Abū Rifāʿa ʿUmāra ibn Wathīma ibn Mūsā ibn al-Furāt al-Fārisī (died 4 June 902) was a Muslim historian from Egypt. Born in Fusṭāṭ, he was a son of the historian and silk trader Wathīma ibn Mūsā, a native of Fasā in Persia.[1] The year of his birth is unknown,[1] but his father died in 851.[2] He wrote at least two works in Arabic.[3]

Works

ʿUmāra's only surviving work is what was, before the discovery of Abū Ḥudhayfa Isḥāq ibn Bishr Qurashī's Mubtadaʾ al-dunyā wa-qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ, thought to be the oldest surviving book of the qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ genre.[4]: 132–33  Entitled Kitāb badʾ al-khalq wa-qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ ('Book of the Beginnings of Creation and the Stories of the Prophets'), it is a collection of didactic stories of those considered prophets in Islam.[1][5] It is the earliest source to cite the enigmatic Abū al-Ḥasan al-Bakrī.[6] It was itself never widely cited.[7] Of its original two volumes, only the second survives, covering prophets from Moses to Jesus, in two manuscripts.[5] There is a modern French translation by R. G. Khoury.[8] It has been argued that the real author of the Badʾ al-khalq is Wathīma, who was much more prominent than his son.[2][5]

According to Ibn al-Jawzī, ʿUmāra also wrote an Annalistic History.[3]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Khoury 2000.
  2. 1 2 Khoury 2002.
  3. 1 2 Rosenthal 1968, p. 72.
  4. ↑ Roberto Tottoli, 'The Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ of Ibn Muṭarrif al-Ṭarafī (d. 454/1062): Stories of the Prophets from al-Andalus', Al-Qantara, 19.1 (1998), 131–60.
  5. 1 2 3 Blatherwick 2016, pp. 70–71.
  6. ↑ Shoshan 1993, pp. 35–37.
  7. ↑ Brinner 2002, pp. xviii–xix.
  8. ↑ Brinner 2002, p. xix, citing Khoury 1978.

Bibliography

  • Blatherwick, Helen (2016). Prophets, Gods and Kings in Sīrat Sayf ibn Dhī Yazan: An Intertextual Reading of an Egyptian Popular Epic. Brill.
  • Brinner, William M., ed. (2002). ʿArāʾis Al-Majālis Fī Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ or "Lives of the Prophets" as Recounted by Abū Isḥāq Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Thaʿlabī. Brill.
  • Khoury, Raif Georges, ed. (1978). Les légendes prophétiques dans l'islam depuis le Ier jusqu'au IIIe siècle de l'Hégire. Otto Harrassowitz.
  • Khoury, Raif Georges (2000). "ʿUmāra b. Wat̲h̲īma". In Bearman, P. J.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. & Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Volume X: T–U (2nd ed.). Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 835–836. ISBN 978-90-04-11211-7.
  • Khoury, Raif Georges (2002). "Wat̲h̲īma b. Mūsā". In Bearman, P. J.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. & Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Volume XI: W–Z (2nd ed.). Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 179–180. ISBN 978-90-04-12756-2.
  • Rosenthal, Franz (1968). A History of Muslim Historiography (2nd ed.). E. J. Brill.
  • Shoshan, Boaz (1993). Popular Culture in Medieval Cairo. Cambridge University Press.
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