Ali ibn Makula

Abū Naṣr ibn Mākūlā was born in the village Ukbara on the Tigris north of Baghdad to a noble Arab family. He was the son of Hibat Allah ibn Makula, vizier to the Buyid ruler of Basrah, Jalal al-Dawla.

He gained the title 'al-Amīr' (أمير), or 'prince', maybe in his own right, or in reference to his famous ancestor Abu Dulaf al-Ijli. ^[1] His family had originally come from Jarbāzakān, between Hamadan and Isfahan in Iran, but his paternal uncle, was a muḥaddith (traditionist), and qāḍī (chief justice) in Baghdād where Ibn Mākūlā began his studies. He continued his education by travelling to the regional centres of learning across Irāq, Khurasan, Syria, Egypt, and Fars. In the last years of his life he held various official posts in the imperial administration of the Seljuk Empire, and once led an embassy to Bukhara to obtain the recognition of the new Abbasid Caliphate caliph al-Muqtadi (1075–1094).^[2]

One anecdote tells of a personal application made by Ibn Mākūlā on behalf of the grammarian Al-Akhfash al-Asghar|al-Akhfash the Younger, requesting a pension from the vizier Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Isa. This was angrily rejected it seems and the scholar was left in abject poverty.^[3]

In the account of his eventual assassination the sources differ on details of location and date. It seems that sometime, either in 475 h. [1082/1083] or 487 h. [1094/95], or 479 h. [1086/87], he was on a trip for Khurasan when he was murdered and robbed by his Mamluk guards,^{[n 1]} either in Jurjan in Golestan province, or al-Ahvaz in Khuzestan; or in Kirman, Iran.^[4]

• Al-Ikmāl (الإكمال) ('Completion'); full title al-Ikmāl fÄ« raf' al-irtiyāb 'an al-mu’talif wa al-mukhtalif min al-asmā' wa al-kunā wa al-ansāb (الإكمال في رفع الارتياب عن المؤتلف والمختلف في الأسماء والكنى والأنساب); 4 vols., (written 1071 â€“ 1075) standard treatise on orthography and pronunciation of proper names. â€“ Note: Originally published as a supplement to Al-Khātib AbÅ« Bakr's Al-Mutanif Takmila al-Mukhtalif ('The recommenced, being the completion of the Mukhtalif'), or Al-Takmila, itself the combined works of: i) Al-MÅ«talif wa Mukhtalif (المؤتلف والمختلف) by Al-Daraqutni and ii) Al-Mushtabih Al-Nisba from the Al-Kamāl fÄ« ma’rifat asmā' al-Rijāl (الكمال في معرفة أسماء الرجال) by ḥāfiẓ Abd al-GhānÄ«.

— In 1232, muhaddith Ibn Nukta (ابن نقطة), published Takmila al-Ikmāl (تكملة الإكمال), as an addendum to Al-Ikmāl.

• Kitāb Tahdhib mustamar al-Awham 'alā dhuÄ« al-ma’rifat wa awwalÄ« al-Afhām (تهذيب مستمر الأوهام على ذوي المعرفة وأولي الأفهام)^[5]
• Mufākharat al-qalam wa’l-sayf wa’l-dÄ«nār (مفاخرة القلم والسيف والدينار);^[6]
• TaʾrÄ«kh al-Wuzarā ('History of the Viziers').

• Ibn Inabah