Sahib ibn Abbad
Abu’l-Qāsim Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbbād ibn al-ʿAbbās (Persian: ابوالقاسم اسماعیل بن عباد بن عباس; born 938 - died 30 March 995), better known as Ṣāḥib ibn ʿAbbād (صاحب بن عباد), also known as al-Ṣāḥib (الصاحب), was a Persian scholar and statesman, who served as the grand vizier of the Buyid rulers of Ray from 976 to 995.[1][2]
Sahib ibn Abbad | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Grand Vizier of the Buyid emirate of Ray | |
| In office 976–995 | |
| Monarchs | Mu'ayyad al-Dawla Fakhr al-Dawla |
| Preceded by | Abu'l-Fath Ali ibn Muhammad |
| Succeeded by | Unknown |
| Personal | |
| Born | 14 September 938 Talaqancha, near Isfahan |
| Died | 30 March 995 |
| Religion | Islam |
| Parent |
|
| Creed | Mu'tazila |
A native of the suburbs of Isfahan, he was greatly interested in Arab culture, and wrote on dogmatic theology, history, grammar, lexicography, scholarly criticism and wrote poetry and belles-lettres.[3]
Life
Sahib was born on 14 September 938 in Talaqancha, a village roughly 20 miles south of the major Buyid city of Isfahan. His father was Abu'l-Hasan Abbad ibn Abbas (d. 946), a renowned and well-educated administrator, who composed works on the Mu'tazili doctrine. Sahib spent his childhood at Talakan, a town in Daylam near Qazvin.[4] He later settled in Isfahan, and served for some time as an official of the Buyid ruler of Jibal, Rukn al-Dawla (r. 935–976). After the death of his father, Sahib became the pupil of the scholar and philosopher, Ibn 'al-Amid, who had recently replaced Sahib's deceased father as the vizier of Rukn al-Dawla.[5]
The story is told that to keep company with his collection of 117,000 books while travelling, Sahib had them "borne by a caravan of four hundred camels trained to walk in alphabetical order".[6]
References
- Donohue 2003, p. 140.
- Cook, Michael (2001). Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought. Cambridge University Press. p. 201. ISBN 9781139431606.
- Donzel, E. J. van (1 January 1994). Islamic Desk Reference. BRILL. p. 142. ISBN 978-90-04-09738-4.
Ibn Abbad*, Abu l-Qasim* (al-Sahib): vizier and man of letters of the Buyid period; 938995. Of Persian origin, he was an arabophile and wrote on dogmatic theology, history, grammar, lexicography, literary criticism and composed poetry and belles-lettres.
- Pellat & Cahen 2012.
- Pomerantz.
- Burke, Edmund (2009). "Islam at the Center: Technological Complexes and the Roots of Modernity". Journal of World History. 20 (2): 181. JSTOR 40542756.
Sources
- Donohue, John J. (2003). The Buwayhid Dynasty in Iraq 334 H./945 to 403 H./1012: Shaping Institutions for the Future. Leiden and Boston: Brill. ISBN 90-04-12860-3.
- Kabir, Mafizullah (1964). The Buwayhid Dynasty of Baghdad, 334/946-447/1055. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
- Yusofi, G. H. (1984). "Aḥmad Maymandī". AḤMAD MAYMANDĪ – Encyclopaedia Iranica. Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. I, Fasc. 6. pp. 650–652.
- Pomerantz, Maurice. "Ebn ʿAbbād, Esmāʿil, al-Ṣāḥeb Kāfi al-Kofāt". ṢĀḤEB EBN ʿABBĀD, ESMĀʿIL – Encyclopaedia Iranica. Encyclopaedia Iranica.
- Pellat, Ch. & Cahen, Cl. (2012). "Ibn ʿAbbād". Encyclopaedia of Islam (12 vols.) (2nd ed.). Leiden: E. J. Brill.
- Pomerantz, M.A. (2021). Adab and governance in two letters of al-Ṣāḥib b. ʿAbbād. History Compass, e12684. https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.12684