Ibn Abi al-Dam
Shihāb al-Dīn Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Munʿim ibn Abī al-Dam al-Ḥamawī, known as Ibn Abī al-Dam, was an Arab historian and Shāfiʿī jurist.
Life
Ibn Abī al-Dam was born in Ḥamāt under Ayyūbid rule on 29 July 1187. He studied in Baghdad, the capital of the ʿAbbāsid Caliphate; taught in the Ayyūbid cities of Ḥamāt, Aleppo and Cairo; and was in 1225 appointed qāḍī of Ḥamāt. In his own writings, he insists that he played no role in the coming to power of his patron, Emir al-Nāṣir Qilij Arslān, in 1221.Ibn Abī al-Dam belonged to the Shāfiʿī school of jurisprudence. Al-Muẓaffar II, who replaced al-Nāṣir as emir of Ḥamāt in 1229, sent him on a diplomatic mission to Baghdad in AH 641. The following year, he was sent back to inform the Abbasid court of al-Muẓaffar's death. He fell ill with dysentery on the journey at al-Maʿarra and returned to Ḥamāt, where he died on the same day he entered the town, 18 November 1244.
Works
Ibn Abī al-Dam wrote several works in Arabic. His only preserved historical work, al-Shamārīkh min al-Taʾrīkh, is a short annalistic history from the time of Muḥammad down to AH 628. It is found in at least two manuscripts: Oxford, Bodleian Library, ms. Marsh 60 and Alexandria, Municipal Library, ms. 1292b. It is dedicated to al-Muẓaffar II. Ibn Abī al-Dam includes in it a copy of the diploma by which the Sultan al-Kāmil invested al-Muẓaffar with Ḥamāt. He defended the sultan's policy towards the Sixth Crusade, which resulted in the return of Jerusalem to crusader rule in 1229.Ibn Abī al-Dam's other known work of history, a massive biographical dictionary in six volumes entitled al-Taʾrīkh al-Muẓaffarī, is lost. It is probably the "large history" that he refers to in the Shamārīkh. It was written first and was dedicated to al-Muẓaffar at his accession in 1229. According to al-Sakhāwī's Iʿlān, it was arranged alphabetically beginning with "a biography of the Prophet, followed, successively, by the caliphs, philosophers-theologians, ḥadîṯ scholars, ascetics, grammarians, lexicographers, Qurʾân commentators, wazîrs, leaders, and poets." Persons with the name Muḥammad were listed first and women last.
Besides his historical works, Ibn Abī al-Dam wrote commentaries on al-Ghazālī's Wasīṭ and Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī's Tanbīh. His Tadqīq al-ʿināya fī taḥqīq al-riwāya is on the transmission of ḥadīth. He also wrote works on Islamic sects and the conduct of judges. His legal opinions were discussed by Taqī al-Dīn and Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī.
Excerpts
The following is the account in al-Shamārīkh of the siege of Damascus in 1229:
This year al-Malik al-Ašraf returned from Tall al-ʿAğūl and camped about Damascus at the beginning of Rabīʾ I, putting it under siege for Rabīʾ and the two Ğumādā-s. The Sultan al-Malik al-Kāmil arrived and camped there, and there were many engagements, which are well-known, until the situation of the city's garrison became serious. There was nothing left for al-Malik al-Nāsir but to throw himself on the mercy of the Sultan al-Malik al-Kãmil and to sue for his clemency. So he went out to meet him fearfully and fell to the ground before him and kissed his feet.