Umara ibn Wathima
Abū Rifāʿa ʿUmāra ibn Wathīma ibn Mūsā ibn al-Furāt al-Fārisī d. {{AH|289}} was a Muslim historian from Egypt. Born in Fusṭāṭ, he was a son of the historian and silk trader Wathīma ibn Mūsā, a native of Fasā in Persia.{{sfn|Khoury|2000}} The year of his birth is unknown,{{sfn|Khoury|2000}} but his father died in 851.{{sfn|Khoury|2002}}
Works
ʿUmāra wrote at least two works in Arabic.{{sfn|Rosenthal|1968|p=72}} His only surviving work is what was, before the discovery of Abū Ḥudhayfa Isḥāq ibn Bishr Qurashī's Mubtadaʾ al-dunyā wa-qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ, thought to be the oldest surviving book of the qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ genre.{{sfn|Tottoli|1998|pp=132–133}} Entitled Kitāb badʾ al-khalq wa-qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ ('Book of the Beginnings of Creation and the Stories of the Prophets'), it is a collection of didactic stories of those considered prophets in Islam.{{sfn|Khoury|2000}}{{sfn|Blatherwick|2016|pp=70–71}} It is the earliest source to cite the enigmatic Abū al-Ḥasan al-Bakrī.{{sfn|Shoshan|1993|pp=35–37}} It was itself never widely cited.{{sfn|Brinner|2002|pp=xviii–xix}} Of its original two volumes, only the second survives, covering prophets from Moses to Jesus, in two manuscripts.{{sfn|Blatherwick|2016|pp=70–71}} There is a modern French translation by {{ill|Raif Georges Khoury|lt=R. G. Khoury|de|Raif Georges Khoury}}.{{harvnb|Brinner|2002|p=xix}}, citing {{harvnb|Khoury|1978}}. It has been argued that the real author of the Badʾ al-khalq is Wathīma, who was much more prominent than his son.{{sfn|Khoury|2002}}{{sfn|Blatherwick|2016|pp=70–71}}
According to Ibn al-Jawzī, ʿUmāra also wrote an Annalistic History.{{sfn|Rosenthal|1968|p=72}}
Notes
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Bibliography
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- {{cite book |first=Helen |last=Blatherwick |title=Prophets, Gods and Kings in Sīrat Sayf ibn Dhī Yazan: An Intertextual Reading of an Egyptian Popular Epic |publisher=Brill |year=2016}}
- {{cite book |editor-first=William M. |editor-last=Brinner |publisher=Brill |year=2002 |title=ʿArāʾis Al-Majālis Fī Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ or "Lives of the Prophets" as Recounted by Abū Isḥāq Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Thaʿlabī}}
- {{cite book |editor-first=Raif Georges |editor-last=Khoury |title=Les légendes prophétiques dans l'islam depuis le Ier jusqu'au IIIe siècle de l'Hégire |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz |year=1978}}
- {{EI2 |first=Raif Georges |last=Khoury |title=ʿUmāra b. Wat̲h̲īma |volume=10 |pages=835–836}}
- {{EI2 |first=Raif Georges |last=Khoury |title=Wat̲h̲īma b. Mūsā |volume=11 |pages=179–180}}
- {{cite book |last=Rosenthal |first=Franz |author-link=Franz Rosenthal |title=A History of Muslim Historiography |year=1968 |edition=2nd |publisher=E. J. Brill}}
- {{cite book |first=Boaz |last=Shoshan |title=Popular Culture in Medieval Cairo |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1993}}
- {{cite journal |first=Roberto |last=Tottoli |title=The Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ of Ibn Muṭarrif al-Ṭarafī (d. 454/1062): Stories of the Prophets from al-Andalus |journal=Al-Qantara |volume=19 |issue=1 |year=1998 |pages=131–160}}
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Category:9th-century historians from the Abbasid Caliphate