Abu l-Fida

Abu l-Fida, Ismail b. Ali, with the title al-Malik al-Mu'ayyad 'Imad al-Din, was a Syrian prince of the Ayyubid family, historian and geographer. He was born in Damascus in Jumada I 672/November 1273. The encyclopaedia's entry is signed by H. A. R. Gibb. ¹

At twelve he was with his father and his cousin al-Muzaffar Mahmud II at the siege and capture of Marqab in 684/1285, and he took part in later campaigns against the Crusaders. After the Ayyubid principality of Hama was suppressed in 698/1299, he served its Mamluk governors and won the favour of the sultan al-Nasir Muhammad b. Qala'un. He was appointed governor of Hama on 18 Jumada I 710/14 October 1310, and in 712/1312 the governorship became a life principality. In 719/1319-20 he went with the sultan on the pilgrimage, and on the return to Cairo he was invested with the insignia of the sultanate and the title al-Malik al-Mu'ayyad. He died at Hama on 23 Muharram 732/27 October 1331. ¹

His reputation rests on two compilations that he rearranged and supplemented. The Mukhtasar Tarikh al-Bashar is a universal history from the pre-Islamic period to 729/1329, based largely on Ibn al-Athir in its earlier part. The geography, completed in 721/1321, used Ptolemy's tables and the work of al-Biruni and Ibn Sa'id; the article says it largely replaced earlier geographical works. ¹