Abd al-Hamid ibn Yahya al-Katib ( ar, عبد الحميد بن يحيى الكاتب) was the secretary to the last

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...

Caliph,

Marwan II Marwan ibn Muhammad ibn Marwan ibn al-Hakam ( ar, مروان بن محمد بن مروان بن الحكم, Marwān ibn Muḥammad ibn Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam; – 6 August 750), commonly known as Marwan II, was the fourteenth and last caliph of ...

, and a supreme stylist of early

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a 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. E.Watson; Walter ...

prose.Islamic History in Arabia and Middle East
/ref> Quote: :''Cultivate the Arabic language so that you may speak correctly; develop a handsome script which will add luster to your writings; learn the poetry of the Arabs by heart; familiarize yourself with unusual ideas and expressions; read the history of the Arabs and the Persians, and remember their great deeds'' He may have been a descendant of a

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 ...

captive at the battle of Qadesiya who became a ''

mawlā Mawlā ( ar, مَوْلَى, plural ''mawālī'' ()), is a polysemous Arabic word, whose meaning varied in different periods and contexts.A.J. Wensinck, Encyclopedia of Islam 2nd ed, Brill. "Mawlā", vol. 6, p. 874. Before the Islamic prophet ...

'' (freedman) of the Qorashī clan of the Banu Amer b. Loʾayy. Some accounts, however, make the less likely claim that he was of this clan, hence of pure Arab descent. According to the ''Encyclopedia of Islam'' (3rd edition), Abd al-Hamid al-Katib was "a third-generation Muslim of non-Arab, probably Persian, extraction".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abd Al-Hamid Al-Katib Year of birth unknown 749 deaths Medieval Arabic-language writers 8th-century people from the Umayyad Caliphate Government of the Umayyad Caliphate People of Iranian descent