Seerah Ibn al-Athir al-Jazari — Izz al-Din Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Abd al-Karim al-Jazari Ibn al-Athir (1160-1233 CE): The Mosul Historian Who Wrote al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh (The Complete in History), a Universal Chronicle From Creation to 1231 CE, and al-Nihayah fi Gharib al-Hadith (The Ultimate on Unusual Hadith Vocabulary), One of the Most-Consulted Reference Works on Hadith Arabic

Seerah Ibn al-Athir al-Jazari (سِيرَةُ ابنِ الأَثِيرِ الجَزَرِيّ; full name: 'Izz al-Din Abu al-Hasan 'Ali ibn Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Karim ibn 'Abd al-Wahid al-Jazari al-Shaybani; born 555 AH / 1160 CE in Jazira ibn 'Umar [modern Cizre in southeastern Turkey]; died 630 AH / 1233 CE in Mosul; Shafi'i; Atabet al-Athir: he was one of three brothers, all scholars: [1] 'Izz al-Din [the historian, subject of this article]; [2] Majd al-Din [the hadith scholar, 1149-1210 CE, wrote al-Nihayah and Jami' al-Usul]; [3] Diya' al-Din [the literary critic and writer, 1163-1239 CE]; the three Ibn al-Athir brothers were among the most prolific scholarly families of the 12th-13th century; NOTE: al-Nihayah fi Gharib al-Hadith was actually written by Majd al-Din ibn al-Athir, not 'Izz al-Din — 'Izz al-Din is primarily the historian; biographies sometimes conflate the brothers; al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh [الـكَامِلُ فِي التَّارِيخ — The Complete in History]: [1] scope: universal history from creation through 1231 CE [12 years before Ibn al-Athir's death — he died before completing it]; [2] structure: annalistic [organized by year] after the earliest periods; [3] sources: heavily draws on al-Tabari's Tarikh for early periods, then uses additional sources as he approaches his own time; he was critical of later historians and sought to correct errors; [4] the Crusades: Ibn al-Athir's account of the Crusades is one of the most valuable Arabic sources; he lived through the period and had access to Zengid/Ayyubid court records and oral sources; his account of Saladin's campaigns against the Crusaders is detailed and important; [5] the Mongols: his account of the early Mongol invasions [which he witnessed the beginnings of] is vivid and terrifying; his descriptions convey the scale of the catastrophe for the Islamic world; his phrase describing the Mongol invasion as unprecedented disaster — no previous catastrophe comparable since Adam — became famous; his contribution to historical methodology: Ibn al-Athir synthesized his sources carefully, corrected chronological errors in al-Tabari, added context and analysis, and used annalistic format with more thematic coherence than pure chronicle form; the Usd al-Ghabah: another major work by Ibn al-Athir; a biographical dictionary of the Companions of the Prophet; 7,500+ Companions covered; major source for hadith scholars seeking information on transmitters; the family's contributions: between the three brothers, the Ibn al-Athir family contributed a universal history [Kamil], a hadith vocabulary dictionary [Nihayah by Majd al-Din], a comprehensive hadith compilation [Jami' al-Usul by Majd al-Din], literary criticism [Diya' al-Din's al-Mathal al-Sa'ir], and Companion biographies [Usd al-Ghabah by 'Izz al-Din] — an extraordinary concentrated scholarly output) is the Mosul school's universal historian.