Sahib ibn Abbad


Abu’l-Qāsim Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbbād ibn al-ʿAbbās, better known as Sahib ibn Abbad, also known as al-Sahib, was a Persian scholar and statesman, who served as the grand vizier of the Buyid rulers of Ray from 976 to 995.
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.

Biography

Family and early life

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, 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. He later settled in Isfahan, and served for some time as an official of the Buyid ruler of Jibal, Rukn al-Dawla. 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.