Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ash-Shaybānī, better known as ʿAlī ʿIzz ad-

Dīn Dīn ( ar, دين, Dīn, also anglicized as Deen) is an Arabic word with three general senses: judgment, custom, and religion. It is used by both Muslims and Arab Christians. In Islamic terminology, the word refers to the way of life Muslims ...

Ibn al-Athīr al-Jazarī ( ar, علي عز الدین بن الاثیر الجزري) lived 1160–1233) was an

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, ...

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

historian and biographer who wrote in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

and was from the

Ibn Athir Ibn Athīr is the family name of three brothers, all famous in Arabic literature, born at Jazīrat ibn Umar (today's ''Cizre'' nowadays in south-eastern Turkey) in upper Mesopotamia. The ibn al-Athir brothers belonged to the Shayban lineage of the ...

family. At the age of twenty-one he settled with his father in Mosul to continue his studies, where he devoted himself to the study of history and Islamic tradition.

Biography

Ibn al-Athir belonged to the Shayban lineage of the large and influential Arab tribe

Banu Bakr The Banu Bakr bin Wa'il ( ar, بنو بكر بن وائل '), or simply Banu Bakr, were an Arabian tribe belonging to the large Rabi'ah branch of Adnanite tribes, which also included Abd al-Qays, Anazzah, Taghlib. The tribe is reputed to have e ...

, who lived across upper

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...

, and gave their name to the city of Diyar Bakr. He was the brother of Majd ad-Dīn and Diyā' ad-Dīn Ibn Athir. Al-Athir lived a scholarly life in

Mosul Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second large ...

, often visited

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 for a time traveled with

Saladin Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سه‌لاحه‌دین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...

's army 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 ...

. He later lived in

Aleppo )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...

and

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

. His chief work was a history of the world, ''al-Kamil fi at-Tarikh'' (''

The Complete History ''The Complete History'' (, ''al-Kāmil fit-Tārīkh)'', is a classic Islamic history book written by Ali ibn al-Athir. Composed in ca. 1231AD/628AH, it is one of the most important Islamic historical works. Ibn al-Athir was a contemporary and memb ...

''). He died in the city of Mosul.

Modern age

According to Reuters, his tomb was

desecrated Desecration is the act of depriving something of its sacred character, or the disrespectful, contemptuous, or destructive treatment of that which is held to be sacred or holy by a group or individual. Detail Many consider acts of desecration to ...

in Mosul by members of the

al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...

offshoot the

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...

(ISIL) in June 2014.

Works

* '' Al-Kāmil fī al-tārīkh'' (الكامل في التاريخ): "

"; 11 volumesAl-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh (Arabic)
/ref> * ''Al-Tārīkh al-bāhir fī al-Dawlah al-Atābakīyah bi-al-Mawṣil'' * '' al-Usd al-ghābah fi ma‘rifat al-ṣaḥābah'': "The Lions of the Forest and the knowledge about the Companions" * ''Al-Lubāb fī tahdhīb al-ansāb''

Notes

External links

Ibn al-Athīr's Accounts of the Rūs: A Commentary and Translation
by William E. Watson from Canadian/American Slavic Studies * https://web.archive.org/web/20060708214517/http://www.lib.umich.edu/area/Near.East/islhist.html * http://www.bogvaerker.dk/Bookwright/rijal.html * Kurds and Kurdistan Encyclopaedia of Islam. {{DEFAULTSORT:Al-Athir, Ali Ibn 1160 births 1233 deaths Arab Muslim historians of Islam Arab biographers 12th-century Iranian historians 13th-century Arabic writers 13th-century Iranian historians Khazar studies Kurdish historians Kurdish Muslims Saladin