Abu Shama

Abū Shāma Shihāb al-Dīn al-Maḳdisī[lower-alpha 1] (10 January 1203 – 13 June 1267)[lower-alpha 2] 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. 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),[2] 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-Shāmī of ʿImād al-Dīn al-Iṣfahānī, Sīrat Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn of Ibn Abī Ṭayy and the 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),[2] a continuation of the previous work down to contemporary events. His main source in the first part is the Mirʾāt al-Zamān of Sibṭ 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.[2] There are partial translations in French[lower-alpha 3] and German.[2] Abū Shāma also wrote commentaries on:

• the Ḳaṣīda al-Shāṭibiyya of al-Shāṭibī (died 1194)[1]
• seven poems on Muḥammad by his teacher ʿAlam al-Dīn al-Sakhāwī (died 1245)[1]