ʾAḥmad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Jābir al-Balādhurī ( ar, أحمد بن يحيى بن جابر البلاذري) was a 9th-century Muslim historian. One of the eminent Middle Eastern historians of his age, he spent most of his life in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

and enjoyed great influence at the court of the caliph

al-Mutawakkil Abū al-Faḍl Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Muʿtaṣim bi-ʾllāh ( ar, جعفر بن محمد المعتصم بالله; March 822 – 11 December 861), better known by his regnal name Al-Mutawakkil ʿalā Allāh (, "He who relies on God") was t ...

. He travelled in

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

and

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

, compiling information for his major works. His full name was Ahmad Bin Yahya Bin Jabir Al-Baladhuri ( ar, أحمد بن يحيى بن جابر البلاذري), Balazry Ahmad Bin Yahya Bin Jabir Abul HasanSalaam Knowledge
/ref> or Abi al-Hassan Baladhuri.

Biography

Al-Baladhuri's ethnicity has been described as

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

and

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, although his sympathies seem to have been strongly with the Arabs, for

Masudi Al-Mas'udi ( ar, أَبُو ٱلْحَسَن عَلِيّ ٱبْن ٱلْحُسَيْن ٱبْن عَلِيّ ٱلْمَسْعُودِيّ, '; –956) was an Arab historian, geographer and traveler. He is sometimes referred to as the "Herodot ...

refers to one of his works in which he rejects Baladhuri's condemnation of non-Arab nationalism

Shu'ubiyya ''Shu'ubiyya'' ( ar, الشعوبية) was a literary-political movement which opposed the privileged status of Arabs within the Muslim community. The vast majority of the Shu'ubis were Persian. Terminology The name of the movement is derived fr ...

. He lived at the court of the

caliph A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

and

Al-Musta'in Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ( ar, أبو العباس أحمد بن محمد بن محمد; 836 – 17 October 866), better known by his regnal title Al-Mustaʿīn (836 – 17 October 866) was the Abbasid caliph from 8 ...

and was tutor to the son of

al-Mutazz Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ( ar, أبو عبد الله محمد بن جعفر; 847 – 16 July 869), better known by his regnal title al-Muʿtazz bi-ʾllāh (, "He who is strengthened by God") was the Abbasid caliph from 866 to 86 ...

. He died in 892 as the result of a drug called ''

baladhur ''Semecarpus anacardium'', commonly known as the marking nut tree, phobi nut tree and varnish tree, is a native of India, found in the outer Himalayas to the Coromandel Coast. It is closely related to the cashew. Etymology ''Semecarpus anacardi ...

'' (hence his name). (''Baladhur'' is ''Semecarpus anacardium'', known as the "marking nut"; medieval Arabic and Jewish writers describe it as a memory-enhancer).Bos, Gerrit: " 'Baladhur' (Marking-Nut): A Popular Medieval Drug for Strengthening Memory", ''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies'', University of London, Vol. 59, No. 2 (1996), pp. 229-236
(full-text via JSTOR; article's first page available for all)

Works

His chief extant work, a condensation of a longer history, ''

Kitab Futuh al-Buldan ''Futūh al-Buldān'' ( ar, فتوح البلدان, , Conquest of (the) countries), or ''Kitāb Futūḥ al-Buldān''("Book of the Conquest of the Countries/Lands"), is the best known work by the 9th century Arab or Persian historian Ahmad Ibn Ya ...

'' (فتوح البلدان), "Book of the Conquests of Lands", translated by

Phillip Hitti Philip Khuri Hitti (Arabic: فيليب خوري حتي), ( Shimlan 22 June 1886 – Princeton 24 December 1978) was a Lebanese-American professor and scholar at Princeton and Harvard University, and authority on Arab and Middle Eastern history, I ...

(1916) and

Francis Clark Murgotten Francis may refer to: People *Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State and Bishop of Rome *Francis (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Francis (surname) Places *Rural Mu ...

(1924) in ''The 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 Genealogies of the Nobles ( ar, أنساب الأشراف; transliterated: Ansab al-Ashraf) is a book on the history and genealogy of Arabs, authored by Ahmad Ibn Yahya al-Baladhuri (d. 892 CE). The book includes stories about pre-Islamic Arabian ...

'' (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. 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.

References

External links

* *
Al-Balādhurī, ''britannica.com''
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Baladhuri, Ahmad Ibn Yahya 892 deaths 9th-century Iranian historians Year of birth unknown Arab Muslim historians of Islam 9th-century Arabic writers Court scholars Courtiers of the Abbasid Caliphate Persian Muslim historians of Islam 820 births

Biography

Works

See also

References

Further reading

External links