geographical and biographical encyclopedia, known asIrshad.Yaqut lists al-Qifṭī's pre-620 works (some were then incomplete).Al-Ṣafadī copied this list in hisWāfī fi 'l-Wafayāt andAl-Kutubī'sFawāt al-Wafayat (1196) borrowed from it, but his copy is corrupted by many errors.
Kitāb Ikhbār al-'Ulamā' bi Akhbār al-Ḥukamā (إخبار العلماء بأخبار الحكماء); abbrev.Ta'rikh al-Ḥukama (تاريخ الحكماء), 'The biographies and the books of the great philosophers'; abiographical dictionary of 414 physicians, philosophers and astronomers; the most important source of exact sciences and Hellenistic tradition in Islām and sole literary witness of many accounts by ancient Greek scholars.[8][9]
Inbā ar-Rawat 'alā 'Anbā an-Nuhat (3 vol.); synopsis (647/1249) by Muḥammad ibn 'Alī az-Zawanī.[8][10]
Precious Pearls of the Account of the Master (Ad-Dur ath-Thamin fi 'Akhbar al-Mutīmīn) (الدر الثمين في أخبار المتيمين)
Report of the Muhammad Poets, (Akhbar al-Muhammadin min al-Shuara), (posthumous); only fragments[11]
History of Maḥmūd b. Sübüktigin (Sabuktakin) and His Sons'(wabanīhi, in al-Kubutīwabakīyat)
History of the Seljuks, from the Beginning to the End of the Dynasty (Baqiat Tārīkh as-Siljūqīa) (بقية تاريخ السلجوقية)
Apostles of Poets; arranged by al-Aba' up to Muḥammad bin Sa'īd; posthumous work written byal-Hasan ibn al-Haytham;History of the Poets; only poets named Muḥammad extant) (Kitāb al-Muhmidīn min ash-Shu'ra'i; ratibah 'alā al-Ābā' wa balagh bīhī Muḥammad bin Sa'id.) (كتاب المحمدين من الشعراء. رتبه على الآباء وبلغ به محمد بن سعيد) (wa Katab 'an al-Hasan bin al-Haythm) (وكتب عن الحسن بن الهيثم)
History of theMirdasids (Akhbar al-Mirdas) (أخبار آلمرداس)
The Biographies and Books of the Great Philosophers (Akhbar al-Alama bi Akhyar al-Hukama)(إخبار العلماء بأخيار الحكماء)[12]
Account of the Grammarians (Akhbar an-Nahwiyyin) (إخبار النحوين); survives only in abstract byMuh. b. Ahmad al-Dhahabi.
Account of the Writers and their Writings (Akhbar al-Musanafin wa ma Sanafuh) (أخبار المصنفين وما صنفوه)[13]
History of the Yemen (Tarikh al-Yemen) (تاريخ اليمن)
Egypt; in six parts ('Akhbār Misr, fi sitta 'Ajza') (أخبار مصر، في ستة أجزاء):: including
History of Cairo until the reign of Salah al-Din; identical to ComprehensiveTarikh al-Qifti contained in the epitome of Ibn Maktum (d. 749/1348)[citation needed]
Nahza al-Khater in Literature (Nahazat al-Khāṭr >> fi-l-Adab) (نهزة الخاطر» في الأدب); History of Scholarship (the Shaykhs of al-Kindi), a supplement to the Ansab of al-Baladhuri, etc.
al-Hamawi, Yāqūt, Margoliouth (ed.),Irshād al-Arīb, vol. vi, G.M.S., pp. 447–494
aṣ-Ṣafadī,Wāfī fi 'l-Wafayāt, pp. 233–234
al-Kutubī (1299),Fawāt al-Wafayāt, Cairo, p. 1197
as-Suyūṭī,Bughyat al-Wu'āt, p. 358
ibid.,Ḥusn al-Muḥāḍara, vol. i, p. 319
Leclerc (ed.),Hist. de la méd. ar., vol. ii, pp. 193–198
Steinschneider (1877), "Polemische und apologetische Literatur",Ab für die Kunde des Morg. (111): 129
Wüstenfeld, Ferdinand,Geschichtsschreiber der Araber, p. 331
Brockelmann, Carl (ed.),Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (G.A.L.), vol. i, p. 325
Müller, A, ed. (1891), "Über das sogenannte Tar'ikh al-ḥukamā' des Ibn al-Qifṭī",Actes du 8e congrès internat. Des orient.,i, Leyden:15–36
Dérenbourg, H (1905), "L'histoire des philosophes attribuée à Ibn al-Kifti",Opuscule, Paris:37–48
Houtsma, M. Th.; Wensinck, A. J.; Arnold, T. W.; Heffening, W.; Lévi-Provençal, E., eds. (1927),Encyclopaedia of Islam, Dictionary of the Geography, Ethnography & Biography of the Muhammadan Peoples, E-K, vol. ii, Leyden{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
al-Kutubī (1951), Dietrich, A (ed.),Fawat, vol. ii, Cairo, pp. 191–3{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
