Abd al-Aziz ibn Shaddad
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ʿIzz al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Shaddād ibn Tamīm ibn al-Muʿizz ibn Bādīs (d. after 1186), known as ʾAbū al-Gharīb ʿIzz al-Dīn al-Sanhāji or Abū l-ʿArab al-Qayrawānī, was a Zirid chronicler and prince of the Zirid dynasty.
Abd al-Aziz ibn Shaddad's birth date is not known.[1] He was a member of the Zirid dynasty, the grandson of Tamim ibn al-Mu'izz and nephew of Yahya ibn Tamim. He was part of the entourage of the last Zirid ruler al-Hasan ibn Ali since he said that he had consulted a book of the library of this sultan.[2] In 1148, the city of al-Mahdiyya was captured by George of Antioch. Ibn Shaddad probably fled the city with al-Hasan to the court of the Almohad caliph Abd al-Mu'min.[1] In 1156-1157, he was at the sicilian city Palermo. He went to Syria, where he settled at Damascus no later than 1175-1176. In this later city he communicated his grandfather Tamim's Diwan to the scholar Imad ad-Din al-Isfahani. He was still there in 1186 as he recorded the testimony of a citizen of al-Mahdiyya on Ifriqya's events the same year.[2][3]
