Ali ibn Makula

'Alī ibn Mākūlā (ابن ماكولا)
Born	1030 Ukbara, Iraq
Died	1083, 1086 or 1095 Jurjan, Iran
Cause of death	Murder
Academic work
Era	Abbasid Caliphate
Main interests	biography history, genealogy, etymology, orthography
Notable works	Kitāb al-Ikmāl

Abū Naṣr Alī ibn Hibat-Allāh ibn Ja'far ibn Allakān ibn Muḥammad ibn Dulaf ibn Abī Dulaf al-Qāsim ibn ‘Īsā al-Ijlī, surnamed Sa’d al-Muluk and known as Ibn Mākūlā (ابن ماكولا) (1030 or 1031 - †1082 / 1083); a native of the village Ukbara on the Tigris north of Baghdād and son of the vizier Hibat-Alāhā ibn Makula, to the Buyid ruler of Baṣrah, Jalāl-al-dawla, who wrote several works of scholarship. His magnum opus was his biographical-genealogical history on etymology and orthography of Islamic names Al-Ikmal. He was highly regarded as a muḥaddith (Ḥadīth scholar).

Life

Abū Naṣr ibn Mākūlā was given the title ‘al-Āmir’ (أمير), or ‘prince’, which he may have held in his own right, or it may have referred to his ancestor Abū Dulaf al-Ijlī. His family had originally come from Jarbāzakān, between Hamadān and Isfahan in Irān, but his paternal uncle, was a ‘’muḥaddith’’ (traditionist), and qāḍī (chief justice) in Baghdād where Ibn Mākūlā began his studies. He continued his education by travelling to the regional centres of learning across Irāq, Khurāsān, Syria, Egypt, and Fars. In the last years of his life he held various official posts in the imperial administration of the Seljuk Empire, and once led an embassy to Bukhara to obtain the recognition of the new Abbāsid caliph [[[Al-Muqtadi]] (1075-1094).

One anecdote tells of a personal application made by Ibn Mākūlā on behalf of the grammarian Al-Akhfash the Younger, requesting a pension from the vizier Abū al-Ḥasan Alī ibn ‘Īsā. This was angrily rejected it seems and the scholar was left in abject poverty.

In the account of his eventual assassination the sources differ on details of location and date. It seems that sometime, either in 475 h. [1082/1083] or 487 h. [1094/95], or 479 h. [1086/87], either in Jurjan in Golestan Province, or al-Ahvaz in Khuzestan; or Kirmān, Iran. He was on a trip for Khurāsān when he was murdered by his Mamluk guards and his money stolen.

Works

• Kitāb al-Ikmāl fī Raf arid al-Irtiyab an al-Mutalif wa al-Muktalif min al-Asmā’ wa Kunya wa Ansab (الإكمال في رفع الارتياب عن المؤتلف والمختلف في الأسماء والكنى والأنساب); four volumes; treatise on orthography and pronunciation of proper names, written between 1071 and 1075); known as Al-Ikmāl (الإكمال); ‘Completion’) it became the standard text which was originally published as a supplement to Al-Khātib Abū Bakr's Al-Mutanif Takmila al-Mukhtalif (‘The recommenced, being the completion of the Mukhtalif’), - better known as Al-Takmila - which was itself two works combined; i) Al-Mūtalif wa Mukhtalif (المؤتلف والمختلف) of Al-Daraqutni and ii) Al-Mushtabih Al-Nisba from the Al-Kamāl fī ma’rifat asmā’ al-Rijāl (الكمال في معرفة أسماء الرجال) of the ḥāfiẓ Abd al-Ghānī.

— Ibn Nukta (ابن نقطة), the muhaddith, also published a further addendum to this work titled Takmila al-Ikmāl (تكملة الإكمال) in 1232.

• ’’Kitāb Tahdhib mustamar al-Awham ‘alā dhuī al-ma’rifat wa awwalī al-Afhām(تهذيب مستمر الأوهام على ذوي المعرفة وأولي الأفهام)

See also

• List of Arab scientists and scholars

• Encyclopædia Britannica Online

References

• 'Alī ibn Mākūlā (1962). Al-Yamānī, ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān b. Yaḥyā (ed.). Kitāb al-Ikmāl. Vol. I. Hyderabad. p. 1-61. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• 'Alī ibn Mākūlā (1990). Sayyid Kasrawī Ḥasan (ed.). Tahdhīb mustamirr al-awhām : ʻalá dhawī al-maʻrifah wa-ūlī al-afhām (in Arabic). Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyah. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Athīr (Ibn al-), Abū al-Ḥusayn ‘Alī (1862). Tornberg, C.J. (ed.). Al-Kāmi fī al-Ta’rikh (Chronicon Quod Perfectissimum Inscribitur.) (in Arabic). Leiden: Brill. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Baghdādī (al-), al-Khatib Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ‘Alī (1931). Taʾrīkh Baghdād (in Arabic). Vol. VIII. Beirut: Al-Sa’ādah Press. p. 80. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Kathīr (Ibn), Ismail (1966). Kitāb al-Bidāya Wa’l-Nihāya (PDF) (in Arabic). Vol. XII. Beirut: Riyadh. p. 18, 22, 24, 32, 46, 123. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Khallikān (Ibn), Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad (1843). Ibn Khallikān’s Biographical Dictionary (translation of Wafayāt al-A’yān wa-Anbā’ al-Zamān). Vol. II. Translated by McGuckin de Slane, William. London: W.H. Allen. p. 248. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Taghrībirdī (Ibn), Abū al-Maḥāsin Yūsuf (1956). Popper, William (ed.). al-Nujūm al-zāhirah fī mulūk Miṣr wa-al-Qāhirah. Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣrīyah. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Vadet, J.-C .. "Ibn Mākūlā." Encyclopaedia of Islam, second edition. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Brill Online, 2016. Reference. June 7, 2016 http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/ibn-makula-SIM_3280
• Yāqūt, Shihab al-Dīn ‘Abd Allāh al-Ḥamawī (1927). Margoliouth, D. S. (ed.). Irshād al-Arīb alā Ma’rifat al-Adīb (Yaqut’s Dictionary of Learned Men), Odabāʾ. Vol. V. Leiden: Brill. p. 435-40. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)* al-Ziriklī, Khayr al-Dīn (2007). Al-Aʻlām, qāmūs tarājim li-ashhar al-rijāl wa-al-nisāʼ min al-ʻArab wa-al-mustaʻribīn wa-al-mustashriqīn (in Arabic) (17 ed.). Bayrūt: Dār al-ʻIlm lil-Malāyīn. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)