Abu'l-Fida

Abu l - Fida (also Ismail Abu al - Feda, Arabic أبو الفداء, DMG Abū l - Fida ʾ, Latin: Abulfeda, full name Abu 'l- Fida Ismā ʿ īl ibn ʿ Alī al - Ayyubi ad Dimašqī al - Hamawi; * 1273 in Damascus, † October 27, 1331 in Hama ) was an Arab chronicler and geographer and Emir of Hama.

He documented on the part of some Muslims campaigns against the Crusaders in his work Mukhtassar tarikh al - Bashar.

He came from the dynasty of the Ayyubids, his father Ali was a son of the Lord of Hama, al - Muzaffar Mahmud († 1244). After the death of his cousin, al - Muzaffar Umar II († 1299/1300 ), Hama was under the direct rule of the Mamelukensultane of Egypt.

Even as a teenager, he participated in the trains of the Mamelukes against the Crusader states in the Levant, 1289 at the siege of Tripoli and 1291 in the siege of Acre, the last strongholds of the Crusaders. Particularly high he stood in the favor of the Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad I., 1310 appointed him governor in Hama. After he had made ​​a Hajj to Mecca with the Sultan in 1320, he was appointed by him as hereditary ruler of Hama and received the title al -Malik al - Mu'ayyad. In Hama Abu l - Fida built in 1326 a mosque named after him, in which he was buried later and which is still preserved today.

After his death in 1331 his son, al - Afdal was Muhammad III. follow as the ruler of Hama under the protection of the sultan. But Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad died in 1341, the Ayyubid rule was finally ended in Hama by the new Sultan.

Works

• Mukhtasar al - bashar ta'rikh; A brief history of mankind, even chronology of events to 1329
• Taquin al - Buldan; ( Geography), 1321
• Christoph Rommel: Abulfedae Arabiae descriptio Commentario perpetual motion illustrata. Göttingen 1802 ( provided with a Latin commentary of descriptions of Arabia )