Ibn Qutaybah

Abū ʿ Abd Muhammad ibn Muslim ibn Qutaiba ad Dinawari (Arabic أبو محمد عبد الله بن مسلم بن قتيبة الدينوري; * to 828 in Kufa; † 889 in Baghdad ) was a Sunni scholar who worked under the Abbasids and the numerous works have survived on various fields of knowledge.

Little is known of his childhood and youth. He studied with many teachers, among others, a student of Ibn Hanbal. A vizier of the Abbasid Caliph al - Mutawakkil, who had canceled the Mihna ( Islamic Inquisition ) and the dominance of the rationalist Mu'tazilites from 846, was to Ibn Qutaibas patron and appointed him to 851 of Kadi Dinawar. In this office Ibn Qutaiba remained until to 870 From 871 he was dedicated to the dissemination of his work and lived in a neighborhood of Baghdad, which he never left until his death in 889.

Most of the works that are attributed to him with certainty, have been published during the 20th century. These include:

• Kitaab al - Adab Katib, a philological manual for use by secretaries, whose introduction is a political- cultural creed against the ruling caliphate,
• Kitaab al - ANWA ʾ ( "Weather Book"): a treatise on practical astronomy and meteorology,
• Kitaab al - Aschriba, Book of drinks,
• Kitaab al - maisir wa-l - qidāh: legal treatises on alcoholic beverages and gambling,
• Kitaab al -Qur ʾ ān Garib: philological commentary on the difficult passages of the Koran,
• Kitaab al -Qur ʾ ān MUSKIL: Treatise on Rhetoric and wonderfulness of the Koran,
• More poetic, theological and scientific treatises.