Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi

Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi (557–629 AH / 1162–1231 CE) was an Iraqi Shafi'i polymath, physician, philologist, and philosopher, renowned for his firsthand account of Egypt titled al-Ifada wal-I'tibar Mujam al-Muallifin+1.

Lineage and Early Life

His full name was Muwaffaq al-Din Abu Muhammad Abd al-Latif ibn Yusuf ibn Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Abi Sa'd Uyun al-Anba fi Tabaqat a…+1. His family originated from Mosul, but he was born and raised in Baghdad Uyun al-Anba fi Tabaqat a…+1. He was traditionally known as Ibn al-Labbad, and also referred to in some sources as Ibn al-Labban or Ibn Nuqta Kashf al-Zunun an Asami a…+1. Most biographical sources record his birth in 557 AH (1162 CE), though a variant report places it in 559 AH Majma al-Adab fi Mujam al…+1. His father, Abu al-Izz Yusuf, was well versed in hadith, Quranic sciences, and Shafi'i legal theory, and directed his early education in hadith, while his uncle Sulayman was an accomplished jurist Uyun al-Anba fi Tabaqat a…+1.

Education and Travels

In Baghdad, al-Baghdadi studied Shafi'i jurisprudence under Abu al-Qasim ibn Fadlan and Arabic philology under Ibn al-Anbari, al-Hasan ibn Ali ibn Ubaydah al-Karkhi, and Wajih Abu Bakr al-Darir Majma al-Adab fi Mujam al…+1. He received hadith transmissions from prominent scholars of the city, including Abu al-Fath Ibn al-Batti, Abu Zur'ah Tahir al-Maqdisi, Yahya ibn Thabit, Abu Bakr ibn al-Nuqur, and the female traditionist Shuhdah al-Katibah al-Wafi bil-Wafayat+1. He also received the Sufi cloak (khirqa) from Abu al-Najib al-Suhrawardi Majma al-Adab fi Mujam al…+1.

Al-Baghdadi subsequently embarked on extensive travels across the region, visiting Damascus, Jerusalem, Cairo, Harran, Aleppo, Malatya, the lands of Anatolia, and the Hejaz Mujam al-Muallifin+1. In Egypt during the Ayyubid period—under Sultan Saladin and later al-Malik al-Aziz—he was granted a stipend from the treasury and taught philology and hadith at al-Azhar Mosque in the mornings while holding medical and philosophical classes in the afternoons al-Wafi bil-Wafayat+1. Following the death of al-Malik al-Aziz, he relocated to Jerusalem, where he taught at al-Aqsa Mosque, before moving to Damascus in 604 AH to reside and teach at the al-Aziziyyah madrasa al-Wafi bil-Wafayat+1. He later spent multiple years in Anatolia serving King Ala al-Din Dawud ibn Bahram as a court scholar and physician Fawat al-Wafayat+1.

Students and Standing

A significant group of scholars transmitted from al-Baghdadi, among them al-Zaki al-Mundhiri, Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Birzali, Ibn al-Najjar, Diya al-Din al-Maqdisi, al-Shihab al-Qusi, and Kamal al-Din Ibn al-Adim al-Wafi bil-Wafayat+1. Al-Birzali specifically studied his commentary on Sunan Ibn Majah and extracted forty medical hadiths from it with his permission Sunan Ibn Majah.

Biographers recognized al-Baghdadi for his prolific writing, wide reading, and calligraphic skill; the Ayyubid vizier al-Qadi al-Fadil praised his broad learning, eloquent expression, and intellect in an official letter Majma al-Adab fi Mujam al…+1. His philosophical works included a ten-volume compendium covering logic, physics, and metaphysics titled al-Jami' al-Kabir Tabaqat al-Shafiiyyin+1. In personal appearance, he was notably thin and gaunt; the scholar Taj al-Din al-Kindi playfully dubbed him "al-Jaddi al-Mutajjan" (the fried kid goat) because of his lean frame and dry, wrinkled facial features al-Wafi bil-Wafayat+1. He also drew criticism from Ibn al-Qifti, who claimed that his assertions exceeded his actual scholarly mastery, a characterization that later editors and historians considered an unfair assessment of a contemporary al-Wafi bil-Wafayat+1.

Death

After completing his journeys and performing the pilgrimage to Mecca, al-Baghdadi returned to Baghdad Mujam al-Muallifin+1. He fell ill with severe dysentery (illat al-dharab) and died there on 12 Muharram 629 AH (November 1231 CE), at the age of seventy-two Tadhkirat al-Huffaz = Tab…+1.