Ibn Fadlallah al-Umari

Ibn Fadlallah al-Umari
Born
Shihab al-Din Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Fadlallah al-Umari

12 June 1301
Died1 March 1349
Damascus, Mamluk Sultanate
NationalityArab
Occupation(s)Historian, Geographer, Bureaucrat
Academic background
InfluencesIbn Taymiyya
Academic work
EraMamluk Sultanate
Notable worksMasālik al-abṣār fī mamālik al-amṣār, at-Taʾrīf bi-al-muṣṭalaḥ ash-sharīf

Shihab al-Din Abu al-Abbas Ahmad Ibn Fadlallah al-Umari (Arabic: شهاب الدين أبو العبّاس أحمد بن فضل الله العمري, romanizedShihāb al-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Faḍlallāh al-ʿUmarī), commonly known as Ibn Fadlallah al-Umari or Ibn Faḍl Allāh al-‘Umārī (1301 – 1349) was an Arab historian born in Damascus.[1] His major works include at-Taʾrīf bi-al-muṣṭalaḥ ash-sharīf, on the subject of the Mamluk administration, and Masālik al-abṣār fī mamālik al-amṣār, an encyclopedic collection of related information.[1] The latter was translated into French by Maurice Gaudefroy-Demombynes in 1927.

A student of Ibn Taymiyya,[2] Ibn Fadlallah visited Cairo shortly after the Malian Mansa Kankan Musa I's pilgrimage to Mecca, and his writings are one of the primary sources for this legendary hajj. He recorded that the Mansa dispensed so much gold that its value fell in Egypt for a decade afterward, a story that is often repeated in describing the wealth of the Mali Empire.[3]

He recorded Kankan Musa's stories of the previous mansa; Kankan Musa claimed that the previous ruler had abdicated the throne to journey to a land across the ocean, leading contemporary Malian historian Gaoussou Diawara to theorize that Abu Bakr II reached the Americas years before Christopher Columbus.[4]

Gaudefroy-Demombynes believed that al-Umari wrote the Masalik al-Absar between 1342 and 1349, but internal evidence suggests that at least the chapter on Egypt and Syria and the section covering the Mali Empire were written in 1337-1338.[5][6]

In March 1339, al-Umari was arrested following an altercation with the sultan, but al-Umari's father persuaded the sultan to spare him, and he was sentenced to house arrest. He subsequently had further conflict with the sultan and was imprisoned, but released in October. He subsequently moved to Damascus, and worked as a secretary there from August 1340 to May or June 1343.[5]

  1. ^ a b "Al-ʿUmarī - Syrian scholar". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  2. ^ Mehdi Berriah (2020). "The Mamluk Sultanate and the Mamluks seen by Ibn Taymiyya: between Praise and Criticism". Arabian Humanities (14). doi:10.4000/cy.6491. ISSN 2308-6122. OCLC 8930826072. Archived from the original on 9 March 2021. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  3. ^ Kingdom of Mali Primary Sources, Boston University: African Studies Center. Accessed 1 November 2022.
  4. ^ World map of the geographers of the Caliph Al-Maʼmūn (reigned 813-833 A.D.). Frankfurt: Institut für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften. 1990. LCCN 91682448. OCLC 24107059. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Holt1987 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference LevtzionHopkins2000 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).