Majd ad-Dīn Ibn Athir


Majd ad-Dīn Ibn al-Athīr ash-Shaybānī was an historian, biographer and lexicographer. His full name was Abū l-Saʿādāt al-Mubārak b. Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Karīm b. ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Shaybānī al-Jazarī al-Mawṣilī.
Majd ad-Dīn was one of three brothers from a wealthy family of scholars, all known as Ibn al-Athīr of Jazirat Ibn ‘Umar and Mosul. The other two being Ali ibn al-Athir and Diyā' ad-Dīn, who was also an historian. The father Muḥammad b. ‘Abd al-Karim was an official of the Zangid government. Majd al-Dīn was in the service of the emir of Mosul, Ghāzi b. Mawdūd, and later Mas‘ūd b. Mawdūd and Arslan Shāh. Although he became paralysed he continued working and outlived his two brothers. He was a distinguished translator of the Arabic language. The Ibn al-Athīr family were Arab, or Kurdish, of the Shayban lineage of the large and influential Arab tribe Banu Bakr, who lived across upper Mesopotamia, and gave their name to the city of Diyar Bakr.

Works

a.k.a. Kitāb al-Muraṣṣa , on family names,