‘Izz al-Din Abu’l Hasan ‘Ali Ibn al-Athir was an Arabic writer who is a major source for the history of the Muslim world at the time of the crusades.
Born on 13 May 1160 to a well-known family of Mosul in northern Iraq, Ibn al-Athir spent most of his life in the city as a private scholar. In 1188 he served in Saladin’s army campaigning against the Franks of Outremer, and in 1228-1231 he stayed in Aleppo as a guest of the atabeg of the city. He died in May-June 1233. He is best known for his historical works. The short Bahir treats the history of the Zangids of Aleppo, and the much longer al-Kamil fi’l-Ta’fikh (The Universal History) deals with the whole of Islamic history up to the year 1231.
-Hugh Kennedy
Bibliography
Drory, Joseph, “Early Muslim Reflections on the Crusaders,” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 25 (2001), 92-101.
Elshayyal, M. F., “Relations between Nur al Din and Salah al Din as Portrayed in Ibn al Athir’s Al Kamil fi al Tarikh,” Islamic Quarterly 48 (2004), 238-249.
“Extrait de la chronique intitulee Kamel-Altevarykh par Ibn-Alatyr,” in Recueil des Historiens des Croisades, Historiens
Orientaux, 2 vols. (Paris: Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 1872-1906), 1:187-800, 2:1-180.
Ibn al-Athir, The Annals of the Saljuq Turks, trans. D. S.
Richards (London: Routledge Curzon, 2002).
Richards, D. S., “Ibn al-Athir and the Later Parts of the Kamil: A Study of Aims and Methods,” in Medieval Historical Writing in the Christian and Islamic Worlds, ed. David O. Morgan (London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1982), pp. 76-108.
World History
