Al-Mada'ini

Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Abi Sayf al-Qurashi (Arabic: أَبُو الْحَسَن عَلِيّ بْن مُحَمَّد بْن عَبْد اللَّه بْن أَبِي سَيْف الْقُرَشِيّ, romanized: Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Sayf al-Qurashī; 752/753–843), commonly known by his nisba al-Mada'ini (Arabic: المَدَائِنيّ, romanized: al-Madāʾinī), was a scholar of Iranian descent who wrote in Arabic and was active under the early Abbasids in Iraq in the first half of the 9th century. A scholar of many interests, he wrote over 200 works, but is best known as a historian.

Life

Little is known about al-Mada'ini's life. The second edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam notes that according to his own account, he was born in 752. However the third edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam notes that according to other sources (citing al-Marzubani), he was born in 752/753, which can be treated as "his approximate year of birth".¹² Al-Mada'ini and his family were of Iranian descent, and, according to sources attributed to him, he knew Persian.² He was most likely born in Basra, and for most of his life remained in various cities in Iraq.²

Al-Mada'ini and his family were clients (mawlas) of Abd al-Rahman ibn Samura al-Qurashi (died 670/1), a and a commander of the early Muslim armies who battled in the regions of , , , and . In 770 he was in Basra, but later went to and , where he spent most of his life. The origin of his , "al-Mada'ini", by which he is known, is unclear: it may derive from his stay in al-Mada'in, or have pre-dated it. Due to associations with Abd al-Rahman ibn Samura, he was given the second of "al-Qurashi".