ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan al-Khazrajī

Al-Khazrajī's biography can be constructed from his own statements, the biographical notices in al-Maqrīzī and Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī and the Ṭabaqāt ṣulaḥāʾ al-Yaman of al-Burayhī. He was a native of Zabīd and a member of the Khazraj tribe. He was born in the year 732 AH, which corresponds to 1331–1332 AD. In his youth, he worked as a plasterer and painter in and around Taʿizz, decorating the Madrasa al-Afḍaliyya and the palace Dār al-Dībāj. He studied qirāʾāt (Qurʾān recitation) and became a qāriʾ (reader) in the mosque of al-Mimlāḥ, a village outside Zabīd.^[3] Al-Sakhāwī met him in Zabīd. He died in early 1410.^[2]

According to the 17th-century Ottoman writer Kâtip Çelebi, al-Khazrajī wrote three works of history.^[2] The titles and authorial ascriptions in the manuscripts, however, make identification difficult.

• Al-ʿUqūd al-luʾluʾiyya fī taʾrīkh al-dawla al-Rasūliyya ("The Pearl Strings on the History of the Rasūlid Dynasty") is his most famous work. It is a chronicle of the Rasūlids.^[3] For earlier times, it relies on the Kitāb al-Sulūk of Bahāʾ al-Dīn al-Janadī.^[2] For its flattering treatment of the Rasūlids, it has been compared unfavourably to the work of the Yemeni historian Ibn Ḥātim.^[4]
• Al-Kifāya wa-l-iʿlām fī-man waliya al-Yaman wa-sakanahā min al-Islām ("What is Needed and Information on Those Who Administered Yemen and Lived There in Islamic Times") is a longer chronicle of the Islamic history of Yemen.^[3][2] It incorporates a large part of the ʿUqūd al-luʾluʾiyya.^[3]
• Ṭirāz aʿlām al-zaman fī ṭabaqāt aʿyān al-Yaman ("The Class of Prominent People in the Generations of Yemeni Dignitaries"), also called al-ʿIqd al-fākhir al-ḥasan fī ṭabaqāt akābir ahl al-Yaman ("The Beautiful and Precious Necklace on the Generations of Yemeni Notable People"), was a biographical dictionary written at the request of King al-Ashraf Ismāʿīl I [ar] to continue that of al-Janadī.^[2] It is mentioned by al-Sakhāwī.^[3]

The Kifāya wa-l-iʿlām also circulated under the titles al-ʿAsjad al-masbūk fī taʾrīkh al-Islām wa-ṭabaqāt al-mulūk ("The Melted Gold on the History of Islam and the Generations of Kings") and Fākihat al-zaman ("The Fruits of Time"). The work appears to have been co-authored by al-Ashraf Ismāʿīl and possibly by al-Shihāb al-Muhallabī.^[5] A manuscript of the ʿUqūd al-luʾluʾiyya found in India was published with an English translation beginning in 1906. The Arabic edition was made by Muḥammad ʿAsal. A revised edition by Muḥammad al-Akwaʿ was published in 1983.^[6] Further manuscripts have come to light in the Great Mosque of Ṣanʿāʾ, in Iraq and in Saudi Arabia.^[3]

Other works by al-Khazrajī include a poetry collection (dīwān);^[3][2] Mirāt al-zaman fī taʾrīkh Zabīd wa-ʿAdan ("The Mirror of the Time in the History of Zabīd and Aden"), a lost history of Zabīd and Aden;^[3][2] and al-Maḥṣūl fī intisāb Banī Rasūl ("The Outcome in the Connection of the Banū Rasūl").^[3]