Ithaf al-Mutali bi-Wafayat Alam al-Qarn al-Thalith Ashar wa al-Rabi
- Author died
- 1400 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Gharb al-Islami
Ithaf al-Mutali bi-Wafayat Alam al-Qarn al-Thalith Ashar wa al-Rabi (The Presentation of Outlooks on the Deaths of the Notables of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries) is a biographical necrology of Moroccan scholars and notables composed by the Moroccan historian Abd al-Salam ibn Suda (d. 1400 AH / 1980 CE).
Composition and Context
The book forms the final link in a cumulative chain of annalistic biographical dictionaries produced in the Maghrib. This tradition began with Ahmad ibn Qunfudh (d. 809 AH) in Sharaf al-Talib fi Asna al-Matalib, which chronicled notable figures across the Islamic world through the first eight centuries AH. Ahmad Ibn al-Qadi al-Fasi (d. 1025 AH) continued it to the close of the tenth century in Laqt al-Fara'id min Lufadhat Haqqaq al-Fawa'id. Later, Muhammad ibn al-Tayyib al-Qadiri (d. 1187 AH) appended two continuations covering Moroccan notables up to 1170 AH: an extensive chronicle titled Nashr al-Mathani li-Ahl al-Qarn al-Hadi Ashar wa al-Thani and an abridged version titled Iltiqat al-Durar wa Mustafad al-Mawaiz wa al-Ibar.
Ibn Suda was prompted to continue this lineage after finding a note in the handwriting of his grandfather, Ahmad ibn al-Talib ibn Suda (d. 1321 AH), observing that no scholar had extended al-Qadiri's work beyond 1170 AH and urging subsequent historians to append a continuation to Iltiqat al-Durar. Ibn Suda initially gathered his material into an expansive four-volume work titled Zubdat al-Athar mimma Mada min al-Ibar fi al-Qarn al-Thalith wa al-Rabi Ashar, designed as a continuation to Nashr al-Mathani. He then abridged it into Ithaf al-Mutali to serve as a continuation of Iltiqat al-Durar.
Originally, Ithaf al-Mutali concluded at the year 1370 AH, after which the author began a sequel titled al-Dhayl al-Tabi li-Ithaf al-Mutali. He later integrated both parts into a single consolidated book bearing the title Ithaf al-Mutali, spanning from 1171 AH to the year of his own death in 1400 AH.
Scope and Method
The work is organized chronologically by year of death, opening in 1171 AH with the death of the Alawi sultan Mawlay Abd Allah ibn Ismail and closing in 1400 AH. Unlike Ibn Qunfudh and Ibn al-Qadi, who surveyed the wider Muslim world, Ibn Suda restricted his scope primarily to Morocco (al-Maghrib al-Aqsa). His entries encompass religious scholars, jurists, Sufis, ascetics, and political and administrative figures, including sultans, viziers, pashas, and military commanders.
Entries provide the subject's lineage, death date, burial location, titles, and characterizations. Ibn Suda systematically listed the writings of each subject, noting titles and contents that he encountered during his research, particularly among manuscripts in the General Library in Rabat. He also recorded major political events and historical crises alongside the obituaries of given years, referring readers seeking expanded biographical narratives and event details to his unabridged Zubdat al-Athar. His sources included later historical writings, scholarly catalogues (faharis), family notebooks (kananish), oral reports, and firsthand observations.
Publication
Before his death, Ibn Suda entrusted the manuscript to the Moroccan scholar Muhammad Hajji, providing him with an original copy containing the author's handwritten corrections and additions. Hajji edited the work and published it first within the collective encyclopedia Mawsuat Alam al-Maghrib, and subsequently as an independent, fully indexed edition published by Dar al-Gharb al-Islami in Beirut (1st ed., 1417 AH / 1997 CE).
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