Abū'l‐Fidā˒ Īsmā˓īl ibn ˓alī ibn Maḥmūd ibn Muḥammad ibn ˓Umar ibn Shahanshāh ibn Ayyūb ˓Imād al‐Dīn al‐Ayyūbī was a prince, historian, and geographer belonging to the Ayyūbid family. He was born in Damascus, Syria in AD 1273 and soon began his military career against the Crusaders and the Mongols. In AD 1299 he entered the service of the Sultan al‐Malik al‐Nāṣir and, after 12 years, he was installed as governor of ḥamā. Two years later he received the title of al‐Malik al‐ṣāliḥ. In AD 1320 he accompanied the Sultan Muḥammad on the pilgrimage to Mecca and was given the title of al‐Malik al‐Mu˒ayyad. He died at ḥamā, Syria in AD 1331.
Abū'l‐Fidā˒ is the author of some poetic productions, such as the version in verse of al‐Māwardī's juridical work al‐Hāwī. However, his celebrity is based on two works which can be considered basically compilations of earlier works which he elaborated and completed. One of them is the Mukhtaṣar Ta˒rīkh al‐bashar(A Summary on the History of Humanity)...
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References
Gibb, H. A. R. Abū l‐Fidā˒. Encyclopédie de l'Islam. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Leiden/Paris: E. J. Brill/G. P. Maisonneuve, 1960.
Reinaud, J. ‐T. Géographie d'Aboulfëda traduite de l'arabe en français et accompagnée de notes et d'éclaircissements. 2 vols. Paris, 1848. Rpt. Frankfurt: Institut für Geschichte der Arabisch‐Islamischen Wissenschaften, 1985.
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Sezgin, Fuat. The Contribution of the Arabic–Islamic Geographers to the Formation of the World Map. Frankfurt: Institut für Geschichte der Arabisch‐Islamischen Wissenschaften, 1987.
Vernet, Juan. Abū'l‐Fidā˒. Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1970.
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Calvo, E. (2008). Abū'l‐Fidā˒. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_9202
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