Ibn al-Imrani
- Died
- 580 AH
- Born in
- -
Ibn al-Imrani (d. c. 580 AH / 1184 CE) was an Islamic historian and jurist known for his historical chronicle of the caliphate, al-Inba fi Tarikh al-Khulafa ("The Report on the History of the Caliphs").
Identity and Life
His full name is recorded as Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Muhammad, commonly known as Ibn al-Imrani, and he was also referred to with the title Jamal al-Din Muhammad ibn Ali al-Imrani. He is described by earlier chroniclers both as a jurist (faqih) and as an erudite historian. While biographical sources commonly place his death around 580 AH (1184 CE), other manuscript catalogues describe him as having died after 560 AH (1164 CE).
Historical Work and Reception
Ibn al-Imrani composed al-Inba fi Tarikh al-Khulafa, an extensive historical chronicle that traces the caliphate from the prophetic era and the Rightly Guided Caliphs through the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties, concluding at the inception of the reign of the Abbasid caliph al-Mustanjid (reigned from 555 AH / 1160 CE).
His chronicle served as a significant source for subsequent medieval historians:
- Imad al-Din al-Katib al-Isfahani (d. 597 AH) drew upon material from al-Inba for his work Nusrat al-Fatra wa-Usrat al-Fitra (completed in 579 AH).
- Zahir al-Din al-Kazaruni (d. 697 AH) incorporated extensive excerpts into his Mukhtasar al-Tarikh and composed a formal continuation (dhayl) to Ibn al-Imrani's chronicle, carrying its narrative forward from the start of al-Mustanjid's reign down to the fall of the caliphate under al-Musta'sim.
- Ibn al-Tiqtaqa (d. c. 701 AH) explicitly cited Ibn al-Imrani and relied on his historical accounts in al-Fakhri fi al-Adab al-Sultaniyya.
- Salah al-Din al-Safadi transmitted material from him in al-Wafi bi-al-Wafayat, which was subsequently quoted by Ibn Shakir al-Kutubi in Fawat al-Wafayat.
- Shams al-Din al-Sakhawi (d. 902 AH) later registered Ibn al-Imrani and his work in his historiographical treatise al-I'lan bi-al-Tawbikh li-man Dhamma al-Tarikh.
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List of Works
al-Inba fi Tarikh al-Khulafa (The Report on the History of the Caliphs) is a historical work detailing the history of the Islamic caliphate from the prophetic era through the early Abbasid period up to the mid-sixth century AH. It chronicles select accounts of Islamic leadership, beginning with the life of the Prophet, proceeding through the four Rightly Guided Caliphs and the Umayyads, and focusing primarily on the Abbasid state, political developments, and court events up to the beginning of al-Mustanjid's reign in 560 AH.