Ali ibn al-Athir

Abu al-Hassan Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ash-Shaybani, better known as Ali 'Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir al-Jazari (Arabic: علي عز الدین بن الاثیر الجزري‎) (1233–1160) was an Arab or Kurdish historian and biographer who wrote in Arabic and was from the Ibn Athir family. At the age of twenty-one he settled with his father in Mosul to continue his studies, where he devoted himself to the study of history and Islamic tradition. According to the 1911 Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, he was born in Jazirat Ibn Umar, Abbasid Caliphate. The city is situated in modern-day Turkey.

Biography

Ibn al-Athir belonged to the Shayban lineage of the large and influential Arab tribe Banu Bakr, who lived across upper Mesopotamia, and gave their name to the city of Diyar Bakr.

He was the brother of Majd ad-Dīn and Diyā' ad-Dīn Ibn Athir. Al-Athir lived a scholarly life in Mosul, often visited Baghdad and for a time traveled with Saladin's army in Syria. He later lived in Aleppo and Damascus. His chief work was a history of the world, al-Kamil fi at-Tarikh (The Complete History). He died in the city of Mosul.

Modern age

According to Reuters, his tomb was desecrated in Mosul by members of the al-Qaeda offshoot the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in June 2014. However, the actual tomb had been moved to a museum while the destroyed one was just a modern replica.

Works

• Al-Kāmil fī al-tārīkh (الكامل في التاريخ): "The Complete History"; 11 volumes
• Al-Tārīkh al-bāhir fī al-Dawlah al-Atābakīyah bi-al-Mawṣil
• Usd al-ghābah fi ma‘rifat al-ṣaḥābah: "The Lions of the Forest and the knowledge about the Companions"
• Al-Lubāb fī tahdhīb al-ansāb