Abu’l-Qāsim Ismāʿīl ibn-i ʿAbbād ibn-i ʿAbbās ( fa, ابوالقاسم اسماعیل بن عباد بن عباس; born 938 - died 30 March 995), better known as Ṣāḥib ibn-i ʿAbbād (), also known as Ṣāḥib (), was a Persian scholar and statesman, who served as the

grand vizier Grand vizier ( fa, وزيرِ اعظم, vazîr-i aʾzam; ota, صدر اعظم, sadr-ı aʾzam; tr, sadrazam) was the title of the effective head of government of many sovereign states in the Islamic world. The office of Grand Vizier was first ...

of the Buyid rulers of

Ray Ray may refer to: Fish * Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea * Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin Science and mathematics * Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point * Ray (g ...

from 976 to 995. A native of the suburbs of

Isfahan Isfahan ( fa, اصفهان, Esfahân ), from its Achaemenid empire, ancient designation ''Aspadana'' and, later, ''Spahan'' in Sassanian Empire, middle Persian, rendered in English as ''Ispahan'', is a major city in the Greater Isfahan Regio ...

, he was greatly interested in

Islamic culture Islamic culture and Muslim culture refer to cultural practices which are common to historically Islamic people. The early forms of Muslim culture, from the Rashidun Caliphate to the early Umayyad period and the early Abbasid period, were predomi ...

, and wrote on dogmatic theology, history, grammar, lexicography, scholarly criticism and wrote poetry and ''

belles-lettres is a category of writing, originally meaning beautiful or fine writing. In the modern narrow sense, it is a label for literary works that do not fall into the major categories such as fiction, poetry, or drama. The phrase is sometimes used pejora ...

''.

Biography

Family and early life

Caspian coast of Iran during the Iranian intermezzo

Sahib was born on 14 September 938 in Talaqancha, a village roughly 20 miles south of the major Buyid city of

. His father was Abu'l-Hasan Abbad ibn Abbas (d. 946), a renowned and well-educated administrator, who composed works on the

Mu'tazili Muʿtazila ( ar, المعتزلة ', English: "Those Who Withdraw, or Stand Apart", and who called themselves ''Ahl al-ʿAdl wa al-Tawḥīd'', English: "Party of ivineJustice and Oneness f God); was an Islamic group that appeared in early Islamic ...

doctrine. Sahib spent his childhood at Talakan, a town in Daylam near Qazvin. He later settled in Isfahan, and served for some time as an official of the Buyid ruler of Jibal, Rukn al-Dawla (r. 935–976). After the death of his father, Sahib became the pupil of the scholar and philosopher, Ibn 'al-Amid, who had recently replaced Sahib's deceased father as the vizier of Rukn al-Dawla.

References

Sources

* * * * * * Pomerantz, M.A. (2021). ''Adab'' and governance in two letters of al-Ṣāḥib b. ʿAbbād. History Compass, e12684. https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.12684 {{DEFAULTSORT:Sahib ibn Abbad 995 deaths 938 births 10th-century Iranian writers Buyid viziers Mu'tazilites Writers from Isfahan 10th-century Muslim scholars of Islam