Abū 'Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn 'Imrān ibn Mūsā ibn Sa'īd ibn 'Abd Allāh al-Marzubānī al-Khurāsānī[n 1] (Arabic: أبو عبد الله محمد بن عمران بن موسى المرزباني الخراساني) (c. 909 – 10 November 994),[n 2][1] was a prolific author of adab, akhbar (news), history and ḥadīth (traditions). He lived all his life in his native city, Baghdad, although his family came originally from Khurāsān.
Abū 'Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn 'Imrān al-Marzubānī | |
---|---|
أبو عبد الله محمد عمران المرزباني الخراساني | |
Born | February-March 909 (Jumāda 296/7 AH) |
Died | 10 November 994Shawwāl 384 A.H.] | (aged 85) [2
Other names | Abū 'Abd Allāh Muḥammad 'Imrān ibn Mūsā ibn Sa'īd ibn 'Abd Allāh al-Marzubānī (أبو عبد الله محمد عمران بن موسى بن سعيد بن عبد الله) |
Academic background | |
Influences | Abd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Baghawī, Abū Dā'ūd al-Sijistānī |
Academic work | |
Era | Islamic Golden Age (Middle and Later Abbasid era) |
Influenced | Ibn al-Murtaḍā |
Al-Marzubānī came from a wealthy Arab[2] family connected to the royal court of the Abbāsid caliph. Ibn al-Jawālīqī in his Kitāb al-Mu'arrab, explains that al-Marzubānī inherited a Persian epithet "Marzban", which means 'Guardian of the frontier'. The Buyid amir ‘Aḍūd al-Dawla was known to visit his residence on the east bank of the Tigris,[3] where he would also entertain members of a literary circle dedicated to the conservation and transmission of Arabic philological literature.[4] Fellow authors in his circle were Abū Ya'qūb al-Najīramī[5][6] (d.1031), Abū Sa'īd al-Sīrāfī[7][8] (d. 979) and Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn 'Abd al-Malik al-Tārīkhī.[9] He edited the first dīwān (collected poems) by the Umayyad caliph Muawiyah I (r. 661–680), which he produced in a small volume of about three kurrāsa,[n 3] – ca., 60 ff.
Abū Bakr al-Khwārizmī led the funeral service. He was buried in his house on Shari Amr al-Rūmī (Amr the Greek Street), on the eastern quarter of Baghdād.[22]
He was the last of the authorities of literary and oral tradition Isḥāq al-Nadīm met.[23] He was cited by the Mu'tazilite theologian Abū 'Abd Allāh al-Ṣaymarī (d. 927/8),[24][25] Abū al-Qāsim al-Tanūkhi (940 – 994),[26] Abū Muḥammad al-Jauhari, et al. Some sectarian-based criticism – attributed to al-Marzubānī's religious leanings and madhhab, despite his publication of Ḥanafī, Shī'i and Mu'tazila riwāya and akhbar (biographies). – seems to have led to the relative neglect of his writings by Sunni scholars in later centuries.
Among his books were:[n 5]
Isḥāq al-Nadīm records that 20,000 ff from sources written in al-Marzubānī's handwriting had survived to his day.