Ibn Qalāqis

Abu ʾl-Fatḥ Naṣr Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh (; 1137–1172), known as Ibn Qalāqis (or Ḳalāḳis) and also al-Qāḍī al-aʿazz ("he most honorable judge"), was an Egyptian Arab poet and author. He spent his last few years travelling widely through Sicily and Yemen. The collections of poems and letters he left behind contain much valuable information for historians.

Life

Ibn Qalaqis was born in 532 AH (1137 AD) in Alexandria, then part of the Fatimid Caliphate. He moved to Cairo for his education, and studied under Abu Tahir al-Silafi.

In Sicily, he stayed in Palermo at the house of his patron Abu'l-Qasim. He arrived in Palermo on 9 June 1168 at the start of Ramadan, and passed the following months visiting the gardens of the Conca d'Oro and the royal palaces. He dedicated qaṣīdas to Abu'l-Qasim and his three sons, Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman. He eventually got as far as Aydhab, where he died in 567 AH (1172 AD).

A collection of Ibn Qalaqis's letters in the form of an epistolary novel, the Tarassul, also survives. He wrote to friends, patrons and Fatimid officials in both Egypt and Yemen.

He also wrote a book, al-Zahr al-bāsim fī awṣāf Abī'l-Qāsim, in honour of Abu'l-Qasim. It is quoted in both prose and verse in the Kharīda of Imad ad-Din al-Isfahani, in the section on the poets of Egypt. The work describes in some detail his travels in Sicily, especially in the muqaddima (prologue). It is also critical to establishing Abu'l-Qasim's family tree.

Editions Dīwān, ed., Khalīl Muṭrān. Cairo: Maṭbaʿat al-Jawāʾib, 1905. Dīwān, ed., Sihām al-Furayḥ. Kuwait: Maktabat al-Muʿallā, 1988. Tarassul Ibn Qalāqis al-Iskandarī, ed., ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Naṣīr al-Māniʿ. Riyadh: Jāmiʿat al-Malik Saʿūd, 1984. Al-Zahr al-bāsim wa-l-ʿarf al-nāsim fī madīḥ al-ajall Abī ʾl-Qāsim, ed., ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Naṣīr al-Māniʿ. Riyadh: Jāmiʿat al-Malik Saʿūd, 1984. Translated into Italian by Adalgisa De Simone, ed., Splendori e misteri di Sicilia in un'opera di Ibn Qalāqis. Messina, 1996.