يعقوب بن كلس

يعقوب بن كلس

تقریباً 930 عیسوی · 318 ھ – تقریباً 991 عیسوی · 380 ھ

Wazir of the Fatimid al-Aziz; a Baghdad Jew by birth who claimed descent from Aaron — or, some said, from al-Samaw'al b. Adiya of the famous faithfulness — who learned secretarial craft at Bab al-Qazz, reached Egypt in 331 and rose from stewarding Kafur al-Ikhshidi's house to countersigning every dinar in his diwans; converted on 18 Sha'ban 356, fled Ibn al-Furat's purge to al-Mu'izz in the Maghreb, and per Ibn Zulaq was the first vizier of the Fatimid state in Egypt, taking office 18 Ramadan 368 ¹. He kept a Friday-night majlis where he read his own compositions to judges, jurists, qurra' and grammarians, staffed his house with Qur'an and hadith copyists, wrote a fiqh compendium from what he heard of al-Mu'izz and al-Aziz, and the Cairene quarter al-Waziriyya inside Bab Sa'ada is said to be named for his retainers ². He died of a stroke on 5 Dhu al-Hijja 380 — shrouded in fifty cloths, mourned by a hundred poets, with al-Aziz himself riding uncanopied to pray over him ³.