Seerah Ibn Wasil — Jamal al-Din Muhammad ibn Salim ibn Wasil al-Hamawi (1207-1298 CE): The Syrian Historian and Diplomat Who Wrote Mufarrij al-Kurub fi Akhbar Bani Ayyub (The Dispeller of Distress Regarding the History of the Ayyubid Dynasty), Met the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II as an Ayyubid Ambassador, Taught Logic in France, and Died at Age Ninety-One After a Career Spanning the Ayyubid, Mamluk, and Mongol Periods

Seerah Ibn Wasil (سِيرَةُ ابنِ وَاصِل; full name: Jamal al-Din Muhammad ibn Salim ibn Wasil al-Hamawi; born 604 AH / 1207 CE in Hamah, Syria; died 697 AH / 1298 CE in Hamah; Shafi'i in fiqh; his extraordinary longevity: he was born the year before the Mongols would begin their westward expansion; he died 91 years later, having witnessed the fall of the Abbasid caliphate to the Mongols [1258], the Crusaders' departure from much of the Levant, the rise of the Mamluk sultanate, and the full arc of the Ayyubid period; the major work: Mufarrij al-Kurub fi Akhbar Bani Ayyub [مُفَرِّجُ الكُرُوبِ فِي أَخبَارِ بَنِي أَيُّوب — The Dispeller of Distress Regarding the History of the Ayyubid Dynasty]: a chronicle of the Ayyubid dynasty from its rise under Saladin through the period of Ibn Wasil's own life; 5 volumes; valuable because Ibn Wasil had personal relationships with many of the Ayyubid princes he described and was present at key events; the Frederick II encounter: Ibn Wasil served as an Ayyubid ambassador to the court of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1261 CE [or slightly earlier]; Frederick II was remarkable in the medieval West for his interest in Islamic philosophy and science; the encounter between Frederick's court and Ibn Wasil is one of the most documented instances of medieval Muslim-Christian intellectual exchange; Ibn Wasil taught logic [Aristotelian logic in the Arabic-Islamic tradition] at Sicilian and possibly French courts; he described Frederick as 'one of the greatest kings of the Franks, philosophically inclined, devoted to the rational sciences'; the logic teaching in the West: it is unclear exactly where Ibn Wasil taught — possibly Sicily under Frederick's patronage, possibly France; the accounts have been debated by modern scholars; what is not debated: his embassy to Frederick's court and the unusual intellectual exchange it produced; the diplomatic career: Ibn Wasil had a long diplomatic career serving various Ayyubid princes; he was attached to the court of al-Mansur of Hamah for decades; his longevity meant he served multiple rulers across a 70-year career; other works: Ibn Wasil also wrote on logic and philosophy — his practical career as a diplomat-philosopher is unusual; he wrote a text on logic; his range from historical chronicle to Aristotelian logic reflects the breadth of medieval Islamic scholarship; the Ayyubid history's value: the Mufarrij al-Kurub is a primary source for Ayyubid history with the unique advantage that Ibn Wasil personally knew many of the people he described and was present at some of the events; his longevity meant the chronicle could cover the entire Ayyubid period from insider perspective) is medieval Islam's diplomat-historian.