Ibn al-Nadim
- Died
- 380 AH
- Born in
- -
Abu al-Faraj Ibn al-Nadim (d. 380 AH / 990 CE) was a Baghdad-based bibliographer and bookseller (warraq), best known for his bio-bibliographical compendium al-Fihrist (The Catalogue).
Identity and Life
His full name was Muhammad ibn Abi Ya'qub Ishaq ibn Muhammad ibn Ishaq al-Warraq al-Baghdadi, and he was known as al-Nadim or Ibn al-Nadim. His exact birth year is unrecorded, though modern estimates suggest he was born between 315 and 325 AH based on his recorded meetings with scholars in Baghdad in the 340s AH. His father was a bookseller operating in the booksellers' market (suq al-warraqin) of Baghdad, and Ibn al-Nadim followed the same profession, copying, trading, and indexing manuscripts. His title al-Nadim ("the boon companion") indicates that he was attached as a courtier to a prominent dignitary, likely the scholar and vizier's son Abu al-Qasim 'Isa ibn 'Ali ibn al-Jarrah (d. 391 AH / 1001 CE), whose intellectual salons he frequented.
Education and Standing
Ibn al-Nadim studied under and transmitted from several leading Baghdadi scholars, including Abu Sa'id al-Sirafi, Abu al-Hasan Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Naqid, Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, Abu al-Hasan ibn al-Munajjim, and Abu 'Ubayd Allah al-Marzubani. He also held a general authorization (ijaza) from Abu 'Ali Isma'il al-Saffar.
Biographers characterize Ibn al-Nadim as adhering to Shi'ite and Mu'tazilite doctrine. Yaqut al-Hamawi and al-Dhahabi described him as a Shi'i Mu'tazili man of letters and transmitter of historical reports. Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani criticized his theological inclinations, observing that in al-Fihrist he designated the Sunnis as al-Hashwiyyah, the Ash'aris as al-Mujbirah, and non-Shi'is as commoners ('ammi), and contested his characterization of al-Shafi'i as strongly partisan toward Shi'ism.
In al-Fihrist, which he began drafting in Sha'ban 377 AH (987 CE) to index all Arabic writings and translations produced across the first four Islamic centuries, Ibn al-Nadim made reference to earlier writings of his own, including Kitab al-Awsaf wa-al-Tashbihat and Kitab al-Mathalib.
Death
According to the historian Ibn al-Najjar, Ibn al-Nadim died in Baghdad on Wednesday, with ten nights remaining in Sha'ban 380 AH (20 Sha'ban 380 AH / November 990 CE). Later death dates appear in some sources, including 385 AH, early in the fifth century AH, and Sha'ban 438 AH (reported by Abu Tahir al-Karkhi); these later estimates largely stem from marginal additions and post-380 AH dates inserted into certain manuscript copies of al-Fihrist by later scribes.
Answer updated
List of Works
al-Fihrist (lit. 'The Catalogue') is a comprehensive 10th-century Arabic bio-bibliographical compendium begun in 377 AH / 987 CE. It serves as the earliest surviving systematic record surveying the intellectual, literary, and scientific production of the Islamic world across the first four centuries of Islam, indexing extant Arabic works of all nations alongside biographical accounts of their authors.