Ibn al-Tiqtaqa

Ibn al-Tiqtaqa
Born	1262 CE Baghdad, Iraq
Died	1309 CE
Occupation(s)	Historian, Naqib of Alids
Academic work
Era	Medieval Islamic period
Main interests	Islamic history, Political philosophy
Notable works	Al-Fakhri

Ṣafī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ṭabāṭabā (Arabic: محمد بن علي بن طباطبا العلوي; 1262–1309), also known as Ibn al-Tiqtaqa, was a historian and naqib of Alids in Ḥilla.[1]

He was a direct descendant of Ḥasan ibn Ali ibn Abi Ṭalib. According to E.G. Browne's English version of Mīrzā Muhammad b. ‛Abudi’l-Wahhāb-i—Qazwīni's edition of ‛Alā-ad-Dīn ‛Ata Malik-i-Juwaynī's Ta’rīhh-i-Jahān Gushā (London 1912, Luzac, p.ix), Ibn al-Tiqtaqā's name was Safiyu’d-Din Muhammad ibn ‛Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Tabātabā.

Around 1302 he wrote a popular compendium of Islamic history called al-Fakhri.[2][3]

According to the political scientist Vasileios Syros, the philosophy of ibn al-Ṭabāṭabā can be compared to that of Niccolò Machiavelli.[4]

References

1. Aigle, Denise (2021-07-01), "Ibn al-Ṭiqṭaqā", Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE, Brill, retrieved 2022-02-07
2. Geert Jan van Gelder. The Classical Arabic Cannon of Polite (and Impolite) Literature. Cultural Repertoires: Structure, Function, and Dynamics. Peeters Publishing, 2003, pp. 45– 58. ISBN 978-90-429-1299-1
3. al-Ṭiqṭaqā, Al-Fakhrî, Histoire des dynasties Musulmanes depuis la mort de Mahomet jusqu’a la chute du khalifat 'Abâsîde de Bagdâdz (11-656 de l'hégire = 632-1258 de J.-C.) avec des prolégomènes sur les principes du gouvernement, traduit par Émile Amar, Paris, Leroux, 1910. [En ligne] https://archive.org/details/alfakhrhistoir00muamuoft.
4. Syros, Vasileios (2018). Violence in Islamic Thought from the Mongols to European Imperialism. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 165–80.

• Encyclopedia of Islam, vol. ii, (Leiden 1927, Brill), pp. 423–4.
• Note by Professor H. A. R. Gibb, in Arnold J. Toynbee's A Study of History