Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani

Abū ʿ Alī l - Faraj ibn al -Husayn al - Quraschī al -Isfahani (Arabic أبو الفرج علي بن الحسين القرشي الإصفهاني, DMG Abū ʿ Alī l - Faraǧ b al -Husayn al - Qurašī al -Isfahani, . * 897 in Isfahan; † November 20 967 in Baghdad ) was an Arab historian, writer and poet. Despite his Persian Nisba (the " Isfahan " ) Abu l - Faraj was of Arab origin and belonged to the Quraysh. He sympathized with the Shia.

Life

Abu l - Faraj studied and lived in Baghdad, but also spent some time at the court of Hamdanids in Aleppo.

Works

• Kitaab al - Pagani ( كتاب الأغاني / Book of Songs ' ), a collection of Arabic songs with rich information about poets and singers from the 7th to the 10th century in the big cities like Mecca, Damascus, Isfahan, Ray, Baghdad and Basra. The Book of Songs also contains many details about the old Arab tribes and life at the court of the Umayyads and further provides an overview of the entire Arab civilization of the jahiliyyah up to his own lifetime. The first printed edition appeared in 1868 or 1869 and comprised 20 volumes. Total spent Abu l - Faraj 50 years of his life with the creation of this work.
• Maqātil aṭ - Ṭālibīyīn ( مقاتل الطالبيين /, fights the Tālibiden '), a collection of more than 200 biographies of descendants of Abu Taalib ibn ʿ Abd al - Muttalib that in the period from the Prophet Mohammed occurrence to the writing of the book 313 of the Hegira ( = 925/926 AD ) in an unnatural way were killed. As explained Abū l - Faraj in the preface, he has always taken in his work, only those Tālibiden who rebelled against the government and were killed, were killed in battle, were executed or poisoned, "underground " lived or passed on the run were and died in captivity. The work is one of the main sources for the Alid uprisings of the Umayyad and Abbasid period and the main source for the meeting of Hashemites, which took place after the assassination of the Umayyad al - Walid II in the village of al - AbwA ʾ between Mecca and Medina. At this meeting the Alide ʿ Abd let the Hashemites his son Muhammad swear allegiance to - Nafs az- Zakiya as the new Mahdi.
• Kitaab al - ʾ ima aš - Sawa ʿ ir ( كتاب الإماء الشواعر /, The Book of Dichtersklavinnen ' ), a collection of reports on sealing slaves of the Abbasid period.