Tarikh Dinisar
- Author died
- 640 AH
- Editions
- دار البشائر
Tarikh Dinisar (The History of Dinisar) is a local biographical history by the physician and scholar Abu Hafs Umar ibn al-Khidr ibn Alilmash (c. 574–640? AH / c. 1178–1242 CE), chronicling the scholars and notable figures of the city of Dinisar in the Jazira region.
Title and Composition
The author originally titled his work Hilyat al-Sirriyyin min Khawas al-Danisariyyin (The Adornment of the Nobles Among the Notables of Dinisar), though it became widely known under the title Tarikh Dinisar. In his bibliographical dictionary Kashf al-Zunun, Haji Khalifa recorded the work under both titles without realizing that they referred to the same book.
The book was composed during the period in which Dinisar, situated near Mardin, grew into a prominent urban center characterized by an active intellectual life, numerous mosques, study circles, and colleges such as al-Madrasa al-Shihabiyya.
Content and Structure
The book is organized into thematic sections, opening with a chapter on "Those Renowned for Knowledge and Forbearance" (al-Bab al-Awwal fi man ushtuhiro bi-l-ʻIlm wa-l-Hilm). The biographical entries record the lives, lineages, teachers, and disciplines of resident and visiting jurists, Quran reciters, and hadith scholars.
The author frequently documents his own direct interactions with the subjects, detailing what he studied or heard under them in Dinisar and Baghdad. Entries also preserve hadith narrations complete with their chains of transmission (isnads), accounts of pedagogical practices, dreams, and poetic verses recited by or concerning the figures.
Reception and Citations
Tarikh Dinisar served as an important regional historical source and was cited by several prominent biographers and historians:
- Ibn al-Shaʻʻar examined a copy written in the author's own handwriting and drew upon it for his biographical dictionary Uqud al-Juman.
- Ibn Saʻid al-Maghribi consulted it alongside Ibn al-Adim's history of Aleppo and Ibn al-Shaʻʻar's biographical work when compiling his account of the Andalusian jurist and poet Ahmad ibn Masʻud al-Khazraji al-Qurtubi.
- Ibn al-Qifti referenced it in Tarikh al-Hukama regarding the physician Muhammad ibn Abd al-Salam al-Mardini.
- Later bibliographers and historians, including al-Safadi and al-Sakhawi, listed it among their surveys of historical works.
Modern Editions
The surviving text was edited by Ibrahim Salih and published first by the Arab Academy of Damascus in 1986, followed by a second edition published by Dar al-Basha'ir in Damascus in 1413 AH / 1992 CE.
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