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The historian, compiler of hadith, and literary figure Ibn al-Athir al-Jazari
Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz
On 2nd of the Islamic month of Rabi al-Awal in 630 AH, the historian, compiler of hadith, and literary figure, Abu’l-Hassan Ali ibn Mohammad, better known as Izz-ad-Din Ibn al-Athir al-Jazari, passed away in Mosul, Iraq at the age of 75. Born in a Kurdish family in Jazirat Ibn Umar in Iraq, which was then part of the Great Seljuq Empire with its capital in Isfahan, he spent his scholarly life in Mosul, often visiting Baghdad, where he learned from the Iranian scholar Khateeb-e Tusi.
With the disintegration of the Seljuqid Empire, he was with the army of the Kurdish adventurer Salah od-Din Ayyoubi in Syria, and has written eye-witness accounts of the battles with the Crusader invaders from Europe, who had usurped Palestine and illegally set up the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. He was about 28 years old when Bayt al-Moqaddas and Palestine were liberated after 88 years of Crusader occupation by the joint Islamic army of Kurds, Turks, Arabs and Iranians. His chief work is a general history of the world, titled "al-Kamel fi’t-Tarikh" (The Complete History), in which he has included reports of the destructive events taking place in the last years of his life in the Islamic east, particularly in Central Asia and Khorasan, where the barbaric Mongol onslaught was destroying centuries of flourishing civilized life.
He has also written a specialized history of the Atabek Dynasty of Mosul titled "at-Tarikh al-Baher fi’l-Dowlat-al-Atabekiyah bi’l-Mawsil". His other famous work is "Usod al-Ghabah fi Ma‘rifat as-Sahabah", which is bibliography of the companions of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Ezz od-Din should not be confused with his elder brother, Majd od-Din Ibn Athir, the author of "Jame' al-Usoul", which is a compendium of the "Sihah as-Sitta" or the Six Authoritative Hadith Books of Sunni Muslims, compiled almost wholly by Iranian converts to Islam.
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