ʿImād Al-Dīn Al-Iṣfahānī
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Muhammad ibn Hamid (; 1125 – 20 June 1201), commonly known as Imad al-Din al-Isfahani (), was a historian, scholar, and
rhetorician Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse (trivium) along with grammar and logic/dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or write ...
. He left a valuable anthology of
Arabic poetry Arabic poetry ( ''ash-shi‘r al-‘arabīyy'') is one of the earliest forms of Arabic literature. Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry contains the bulk of the oldest poetic material in Arabic, but Old Arabic inscriptions reveal the art of poetry existe ...
to accompany his many historical workshttp://www.crusades-encyclopedia.com/imadaldin.html and worked as a man of letters during the
Zengid The Zengid or Zangid dynasty, also referred to as the Atabegate of Mosul, Aleppo and Damascus (Arabic: أتابكة الموصل وحلب ودمشق), or the Zengid State (Old Anatolian Turkish: , Modern Turkish: ; ) was initially an '' Atabegat ...
and
Ayyubid The Ayyubid dynasty (), also known as the Ayyubid Sultanate, 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 Egyp ...
period.


Biography

Muhammad was born in
Isfahan Isfahan or Esfahan ( ) is a city in the Central District (Isfahan County), Central District of Isfahan County, Isfahan province, Iran. It is the capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is located south of Tehran. The city ...
, to a Persian family,Donald S. Richards, "Emad al-Din Kateb Esfahani" in Encyclopedia Iranica. "The family of Persian origin into which ʿEmād-al-Dīn Kāteb was born had a tradition of administrative service for the Saljuq dynasty and the caliphate.

/ref> in the year 1125, and studied at the Nizamiyya school in
Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...
. He graduated into the bureaucracy, and held jurisdiction over
Basra Basra () is a port city in Iraq, southern Iraq. It is the capital of the eponymous Basra Governorate, as well as the List of largest cities of Iraq, third largest city in Iraq overall, behind Baghdad and Mosul. Located near the Iran–Iraq bor ...
and
Wasit Wasit (, ) was an early Islamic city in Iraq. It was founded in the 8th century by the Umayyad viceroy of Iraq, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, to serve as the region's seat and as the garrison of the Syrian troops who enforced Umayyad rule there. It was ...
. He then became a deputy of the vizier ibn Hubayra. After the death of ibn Hubayra, he went to
Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...
in 1166 CE (562
Islamic Calendar The Hijri calendar (), also known in English as the Islamic calendar, is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days. It is used to determine the proper days of Islamic holidays and rituals, such as the Ramad ...
) and entered the service of the
qadi A qadi (; ) is the magistrate or judge of a Sharia court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and minors, and supervision and auditing of public works. History The term '' was in use from ...
of Damascus, Kamal ad-Din. The qadi presented him to the Zengid Nur ad-Din, who appointed him a professor in the school he had established there, which then became known as the Imadiyya school in his honour. Nur ad-Din was later appointed to be his Chancellor. After the death of Nur ad-Din in 1174, Imad al-Din was removed from all his bureaucratic duties, and was banished from the palace. He went to live in
Mosul Mosul ( ; , , ; ; ; ) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. It is the second largest city in Iraq overall after the capital Baghdad. Situated on the banks of Tigris, the city encloses the ruins of the ...
and later entered the service of
Saladin Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known as Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from a Kurdish family, he was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, h ...
, the Sultan of Egypt during that time. When Saladin took control of Damascus, Saladin's vizier,
al-Qadi al-Fadil Muhyi al-Din (or Mujir al-Din) Abu Ali Abd al-Rahim ibn Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Lakhmi al-Baysani al-Asqalani, better known by the honorific name al-Qadi al-Fadil (; 3 April 1135 – 26 January 1200) was an official who served the last F ...
, appointed him chancellor, and he also became al-Fadil's deputy. Although Saladin had been unsure of his talent because he was only a scribe, Imad al-Din soon became one of the sultan's favourites. As chancellor he did not have to perform the everyday duties of the chancery scribes, and he had a lot of leisure time in
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
. From then on he accompanied Saladin on all his campaigns. After a certain raid, he was chosen to kill one of the prisoners, but the prisoner was a child and was instead exchanged for a Muslim prisoner held by the
Crusade The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...
rs. Imad al-Din was present at the Battle of Marj Uyun, the
Battle of Hattin The Battle of Hattin took place on 4 July 1187, between the Crusader states of the Levant and the forces of the Ayyubid sultan Saladin. It is also known as the Battle of the Horns of Hattin, due to the shape of the nearby extinct volcano of ...
, and the subsequent campaign to expel the Crusaders from the Holy Land. At
Acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...
, he criticised Saladin for giving away the city's treasure instead of spending it on the reconquest. At
Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...
, he became ill, but was the only scribe capable of writing the terms of surrender. He had recuperated in time to see the aftermath of the
Siege of Jerusalem (1187) The siege of Jerusalem lasted from 20 September to 2 October 1187, when Balian of Ibelin surrendered the city to Saladin. Earlier that summer, Saladin had defeated the kingdom's army and conquered several cities. Balian was charged with organ ...
, where he again criticised Saladin's generosity; he was also disgusted by those in charge of the ransom who took bribes, and the rich Crusader nobles who took their treasures with them rather than ransoming the poor. He was present at Acre again during the
Third Crusade The Third Crusade (1189–1192) was an attempt led by King Philip II of France, King Richard I of England and Emperor Frederick Barbarossa to reconquer the Holy Land following the capture of Jerusalem by the Ayyubid sultan Saladin in 1187. F ...
when the Christians retook the city of Acre, and was among those who fled after the defeat. After Saladin's death in 1193, he began writing his biographies of the sultan. He wrote the ''Kitab al-Barq al-Shami'', which is largely lost, save for its third and fifth volumes, but was abridged by al-Bundari and used heavily by the Muslim historians Ibn al-Athir and
Abu Shama Abū Shāma Shihāb al-Dīn al-Maḳdisī (10 January 1203 – 13 June 1267) was an Arab historian. Abū Shāma was born in Damascus, where he passed his whole life save for one year in Egypt, a fortnight in Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city ...
in their own chronicles. He also wrote ''al-Fath al-Qussi fi-l-Fath al-Qudsi'', which survives. One manuscript of the '' Bustan al-jami''' attributes it to Imad al-Din, but this seems to be an error, for its information on Saladin does not align too well with that of Imad al-Din's biography.
Claude Cahen Claude Cahen (26 February 1909 – 18 November 1991) was a 20th-century French Marxist orientalist and historian. He specialized in the studies of the Islamic Middle Ages, Muslim sources about the Crusades, and social history of the medieval Isla ...
, "Une chronique syrienne du VIe/VIIe siècle: Le ''Bustān al-Jāmiʿ''", ''Bulletin d'études orientales'' 7/8 (1937/1938), 113–158.
He died on 5 June 1201 in Damascus.


In popular culture

*A heavily fictionalised version of Imad ad-Din is portrayed in the 2005
Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is an English film director and producer. He directs films in the Science fiction film, science fiction, Crime film, crime, and historical drama, historical epic genres, with an atmospheric and highly co ...
epic film '' Kingdom of Heaven'', by actor
Alexander Siddig Siddig el-Fadil (born 21 November 1965) is a British actor and director, known professionally as Alexander Siddig. Siddig is best known for his roles as Dr. Julian Bashir in the television series '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'', former terrori ...
. *Imad ad-Din is also portrayed in "The Book of Saladin: A Novel" by
Tariq Ali Tariq Ali (;; born 21 October 1943) is a Pakistani-British political activist, writer, journalist, historian, filmmaker, and public intellectual. He is a member of the editorial committee of the ''New Left Review'' and ''Sin Permiso'', and co ...
- the second instalment of what is known as the "Islam Quintet".


See also

*
List of Iranian Scientists The following is a list of Iranian scientists, engineers, and scholars who lived from antiquity up until the beginning of the modern age. A * Abdul Qadir Gilani (12th century) theologian and philosopher * Abu al-Qasim Muqane'i (10th century) ...


References


External links


Crusades-encyclopedia.com

EMĀD-AL-DĪNKĀTEB, ABŪ ʿABD-ALLĀH MOḤAMMAD b. Moḥammad b. Ḥāmed EṢFAHĀNĪ in Encyclopedia Iranica by Donald S. Richards
{{DEFAULTSORT:Isfahani Medieval writers about the Crusades 12th-century Iranian historians 1125 births 1201 deaths Iranian historians of Islam Writers from Isfahan Scholars from the Ayyubid Sultanate Saladin