Abū Shāma Shihāb al-Dīn al-Maḳdisī[a] (10 January 1203 – 13 June 1267)[b] was an Arab historian.
Abū Shāma was born in Damascus, where he passed his whole life save for one year in Egypt, a fortnight in Jerusalem and two pilgrimages to the Ḥijāz.[1] He was an eyewitness to and provides the most precise information about the siege of Damascus in May–June 1229.[2] He received a diverse Sunnī education and wrote on a variety of topics. In 1263, he became a professor in the Damascene madrasas of al-Rukniyya and al-Ashrafiyya. He died five years later in Damascus.[1]
Five works by Abū Shāma survive. All the rest have been lost, some in a fire that destroyed his library. He is best known today for his three historical writings, especially his two volumes on Syria in the Zengid and Ayyubid periods:[1]
Kitāb al-rawḍatayn fī akhbār al-dawlatayn al-Nūriyya wa-l-Ṣalāḥiyya (The Book of the Two Gardens, Concerning Affairs of the Reigns of Nūr al-Dīn and Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn),[3] a chronological account of the reigns of Nūr al-Dīn (1146–1174) and Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (1174–1193). He is careful to cite his sources. His main ones are al-Barḳ al-ShāmīofʿImād al-Dīn al-Iṣfahānī, Sīrat Ṣalāḥ al-DīnofIbn Abī Ṭayy and the epistles (Rasāʾil) of al-Ḳāḍī al-Fāḍil. He usually quotes his sources verbatim, with the exception of ʿImād al-Dīn.[1]
al-Dhayl ʿalaʾl-rawḍatayn (Sequel to the Two Gardens),[3] a continuation of the previous work down to contemporary events. His main source in the first part is the Mirʾāt al-ZamānofSibṭ ibn al-Jawzī and in the second part himself as eyewitness.[1]
Taʾrīkh Dimashḳ (History of Damascus), a summary of the eponymous work of Ibn ʿAsākir (died 1175). It survives in two versions.[1]
Abū Shāma's works are important sources for the history of the Crusades.[3] There are partial translations in French[c] and German.[3] Abū Shāma also wrote commentaries on:
^Full name: Abū Shāma Shihāb al-Dīn Abuʾl-Ḳāsim ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUthmān ibn Abī Bakr ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad al-Maḳdisī (oral-Maqdisī).
^Ahmad 1960 gives the Hijrī dates 23 Rabīʿ II 599 – 19 Ramaḍān 665, but gives the Gregorian year of his death as 1268.
