Muhammad ibn Hamed Isfahani (1125 – June 20, 1201) (), more popularly known as
Imad ad-din al-Isfahani() ( (519-13 Ramadan 597), was a
Persian historian, scholar, and rhetorician. He left a valuable anthology of
Arabic poetry to accompany his many historical works and worked as a man of letters during the
Zengid and
Ayyubid period.
Biography
He was born in
Isfahan in the year 1125, and studied at the
Nizamiyya school in
Baghdad. He graduated into the bureaucracy, and held jurisdiction over
Basra and
Wasit. He then became a deputy of the vizier
ibn Hubayra. After the death of ibn Hubayra, he went to
Damascus in 1166 CE (562
Islamic Calendar) and entered the service of the
qadi of Damascus, Kamal ad-Din. The qadi presented him to the Zengid
Nur ad-Din, who appointed him a professor in the school he had established there, which then became known as the Imadiyya school in his honour. Nur ad-Din was later appointed to be his Chancellor.
After the death of Nur ad-Din in 1173, Imad ad-Din was removed from all his bureaucratic duties, and was banished from the palace. He went to live in
Mosul and later entered the service of
Saladin, the Egyptian Sultan during that time. When Saladin took control of Damascus, Saladin's vizier,
al-Qadi al-Fadl, appointed him chancellor, and he also became al-Fadl's deputy. Saladin had been unsure of his talent because he was only a scribe, Imad ad-Din soon became one of the sultan's favourites, and was even granted his own slave girl. As chancellor he did not have to perform the everyday duties of the chancery scribes, and he had a lot of leisure time in
Egypt.
From then on he accompanied Saladin on all his campaigns. After a certain raid, he was chosen to kill one of the prisoners, but the prisoner was a child and was instead exchanged for a Muslim prisoner held by the
Crusaders. Imad ad-Din was present at the
Battle of Marj Uyun, the
Battle of Hattin, and the subsequent campaign to expel the Crusaders from the Holy Land. At
Acre, he criticized Saladin for giving away the city's treasure instead of spending it on the reconquest. At
Beirut, he became ill, but was the only scribe capable of writing the terms of surrender. He had recuperated in time to see the aftermath of the
Siege of Jerusalem (1187), where he again criticized Saladin's generosity; he was also disgusted by those in charge of the ransom who took bribes, and the rich Crusader nobles who took their treasures with them rather than ransoming the poor. He was present at Acre again during the
Third Crusade when the Christians
retook the city of Acre, and was among those who fled after the defeat.
After Saladin's death in 1193, he began writing his biographies of the sultan. He wrote the
Kitab al-Barq al-Shami, which is lost, but was abridged by
al-Bundari. He also wrote
al-Fath al-Qussi fi-l-Fath al-Qudsi, which survives.
He died in 1201.
In popular culture
A heavily fictionalized version of Imad ad-Din is portrayed in the
2005 Ridley Scott epic film
Kingdom of Heaven, by actor
Alexander Siddig.
See also
