Sahib ibn Abbad

Abu’l-Qāsim Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbbād ibn al-ʿAbbās (Persian: ابوالقاسم اسماعیل بن عباد بن عباس; born 938 - died 30 March 995), better known as Ṣāḥib ibn ʿAbbād (صاحب بن عباد), also known as al-Ṣāḥib (الصاحب), was a Persian scholar and statesman, who served as the grand vizier of the Buyid rulers of Ray from 976 to 995.^[1][2]

Sahib ibn Abbad
Grand Vizier of the Buyid emirate of Ray
In office 976–995
Monarchs	Mu'ayyad al-Dawla Fakhr al-Dawla
Preceded by	Abu'l-Fath Ali ibn Muhammad
Succeeded by	Unknown
Personal life
Born	14 September 938 Talaqancha, near Isfahan
Died	30 March 995 Ray, Jibal
Parent	Abu'l-Hasan Abbad ibn Abbas (father)
Religious life
Religion	Islam
Denomination	Mu'tazila

A native of the suburbs of Isfahan, he was greatly interested in Arab culture, and wrote on dogmatic theology, history, grammar, lexicography, scholarly criticism and wrote poetry and belles-lettres.^[3]

Life

Map of northern Iran

Sahib was born on 14 September 938 in Talaqancha, a village roughly 20 miles south of the major Buyid city of Isfahan. His father was Abu'l-Hasan Abbad ibn Abbas (d. 946), a renowned and well-educated administrator, who composed works on the Mu'tazili doctrine. Sahib spent his childhood at Talakan, a town in Daylam near Qazvin.^[4] He later settled in Isfahan, and served for some time as an official of the Buyid ruler of Jibal, Rukn al-Dawla (r. 935–976). After the death of his father, Sahib became the pupil of the scholar and philosopher, Ibn 'al-Amid, who had recently replaced Sahib's deceased father as the vizier of Rukn al-Dawla.^[5]

The story is told that to keep company with his collection of 117,000 books while travelling, Sahib had them "borne by a caravan of four hundred camels trained to walk in alphabetical order".^[6]

References

1. Donohue 2003, p. 140.
2. Cook, Michael (2001). Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought. Cambridge University Press. p. 201. ISBN 9781139431606.
3. Donzel, E. J. van (1 January 1994). Islamic Desk Reference. BRILL. p. 142. ISBN 978-90-04-09738-4. Ibn Abbad*, Abu l-Qasim* (al-Sahib): vizier and man of letters of the Buyid period; 938995. Of Persian origin, he was an arabophile and wrote on dogmatic theology, history, grammar, lexicography, literary criticism and composed poetry and belles-lettres.
4. Pellat & Cahen 2012.
5. Pomerantz.
6. Burke, Edmund (2009). "Islam at the Center: Technological Complexes and the Roots of Modernity". Journal of World History. 20 (2): 181. JSTOR 40542756.

Sources

• Donohue, John J. (2003). The Buwayhid Dynasty in Iraq 334 H./945 to 403 H./1012: Shaping Institutions for the Future. Leiden and Boston: Brill. ISBN 90-04-12860-3.
• Kabir, Mafizullah (1964). The Buwayhid Dynasty of Baghdad, 334/946-447/1055. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
• Yusofi, G. H. (1984). "Aḥmad Maymandī". AḤMAD MAYMANDĪ – Encyclopaedia Iranica. Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. I, Fasc. 6. pp. 650–652.
• Pomerantz, Maurice. "Ebn ʿAbbād, Esmāʿil, al-Ṣāḥeb Kāfi al-Kofāt". ṢĀḤEB EBN ʿABBĀD, ESMĀʿIL – Encyclopaedia Iranica. Encyclopaedia Iranica.
• Pellat, Ch. & Cahen, Cl. (2012). "Ibn ʿAbbād". The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition (12 vols.). Leiden: E. J. Brill. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_3024.
• Pomerantz, M.A. (2021). Adab and governance in two letters of al-Ṣāḥib b. ʿAbbād. History Compass, e12684. https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.12684

Preceded by Abu'l-Fath Ali ibn Muhammad

Grand Vizier of the Buyid amirate of Ray 976 – 995

Succeeded by Unknown