ABU AL-FIDA'

in full Abu Al-fida' Isma'il Ibn 'ali Al-malik Al-mu'ayyad 'imad Ad-din, also called Abulfeda born Nov. 1273, Damascus died Oct. 27, 1331, Hamah, Syria Ayyubid dynasty historian and geographer who became a local sultan under the Mamluk empire. Abu al-Fida' was a descendant of Ayyub, the father of Saladin, founder of the Ayyubid dynasty that had been supplanted by the Mamluks in Egypt and elsewhere before his birth. In 1285 he accompanied his father and his cousin (prince of Hamah and a Mamluk client) to Mamluk sieges of Crusader strongholds. Abu al-Fida' served the Mamluk governor of Hamah until he was made first governor of Hamah (1310), then prince for life (1312). In 1320, after making a pilgrimage to Mecca with the Maml uk sultan al-Nasir Muhammad, he became al-Malik al-Mu'ayyad, with the rank of sultan; and he continued to rule Hamah until his death. His son Muhammad succeeded him. Abu al-Fida' was a patron of scholars and a scholar himself. His two major works were a history, Mukhtasar ta'rikh al-bashar ("Brief History of Man"), spanning pre-Islamic and Islamic periods to 1329; and a geography, Taqwim al-buldan (1321; "Locating the Lands"). Both works were compilations of other authors, arranged and added to by Abu al-Fida', rather than original treatises. Popular in their day in the Middle East, they were much used by 18th- and 19th-century European Orientalists before earlier sources became available.