Qudāma ibn Jaʿfar al-Kātib al-Baghdādī ( ar, قدامة بن جعفر الكاتب البغدادي; c. 873 – c. 932/948), was a
Syriac Syriac may refer to:
*Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic
*Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region
* Syriac alphabet
** Syriac (Unicode block)
** Syriac Supplement
* Neo-Aramaic languages a ...
scholar and administrator for the
Abbasid Caliphate
The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...
.
Life
Little is known with certainty about Qudama's life and work. He was probably born ca. 873/874, possibly at
Basra
Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is han ...
. His grandfather was a
Syriac Christian
Syriac Christianity ( syr, ܡܫܝܚܝܘܬܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܬܐ / ''Mšiḥoyuṯo Suryoyto'' or ''Mšiḥāyūṯā Suryāytā'') is a distinctive branch of Eastern Christianity, whose formative theological writings and traditional liturgies are expr ...
. Whether it was his grandfather, or he himself, who converted to
Islam under Muktafi bi-Allah in ca. 902–908 is unclear. Ibn al-Nadim described him as a master of literary style, a polished writer and distinguished philosopher of Logic despite having an uneducated father.
He held various junior administrative positions in the caliphal secretariat in
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. I ...
, and eventually rose to a senior post the treasury department. Various dates for his death have been supplied, ranging from 932 to 939/940 and 948.
Works
Of his several books on philosophy, history, philology, and administration, only three survive:
* the ''Kitab al-Kharaj'' ( -the ''Book of the
Land Tax'', in full form ''Book of the Land Tax and the Art of the Secretary''), for which Qudama is chiefly known. The last four sections of the original eight, survives. It was written after 928 as a manual for administrators, and deals with the structure of the state and the army, as well with geographic details, including valuable accounts on the Caliphate's neighbours, especially 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 ...
. It also included a now lost section on literary rhetoric.
[Bonebakker (1986), p. 320]
* the ''Kitab al-Alfaz'' (''Book of Words'') or ''Jawahir al-Alfaz'' (''Jewels of Words''), a compilation of synonyms and phrases for the use of poets and orators, as well as containing an introduction on the figures of speech.
* the ''Kitab Naqd al-Shi'r'' ( -''Book on Poetic Criticism''), an essay and guide on composing good
poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
.
* The Cleanser ("Sabun" or "soap")of Sorrow ()
* Dismissal of Anxiety ()
* Epistle about Abu 'Ali ibn Muqlah known as "The Brilliant Star" ()
* Withstanding Grief ()
* Wines of Thought ()
* Book of Unconsciousness ()
* Book of Politics ()
* Refutation of
Ibn al-Mu'tazz
Abdallah ibn al-Mu'tazz ( ar, عبد الله بن المعتز, ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Muʿtazz; 861 – 17 December 908) was the son of the caliph al-Mu'tazz and a political figure, but is better known as a leading Arabic poet and the author o ...
()
* The Pleasure of Hearts and the Provision of the Traveller ()
To Ibn Jaʿfar was once also attributed the ''Naqd al-nathr'', now known to be the ''Kitāb al-Burhān fī wujūh al-bayān'' of
Ibrāhīm ibn Wahb al-Kātib.
[P. Shinar, “Ibn Wahb”, in ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'', 2nd edn ed. by P. Bearman and others, 12 vols (Leiden: Brill, 1960-2005), .]
Notes
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Qudama Ibn Ja'far
870s births
10th-century deaths
Year of birth uncertain
Year of death uncertain
9th-century geographers
9th-century scholars
9th-century writers
10th-century Iranian geographers
10th-century scholars
10th-century writers
Officials of the Abbasid Caliphate
Arab geographers
Scholars from the Abbasid Caliphate
Arabists
People from Basra
Syriac writers
Converts to Islam from Christianity
10th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate
9th-century people
10th-century people