Abu Shama

{{Short description|Damascene historian}}

Abū Shāma Shihāb al-Dīn al-Maḳdisī{{efn|Full name: Abū Shāma Shihāb al-Dīn Abuʾl-Ḳāsim ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUthmān ibn Abī Bakr ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad al-Maḳdisī (or al-Maqdisī).}} (10 January 1203 – 13 June 1267){{efn|{{harvnb|Ahmad|1960}} gives the Hijrī dates 23 Rabīʿ II 599 – 19 Ramaḍān 665, but gives the Gregorian year of his death as 1268.}} was an Arab historian.

Abū Shāma was born in Damascus, where he passed his whole life save for one year in Egypt, a fortnight in Jerusalem and two pilgrimages to the Ḥijāz.{{sfn|Ahmad|1960}} He was an eyewitness to and provides the most precise information about the siege of Damascus in May–June 1229.{{sfn|Humphreys|1977|p=448 n22}} He received a diverse Sunnī education and wrote on a variety of topics. In 1263, he became a professor in the Damascene madrasas of al-Rukniyya and al-Ashrafiyya. He died five years later in Damascus.{{sfn|Ahmad|1960}}

Five works by Abū Shāma survive. All the rest have been lost, some in a fire that destroyed his library. He is best known today for his three historical writings, especially his two volumes on Syria in the Zengid and Ayyubid periods:{{sfn|Ahmad|1960}}

• Kitāb al-rawḍatayn fī akhbār al-dawlatayn al-Nūriyya wa-l-Ṣalāḥiyya (The Book of the Two Gardens, Concerning Affairs of the Reigns of Nūr al-Dīn and Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn),{{sfn|Antrim|2009}} a chronological account of the reigns of Nūr al-Dīn (1146–1174) and Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (1174–1193). He is careful to cite his sources. His main ones are al-Barḳ al-Shāmī of ʿImād al-Dīn al-Iṣfahānī, Sīrat Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn of Ibn Abī Ṭayy and the epistles (Rasāʾil) of al-Ḳāḍī al-Fāḍil. He usually quotes his sources verbatim, with the exception of ʿImād al-Dīn.{{sfn|Ahmad|1960}}
• al-Dhayl ʿalaʾl-rawḍatayn (Sequel to the Two Gardens),{{sfn|Antrim|2009}} a continuation of the previous work down to contemporary events. His main source in the first part is the Mirʾāt al-Zamān of Sibṭ ibn al-Jawzī and in the second part himself as eyewitness.{{sfn|Ahmad|1960}}
• Taʾrīkh Dimashḳ (History of Damascus), a summary of the eponymous work of Ibn ʿAsākir (died 1175). It survives in two versions.{{sfn|Ahmad|1960}}

Abū Shāma's works are important sources for the history of the Crusades.{{sfn|Antrim|2009}} There are partial translations in French{{efn|In Recueil des Historiens des Croisades, [https://archive.org/details/recueildeshistor04acad_0/page/n21/mode/2up Historiens Orientaux 4] (Paris, 1898).}} and German.{{sfn|Antrim|2009}} Abū Shāma also wrote commentaries on:

• the Ḳaṣīda al-Shāṭibiyya of al-Shāṭibī (died 1194){{sfn|Ahmad|1960}}
• seven poems on Muḥammad by his teacher ʿAlam al-Dīn al-Sakhāwī (died 1245){{sfn|Ahmad|1960}}