Abū Yaḥyā ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Ḥudhakī al-Fāriqī, better known as Ibn Nubāta (d. 984/5), was an Islamic preacher () celebrated for his sermons, active at the court of the

Hamdanid The Hamdanid dynasty ( ar, الحمدانيون, al-Ḥamdāniyyūn) was a Twelver Shia Arab dynasty of Northern Mesopotamia and Syria (890–1004). They descended from the ancient Banu Taghlib Christian tribe of Mesopotamia and Eastern Ara ...

emir of Aleppo The rulers of Aleppo ruled as kings, emirs and sultans of the city and its surrounding region since the later half of the 3rd millennium BC, starting with the kings of Armi, followed by the Amorite dynasty of Yamhad. Muslim rule of the city end ...

Sayf al-Dawla ʿAlī ibn ʾAbū l-Hayjāʾ ʿAbdallāh ibn Ḥamdān ibn al-Ḥārith al-Taghlibī ( ar, علي بن أبو الهيجاء عبد الله بن حمدان بن الحارث التغلبي, 22 June 916 – 9 February 967), more commonly known ...

Life

Ibn Nubata was born in Mayyafariqin, but the date is not known. His medieval biographers assigned him a birth date of 946, but this is considered erroneous by modern historians. He was active at the court of the

, celebrated both as a warrior and patron of art and culture. The Aleppan court at the time attracted some of the most important intellectuals of the Arab world, and has been compared by modern historians with

Renaissance Italy The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...

. Ibn Nubata died in his home city in 984/5.

Works

His sermons were written in rhyming prose and, according to the historian

Marius Canard Marius Canard FBA ( Dracy-Saint-Loup, 26 December 1888 – Duingt, Haute-Savoie, 13 September 1982) was a French Orientalist and historian. Biography He was born in a small village in the region of Morvan, where his father was a school teacher ...

, followed a three-section pattern: "(1) praise of God and prayer for the Prophet; (2) exhortation to fear God and the

Last Judgement The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Reckoning, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, Doomsday, Day of Resurrection or The Day of the Lord (; ar, یوم القيامة, translit=Yawm al-Qiyāmah or ar, یوم الدین, translit=Yawm ad-Dīn, ...

and to observe the moral and religious laws, in particular the obligation of the jihad; (3) petition for God's help and blessing, ending in a verse of the

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...

". Apart from his regular Friday sermons, Ibn Nubata also composed sermons for special occasions, notably the campaigns of his patron, Sayf al-Dawla, against the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

. These 'sermons on the Holy War' () were among his most popular works, and are a historical source about the political events of his day. The 13th-century biographer

Ibn Khallikan Aḥmad bin Muḥammad bin Ibrāhīm bin Abū Bakr ibn Khallikān) ( ar, أحمد بن محمد بن إبراهيم بن أبي بكر ابن خلكان; 1211 – 1282), better known as Ibn Khallikān, was a 13th century Shafi'i Islamic scholar w ...

praised him as "a perfect master of all sciences connected with general literature", as well as a person of "divine grace" and "fine genius". His sermons were collected along with sermons of his son, Abu Tahir Muhammad, and his grandson, Abu'l-Faraj, in the 1220s. Various editions have survived, with the 1311

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

edition being the most famous.

References

Sources

* * * {{Authority control 984 deaths People of the Hamdanid emirate of Aleppo Sermon writers People from Silvan, Turkey Sayf al-Dawla Islamic sermons