Hamza ibn Asad abu Ya'la ibn al-Qalanisi (c. 1070-March 18, 1160) was an
ArabArab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
politician and chronicler in
DamascusDamascus is the capital and largest city of Syria. It is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world and its current population is estimated at about 1,669,000...
in the 12th century.
He descended from the
Banu TamimBanī Tamīm or Banu Tamim or Banu Tameem is one of the largest of all Arab tribes. The tribe's history goes back to pre-Islamic times, a sister-clan of Quraysh. Today millions descend from the tribe in the Arabian Peninsula and neighboring countries such as Iraq ,Qatar, Jordan , Syria , Egypt ,...
tribe, and was among the well-educated nobility of the city of Damascus. He studied
literatureLiterature is the art of written works. Literally translated, the word means "acquaintance with letters" , and therefore the academic study of literature is known as Letters...
,
theologyThe term "theology" literally means the study of God, deriving from the Greek word theos, meaning 'God', and the suffix -ology from the Greek word logos meaning "discourse", "theory", or "reasoning"...
, and
lawSharia is an Arabic word meaning ‘way’ or ‘path’. In Arabic, the collocation ‘Šarīʿat Allāh’ is traditionally used not only by Muslims, but also Christians and Jews, sometimes translating expressions such as Torat Elōhīm [תורת אלוהים] or ‘ho nómos toû theoû' '’...
, and served as firstly a secretary in, and later the head of, the
chanceryChancellor is the title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the Cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the...
of Damascus (the
Diwan al-Rasa'il). He served twice as
ra'is of the city, an office equivalent to
mayor"Mayor" is a modern title used in many countries for the highest ranking officer in a municipal government....
.
His chronicle, the
Dhail or
Mudhayyal Ta'rikh Dimashq (Continuation of the Chronicle of Damascus) was an extension of the chronicle of Hilal bin al-Muhassin al-Sabi', covering the years 1056 to al-Qalanisi's death in 1160.
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Hamza ibn Asad abu Ya'la ibn al-Qalanisi (c. 1070-March 18, 1160) was an
ArabArab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
politician and chronicler in
DamascusDamascus is the capital and largest city of Syria. It is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world and its current population is estimated at about 1,669,000...
in the 12th century.
He descended from the
Banu TamimBanī Tamīm or Banu Tamim or Banu Tameem is one of the largest of all Arab tribes. The tribe's history goes back to pre-Islamic times, a sister-clan of Quraysh. Today millions descend from the tribe in the Arabian Peninsula and neighboring countries such as Iraq ,Qatar, Jordan , Syria , Egypt ,...
tribe, and was among the well-educated nobility of the city of Damascus. He studied
literatureLiterature is the art of written works. Literally translated, the word means "acquaintance with letters" , and therefore the academic study of literature is known as Letters...
,
theologyThe term "theology" literally means the study of God, deriving from the Greek word theos, meaning 'God', and the suffix -ology from the Greek word logos meaning "discourse", "theory", or "reasoning"...
, and
lawSharia is an Arabic word meaning ‘way’ or ‘path’. In Arabic, the collocation ‘Šarīʿat Allāh’ is traditionally used not only by Muslims, but also Christians and Jews, sometimes translating expressions such as Torat Elōhīm [תורת אלוהים] or ‘ho nómos toû theoû' '’...
, and served as firstly a secretary in, and later the head of, the
chanceryChancellor is the title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the Cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the...
of Damascus (the
Diwan al-Rasa'il). He served twice as
ra'is of the city, an office equivalent to
mayor"Mayor" is a modern title used in many countries for the highest ranking officer in a municipal government....
.
His chronicle, the
Dhail or
Mudhayyal Ta'rikh Dimashq (Continuation of the Chronicle of Damascus) was an extension of the chronicle of Hilal bin al-Muhassin al-Sabi', covering the years 1056 to al-Qalanisi's death in 1160. This Chronicle is one of the few contemporary accounts of the
First CrusadeThe First Crusade was a military expedition by European Christians to regain the Holy Lands taken by the Muslim conquest of the Levant, which resulted in the capture of Jerusalem in 1099. It was launched in 1095 by Pope Urban II with the primary goal of responding to the appeal from Byzantine...
and its immediate aftermath from the
MuslimIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
perspective, making it not only a valuable source for modern historians, but also for later 12th-century chronicles, including Ibn al-Athir.