Akhbar al-Wafidin min al-Rijal ala Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan
- Author died
- 222 AH
- Editions
- Mu'assasat al-Risalah
Akhbar al-Wafidin min al-Rijal ala Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan (Reports of the Male Delegates to Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan) is an early historical treatise compiled by the Basran historian al-Abbas ibn Bakkar al-Dabbi (129–222 AH / 746–837 CE), also known as Ibn Bakkar . The work records dialogues, encounters, and political exchanges between the first Umayyad caliph, Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, and prominent men who visited his court from Kufa and Basra .
Subject Matter and Content
The text documents the visits of Iraqi tribal leaders, notables, and supporters of Ali ibn Abi Talib to the Umayyad court in Syria following the establishment of the Umayyad Caliphate . The narratives emphasize verbal exchanges, rhetorical confrontations, and discussions regarding past loyalties during the First Fitna and the Battle of Siffin . Among the figures whose audiences and dialogues with Mu'awiya are recorded in the work are Sa'sa'a ibn Sawhan al-Abdi, al-Ahnaf ibn Qays, Zayd ibn Jabala, Jariya ibn Qudama, and Simak ibn Makhrama .
Transmission and Manuscript Tradition
The text has been preserved through a transmission chain running through Abu al-Qasim al-Tanukhi, who narrated it from Ahmad ibn Abd Allah al-Duri, from his teachers, on the authority of al-Abbas ibn Bakkar . A surviving manuscript is held in the library of El Escorial (MS 467/5), comprising eight folios bound within a collective codex .
The work forms a pair with another compilation by the same author on female visitors to the caliph, titled Akhbar al-Wafidat ala Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan, which is preserved in the same Escorial manuscript collection (MS 467/6) . Akhbar al-Wafidin min al-Rijal was published in Beirut in 1404 AH / 1984 CE .
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