Kamāl al-Dīn Abū ʾl-Ḳāsim ʿUmar ibn Aḥmad ibn Hibat Allāh Ibn al-ʿAdīm (1192–1262; ) was an Arab biographer and historian from

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

. He is best known for his work ''Bughyat al-Talab fī Tārīkh Ḥalab'' (; ''Everything Desirable about the History of Aleppo''), a multi-volume collection of biographies of famous men from Aleppo, introduced with a volume on the geography and traditions of the region. It is saved in part in manuscripts in the library of sultan

Ahmed III Ahmed III ( ota, احمد ثالث, ''Aḥmed-i sālis'') was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and a son of Sultan Mehmed IV (r. 1648–1687). His mother was Gülnuş Sultan, originally named Evmania Voria, who was an ethnic Greek. He was born at H ...

in Topkapi Palace. He also published a chronicle version of the work, ''Zubdat al-Halab fi ta'arikh Halab'' (; ''The Cream of the History of Aleppo''), a copy of which reached the library of

Jean-Baptiste Colbert Jean-Baptiste Colbert (; 29 August 1619 – 6 September 1683) was a French statesman who served as First Minister of State from 1661 until his death in 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. His lasting impact on the organization of the countr ...

and then the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...

, and selections of which were published with Latin translation by

Georg Freytag Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Freytag (19 September 1788 – 16 November 1861) was a German philologist. Background Freytag was born in Lüneburg. He studied philology and theology at the University of Göttingen, where from 1811 to 1813 he worke ...

in 1819. His historical sources are various, some oral and some written, and two of the more famous are

Usama ibn Munqidh Majd ad-Dīn Usāma ibn Murshid ibn ʿAlī ibn Munqidh al-Kināni al-Kalbī (also Usamah, Ousama, etc.; ar, مجد الدّين اُسامة ابن مُرشد ابن على ابن مُنقذ الكنانى الكلبى) (4 July 1095 – 17 Nove ...

and Ibn al-Qalanisi (Lewis 1952). Another work is a guide for the making of perfumes ''Kitab al-Wuslat (or Wasilat) ila-l- Habib fi Wasf al-Tayibat wal-tibb'' (Houtsma 1927). He is an important source of knowledge on the Syrian

Assassins An assassin is a person who commits targeted murder. Assassin may also refer to: Origin of term * Someone belonging to the medieval Persian Ismaili order of Assassins Animals and insects * Assassin bugs, a genus in the family ''Reduviida ...

, first analyzed by

Silvester de Sacy Antoine Isaac, Baron Silvestre de Sacy (; 21 September 175821 February 1838), was a French French nobility, nobleman, linguist and oriental studies, orientalist. His son, Ustazade Silvestre de Sacy, became a journalist. Life and works Early life ...

(Lewis 1952). Numerous

Ayyubid The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni ...

rulers entrusted Ibn al-Adim as a diplomatic ambassador. On his last mission in 1260, he was sent to Egypt seeking military assistance against the Mongols.''Ibn al-Adim'', David Morray, ''Medieval Islamic Civilization:An Encyclopedia'', Vol. 1, ed. Josef W. Meri, (Routledge, 2006), 342.

Notes

References

*Freytag, G.
Selecta ex historia Halebi
' Paris: Typographia Regia, 1819. *Kamāl al-Dīn (1896)
Histoire d'Alep
in Revue de l'Orient Latin *Kamāl al-Dīn ʻUmar ibn Aḥmad Ibn al-ʻAdīm, Edgar Blochet (1900)
Histoire d'Alep
*Houtsma, M. Th., ed. ''E. J. Brill's first encyclopaedia of Islam 1913-1936'', BRILL, *Ibn al-'Adîm, ''Bughyat al-talab fî târîkh Halab / Everything desirable about the History of Aleppo''. Set of 11 volumes: I-X. ed. F. Sezgin; XI. Register of Biographies, compiled by David W. Morray. 1986-1990. * Lewis, Bernard, "The Sources for the History of the Syrian Assassins", ''Speculum'' Vol. 27, No. 4 (Oct., 1952), pp. 475–489 *Morray, David W., ''An Ayyubid Notable and his World: Ibn al-'Adim and Aleppo as Portrayed in His Biographical Dictionary of People Associated with the City'', Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994 People from Aleppo 1192 births 1262 deaths 13th-century Arabs 13th-century Syrian historians Arab Muslim historians of Islam Syrian Muslims {{Syria-historian-stub