Ibn Arabshah
- Died
- 854 AH
- Born in
- Damascus
Ibn Arabshah (791–854 AH / 1389–1450 CE) was a Syrian Hanafi historian, man of letters, and chancery scribe from Damascus, best known for his chronicle of Timur, Aja'ib al-Maqdur fi Akhbar Taymur, and his literary didactic work Fakihat al-Khulafa wa Mufakahat al-Zurafa.
Lineage and Early Life
His full name was Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Ibrahim ibn Abi Nasr Muhammad ibn Arabshah ibn Abi Bakr, bearing the honorific Shihab al-Din and the kunya Abu Muhammad (or Abu al-Abbas). He was commonly known as Ibn Arabshah and also called al-Ajami; biographers note that he was unrelated to Dawud and Salih, the sons of Muhammad ibn Arabshah al-Hamadhani.
Ibn Arabshah was born in Damascus on Friday night in mid-Dhu al-Qi'dah 791 AH (with another report specifying the twenty-fifth of the month, and 790 AH also recorded). He grew up in Damascus, where he studied the Quran under Zayn al-Din Umar ibn al-Labban.
Captivity, Travels, and Education
In 803 AH, during Timur's invasion and devastation of Damascus, Ibn Arabshah was taken captive along with his mother, brothers, and his nephew Abd al-Rahman ibn Ibrahim ibn Hawlan, and transported to Samarkand. He remained in Transoxiana for an extended period pursuing his education, and also traveled alone to Khata (Cathay). In Samarkand, his teachers included the scholar al-Sayyid al-Sharif al-Jurjani, the Quranic authority Ibn al-Jazari, and Isam al-Din ibn Abd al-Malik.
Ibn Arabshah subsequently traveled to Khwarazm, where he studied under Nur Allah and Ahmad ibn Shams al-A'immah, and proceeded to Sarai in the Kipchak steppe, learning jurisprudence and legal theory from Muhammad al-Bazzazi al-Kurdi. He then crossed the Black Sea into the Ottoman realm, settling in Edirne for approximately ten years. There, he entered the service of Sultan Mehmed I, working in the royal chancery (diwan al-insha) and translating various works from Persian and Arabic into Turkish.
Career and Scholarly Standing
Following the death of Sultan Mehmed I in 824 AH, Ibn Arabshah returned to Syria after an absence of twenty-three years. He settled in Damascus, devoting himself to study and writing, and later held various religious offices, including serving for a time as the judge of Hama.
In his later years, he traveled to Aleppo and made several visits to Cairo, where he established a close friendship with the historian Ibn Taghribirdi and granted him a scholarly license (ijaza). Ibn Taghribirdi praised him as the foremost master of prose and verse of his era, noting his eloquence and poetic composition in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, as well as his modesty and erudition in jurisprudence, linguistics, grammar, rhetoric, and history.
Death
Ibn Arabshah died on Monday, 15 Rajab 854 AH (August 1450 CE), at the Sa'id al-Su'ada Sufi lodge (al-Khanqah al-Salahiyya) in Cairo, away from his family.
Answer updated
List of Works
Ajaib al-Maqdur fi Akhbar Taymur (The Wonders of Destiny Concerning the News of Timur) is a historical chronicle and biography detailing the life, conquests, and devastating campaigns of the conqueror Timur (Tamerlane). Also known in manuscript traditions as Ajaib al-Maqdur fi Nawa'ib Taymur (The Wonders of Destiny Concerning the Calamities of Timur), it is a comprehensive contemporary Arabic chronicle of Timur's career, composed in an elaborate, highly polished rhymed prose that offers detailed accounts of his military expeditions, political actions, and personal character.
Fakihat al-Khulafa wa Mufakahat al-Zurafa (Fruit of the Caliphs and Entertainment of the Refined) is an Arabic literary and didactic work written in the tradition of wisdom literature and mirror-for-princes fables. Structured into ten chapters framed around a central narrative, the book employs animal parables and human tales rendered in ornate rhymed prose to impart moral counsel, political wisdom, and principles of just governance.