Biography:'Alī ibn Mākūlā

Short description: Islamic Scholar of Later Abbasid era

'Alī ibn Mākūlā ابن ماكولا
Born	1030 Ukbara, Iraq
Died	1083, 1086 or 1095 Jurjan, Iran
Cause of death	Murder
Academic work
Era	Later Abbasid era, (Islamic Golden Age)
Main interests	biography history, genealogy, etymology, orthography
Notable works	Kitāb al-Ikmāl

Abū Naṣr Alī ibn Hibat-Allāh ibn Ja'far ibn Allakān ibn Muḥammad ibn Dulaf ibn Abī Dulaf al-Qāsim ibn ‘Īsā al-Ijlī, surnamed Sa’d al-Muluk and known as Ibn Mākūlā (ابن ماكولا) (1030 or 1031 - †1082 / 1083); was a highly regarded muḥaddith (Ḥadīth scholar) who authored several works. His magnum opus was his biographical-genealogical history on etymology and orthography of Islamic names, Al-Ikmāl.

Life

Abū Naṣr ibn Mākūlā was a native of the village Ukbara on the Tigris north of Baghdād and the son of Hibat-Alāhā ibn Makula, vizier to the Buyid ruler of Baṣrah, Jalāl-al-dawla. He gained the title ‘al-Amīr’ (أمير), or ‘prince’, maybe in his own right, or in reference to his famous ancestor Abū Dulaf al-Ijlī. His family had originally come from Jarbāzakān, between Hamadān and Isfahan in Irān, but his paternal uncle, was a muḥaddith (traditionist), and qāḍī (chief justice) in Baghdād where Ibn Mākūlā began his studies. He continued his education by travelling to the regional centres of learning across Irāq, Khurāsān, Syria, Egypt, and Fars. In the last years of his life he held various official posts in the imperial administration of the Seljuk Empire, and once led an embassy to Bukhara to obtain the recognition of the new Abbāsid caliph Al-Muqtadi (1075-1094). One anecdote tells of a personal application made by Ibn Mākūlā on behalf of the grammarian Al-Akhfash the Younger, requesting a pension from the vizier Abū al-Ḥasan Alī ibn ‘Īsā. This was angrily rejected it seems and the scholar was left in abject poverty.

In the account of his eventual assassination the sources differ on details of location and date. It seems that sometime, either in 475 h. [1082/1083] or 487 h. [1094/95], or 479 h. [1086/87], he was on a trip for Khurāsān when he was murdered and robbed by his Mamluk guards, either in Jurjan in Golestan Province, or al-Ahvaz in Khuzestan; or in Kirmān, Iran.

Works

• Al-Ikmāl (الإكمال) (‘Completion’); full title al-Ikmāl fī raf’ al-irtiyāb ‘an al-mu’talif wa al-mukhtalif min al-asmā’ wa al-kunā wa al-ansāb (الإكمال في رفع الارتياب عن المؤتلف والمختلف في الأسماء والكنى والأنساب); 4 vols., (written 1071 – 1075) standard treatise on orthography and pronunciation of proper names. – Note: Originally published as a supplement to Al-Khātib Abū Bakr's Al-Mutanif Takmila al-Mukhtalif (‘The recommenced, being the completion of the Mukhtalif’), or Al-Takmila, itself the combined works of: i) Al-Mūtalif wa Mukhtalif (المؤتلف والمختلف) by Al-Daraqutni and ii) Al-Mushtabih Al-Nisba from the Al-Kamāl fī ma’rifat asmā’ al-Rijāl (الكمال في معرفة أسماء الرجال) by ḥāfiẓ Abd al-Ghānī.

— In 1232, muhaddith Ibn Nukta (ابن نقطة), published Takmila al-Ikmāl (تكملة الإكمال), as an addendum to Al-Ikmāl.

• Kitāb Tahdhib mustamar al-Awham ‘alā dhuī al-ma’rifat wa awwalī al-Afhām (تهذيب مستمر الأوهام على ذوي المعرفة وأولي الأفهام)
• Mufākharat al-qalam wa’l-sayf wa’l-dīnār (مفاخرة القلم والسيف والدينار);
• Taʾrīkh al-Wuzarā ('History of the Viziers').

See also

• Encyclopædia Britannica Online
• List of Arab scientists and scholars

References

• Athīr (Ibn al-), Abū al-Ḥusayn ‘Alī (1862). Tornberg, C.J.. ed (in ar). Al-Kāmi fī al-Ta'rikh (Chronicon Quod Perfectissimum Inscribitur.). Leiden: Brill. https://archive.org/stream/kamil-Tornberg/kamil-Tornberg-vol-13#page/n157/mode/2up. 
• Baghdādī (al-), al-Khatib Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ‘Alī (1931) (in ar). Taʾrīkh Baghdād. VIII. Beirut: Al-Sa’ādah Press. p. 80. 
• Kathīr (Ibn), Ismail (1966) (in ar). Kitāb al-Bidāya Wa'l-Nihāya. XII. Beirut: Riyadh. pp. 18, 22, 24, 32, 46, 123. https://archive.org/details/FP158116. 
• Khallikān (Ibn), Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad (1843). Ibn Khallikān's Biographical Dictionary (translation of Wafayāt al-A'yān wa-Anbā' al-Zamān). II. London: W.H. Allen. pp. 248–250. https://archive.org/stream/WafayatAl-ayantheObituariesOfEminentMenByIbnKhallikan/Vol2Of4WafayatAl-ayantheObituariesOfEminentMenByIbnKhallikan#page/n265/mode/2up. 
• Mākūlā (ibn), 'Alī (1962). Al-Yamānī, ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān b. Yaḥyā. ed. Kitāb al-Ikmāl. I. Hyderabad. pp. 1–61. 
• Mākūlā (ibn), 'Alī (1990). Sayyid Kasrawī Ḥasan. ed (in ar). Tahdhīb mustamirr al-awhām : ʻalá dhawī al-maʻrifah wa-ūlī al-afhām. Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyah. 
• Taghrībirdī (Ibn), Abū al-Maḥāsin Yūsuf (1956). Popper, William. ed. al-Nujūm al-zāhirah fī mulūk Miṣr wa-al-Qāhirah. Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣrīyah. 
• Vadet, J.-C . "Ibn Mākūlā." Encyclopaedia of Islam, second edition. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Brill Online, 2016. Reference. June 7, 2016 http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/ibn-makula-SIM_3280
• Yāqūt, Shihab al-Dīn ‘Abd Allāh al-Ḥamawī (1927). Margoliouth, D. S.. ed. Irshād al-Arīb alā Ma'rifat al-Adīb (Yaqut's Dictionary of Learned Men), Odabāʾ. V. Leiden: Brill. pp. 435–40. 
• al-Ziriklī, Khayr al-Dīn (2007) (in ar). Al-Aʻlām, qāmūs tarājim li-ashhar al-rijāl wa-al-nisāʼ min al-ʻArab wa-al-mustaʻribīn wa-al-mustashriqīn (17 ed.). Bayrūt: Dār al-ʻIlm lil-Malāyīn. https://archive.org/details/Ala3lam_Zarkali_1.