Umara ibn Wathima

Abū Rifāʿa ʿUmāra ibn Wathīma ibn Mūsā ibn al-Furāt al-Fārisī (died 4 June 902) was a Muslim historian from Egypt. Born in Fusṭāṭ, he was a son of the historian and silk trader Wathīma ibn Mūsā, a native of Fasā in Persia.[1] The year of his birth is unknown,[1] but his father died in 851.[2] He wrote at least two works in Arabic.[3]

ʿUmāra's only surviving work is the oldest surviving book of the qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ genre. Entitled Kitāb badʾ al-khalq wa-qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ ('Book of the Beginnings of Creation and the Stories of the Prophets'), it is a collection of didactic stories of those considered prophets in Islam.[1][4] It is the earliest source to cite the enigmatic Abū al-Ḥasan al-Bakrī.[5] It was itself never widely cited.[6] Of its original two volumes, only the second survives in two manuscripts.[4] There is a modern French translation by R. G. Khoury.[7] It has been argued that the real author of the Badʾ al-khalq is Wathīma, who was much more prominent than his son.[2][4]

According to Ibn al-Jawzī, ʿUmāra also wrote an Annalistic History.[3]

Notes
  1. Khoury 2000.
  2. Khoury 2002.
  3. Rosenthal 1968, p. 72.
  4. Blatherwick 2016, pp. 70–71.
  5. Shoshan 1993, pp. 35–37.
  6. Brinner 2002, pp. xviii–xix.
  7. Brinner 2002, p. xix, citing Khoury 1978.

Bibliography
  • Blatherwick, Helen (2016). Prophets, Gods and Kings in Sīrat Sayf ibn Dhī Yazan: An Intertextual Reading of an Egyptian Popular Epic. Brill.
  • Brinner, William M., ed. (2002). ʿArāʾis Al-Majālis Fī Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ or "Lives of the Prophets" as Recounted by Abū Isḥāq Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Thaʿlabī. Brill.
  • Khoury, Raif Georges, ed. (1978). Les légendes prophétiques dans l'islam depuis le Ier jusqu'au IIIe siècle de l'Hégire. Otto Harrassowitz.
  • Khoury, Raif Georges (2000). "ʿUmāra b. Wat̲h̲īma". In Bearman, P. J.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. & Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Volume X: T–U (2nd ed.). Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 835–836. ISBN 978-90-04-11211-7.
  • Khoury, Raif Georges (2002). "Wat̲h̲īma b. Mūsā". In Bearman, P. J.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. & Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Volume XI: W–Z (2nd ed.). Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 179–180. ISBN 978-90-04-12756-2.
  • Rosenthal, Franz (1968). A History of Muslim Historiography (2nd ed.). E. J. Brill.
  • Shoshan, Boaz (1993). Popular Culture in Medieval Cairo. Cambridge University Press.
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