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EBN AL-EḴŠĪD, ABŪ BAKR AḤMAD b. ʿAlī b. Beḡčor (270-326/884-938), Muʿtazilite theologian. According to Ḵaṭīb Baḡdādī (IV, p. 309), he was of Turkish descent, which appears to be confirmed by the “name” (in fact a title) of his grandfather, if read as such. His surname, Ebn al-Eḵšīd (also read Eḵšīḏ,…

EBN AL-FAQĪH, ABŪ BAKR (or Abū ʿAbd-Allāh) AḤMAD b. Moḥammad b. Esḥāq b. Ebrāhīm HAMADĀNĪ Aḵbārī (fl. second half of the 3rd/9th century), man of letters, who wrote in Arabic Ketāb aḵbār al- boldān, a geographic work, in which primarily the Islamic world with its centers in Arabia, Persia, and…

EBN AL-FOWAṬĪ, KAMĀL-AL-DĪN ʿABD-AL-RAZZĀQ b. Aḥmad, librarian and historian (b. 642/1244; d. Baghdad, 723/1323). His family originated in Marv-al-Rūd in Khorasan; the name Fowaṭī derives from the occupation either of his or his father’s mother as a seller of waist wraps (Ar. fūṭa, pl. fowaṭ). He was enslaved by the…

EBN AL-JEʿĀBĪ, ABŪ BAKR MOḤAMMAD b. ʿOmar Tamīmī Ḥāfeẓ, traditionist with Shiʿite leanings (b. Baghdad 23 or 24 Ṣafar 284/1 or 2 April 897, d. Baghdad 15 Rajab 355/7 July 966). A student of Ebn ʿOqda (d. 332/943; q.v.), the foremost Kufan traditionist of his time, he transmitted from a…

EBN AL-JONAYD (or al-Jonaydī), ABŪ ʿALĪ MOḤAMMAD b. Aḥmad Kāteb Eskāfī, Imami jurist. His nesba indicates that he came from Eskāf, or Eskāf Bani’l-Jonayd, a district of Nahrawān between Baghdad and Wāseṭ east of the Tigris (Yāqūt, Boldān I, p. 252). He could not have been born much later than…

EBN AL-MOQAFFAʿ, ABŪ MOḤAMMAD ʿABD-ALLĀH RŌZBEH b. Dādūya/Dādōē (b. Gōr, the present Fīrūzābād, Fārs, ca. 103/721, d. Baṣra ca. 139/757), chancery secretary (kāteb) and major Arabic prose writer. Ebn al-Moqaffaʿ was of noble Persian stock and bore the name Rōzbeh/Rūzbeh before his comparatively late conversion to Islam from Mani-chaeism. He…

EBN AL-QAṢṢĀB, ABŪ ʿABD-ALLĀH ABU’L-MOẒAFFAR MOʾAYYAD-AL-DĪN MOḤAMMAD b. ʿAlī, Shiʿite vizier of the caliph al-Nāṣer from 590/1194 to 592/1195 (b. ca 522/1128). A Persian born in Shiraz, Ebn al-Qaṣṣāb went at a young age to Baghdad where his father was a butcher (whence his name) in Darb al-Baṣrīya. Entering government…

EBN AL-ṬEQṬAQĀ, ṢAFĪ-AL-DĪN MOḤAMMAD b. ʿAlī b. Ṭabāṭabā, historian and naqīb of the ʿAlids in Ḥella (b. 660/1262 ?; d. after 709/1309 ?); his dates of birth and death remain speculative (Ebn al-Ṭeqṭaqā, 1860, pp. xvi-xviii; 1895, introd., p. 14). Ebn al-Ṭeqṭaqā was a direct descendant of Ḥasan b. ʿAlī…

EBN AL-ʿAMĪD, cognomen of two famous viziers of the 4th/10th century: Abu’l-Fażl and his son Abu’l-Fatḥ. The father of the first was called Ḥoseyn. Tawḥīdī claims that this Ḥoseyn was of humble origin, a naḵḵāl (wheat-sifter) in the grain market of Qom (Aḵlāq al-wazīrayn, p. 82). This, however, is probably…

EBN AL-ʿARABĪ, MOḤYĪ-al-DĪN Abū ʿAbd-Allāh Moḥammad Ṭāʾī Ḥātemī (b. 17 Ramażān 560/28 July 1165; d. 22 Rabīʿ II 638/10 November 1240), the most influential Sufi author of later Islamic history, known to his supporters as al-Šayḵ al-akbar, “the Greatest Master.” Although the form “Ebn al-ʿArabī,” with the definite article, is…

EBN AL-ʿEBRĪ (Syr. bar ʿEbrāyā, Lat. Bar Hebraeus), ABU’L-FARAJ (b. Malaṭīa, 622/1225; d. Marāḡa, 685/1286), Syriac historian and polymath. His laqab Ebn al-ʿEbrī alludes to the place of origin of his family—ʿEbra on the Euphrates, near Malaṭīa (Malitene)—not to a Jewish origin. Baptized as Yoḥannōn, he was ordained a bishop…

EBN AṢDAQ, MĪRZĀ ʿALĪ-MOḤAMMAD (b. Mašhad 1267/1850; d. Tehran, 1347/1928), prominent Bahai missionary. He was given the honorific designation Ebn(-e) Aṣdaq in certain Bahai scriptural writings. Toward the end of his life Bahāʾ-Allāh counted him a living martyr and referred to him as Šahīd ebn-e Šahīd (“martyr, son of a…