Adh-Dhahabi

[pp. 505-506]

ADH-DHAHABĪ

(1274-1348 A.D.)

Abū 'Abdalla Muḥ. b. 'Uthmān b. Qāīmaz Shams ad-dīn Adh-Dhahabī at-Turkumānī. An historian from Damascus, mostly concerned with the Hadith traditions.

EI (s.v.); GAL 2, 46.

1.) Al-mushtabih fī asmā’ ar-rijāl (A Dictionary of Homonyms)

Ed.: P. de Jong, Leiden Ι881.

T.: de Jong A:0

2.) Ta'rīkh al-Islām (A Chronicle, later continued by Ibn Shubba down to 1403 A.D.).

Quotations in: Ta'rīkh ad-dawla al-fatimiyya by Ḥasan Ibrahim Ḥasan, Cairo 1964.

T.: Ḥasan Ibrahim A: 0

[p. 506] 1.) from Al-Mushtabih

Αn-Nūbī. An-nūbah is a large country of the Sūdān, south of Upper Egypt. It is said that from that country came Bilāl - may God be pleased with him! - and Hibatalla b. Muḥammad b. Nūbī al-Anbārī [another reading: Hibatalla b. Aḥmed b. Nūba, the Nubian]. This information comes from Abū-l-Ḥasan b. al-'Allaf and Abū Naṣr 'Abd as-Samid b. Aḥmad b. Muḥ. an-Nūbī, according to the testimony given by Ibn Kulayb [Hibatalla] died at a mature age in the year 625 H. [1227 A.D.]. (de Jong, p. 63).

2.) From Tarīkh al-Islām

In this year [572 H. = 1176 A.D.], the battle of al-Kanz took place. He was the leader of the Blacks (sūdān) in Upper Egypt. He rallied a great multitude around him and they marched on Cairo (al-Qāhira) with the intention of restoring the [Fatimid] dynasty ... Al-Kanz was slain together with a great number of his followers. It is said that the number of those slain was 80,000, according to Muẓaffar Qīzoghlū. (Ḥasan Ibrahim, p. 197).

[Adh-Dhahabī quoting Ibn Abī Ṭayy]: The Turks received their salaries very punctually. We can say that the Turks rose against the Caliph [al-Mustanṣir] - who was then helpless - because of their thirst for bloodshed against the Black soldiers (al-junūd as-sūdānīyyīn), whom they hated (al-makrūhīn lahum). [The reason for it was that the Black soldiers] were faithful supporters (ansār) of the mother of the Caliph and used to take from the booty whatever they liked, while the Turks could collect only the remainder [lit. = "what the circumstances allowed"]. (Ḥasan Ibrahim, p. 553).