Ṣafī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ṭabāṭabā (; 1262– 1309) also known as Ibn al-Tiqtaqa, was a historian and ''naqib'' of
Alids in
Ḥilla.
He was a direct descendant of
Ḥasan ibn
Ali ibn Abi Ṭalib. According to
E.G. Browne's English version Of Mīrzā Muhammad b. ‛Abudi’l-Wahhāb-i—Qazwīni's edition of ‛Alā-ad-Dīn ‛Ata Malik-i-Juwaynī's ''Ta’rīhh-i-Jahān Gushā'' (London1912, Luzac), p.ix, Ibn al-Tiqtaqā's name was Safiyu’d-Din Muhammad ibn ‛Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Tabātabā.
Around 1302 AD he wrote a popular compendium of Islamic history called ''al-Fakhri''.
According to the political scientist
Vasileios Syros
Vasileios Syros (Greek: Βασίλειος Σύρος) is a Greek-Finnish historian of political thought, Full Professor and Holder of the Greek Chair at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India. He is also a Distinguished Fellow at the ...
, the philosophy of ibn al-Ṭabāṭabā can be compared to that of
Niccolò Machiavelli
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli ( , , ; 3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527), occasionally rendered in English as Nicholas Machiavel ( , ; see below), was an Italian diplomat, author, philosopher and historian who lived during the Renaissance. ...
.
References
*''Encyclopedia of Islam'', vol. ii, (Leiden 1927, Brill), pp. 423–4.
Note by Professor H. A. R. Gibb in Arnold J. Toynbee's ''A Study of History''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ibn Al-Tiqtaqa
1262 births
1310 deaths
Iraqi Shia Muslims
13th-century Arabs