Ibn Abī al-Rijāl, Aḥmad

▪ Yemeni scholar

in full  Aḥmad Ibn Abī al-Rijāl ibn Ṣāliḥ 

born July 1620, al-Shabaṭ, Arabia

died March 1681, Sanaa

      Yemeni scholar and theologian, who is the best source of historical information on the little-known sect of Shīʿī Muslims in Yemen called the Zaydīs (Zaydīyah).

      After completing his education, Ibn Abī al-Rijāl joined the religious-bureaucratic establishment and reached the important rank of secretary and court orator under the rule of Ismāʿīl al-Mutawakkil, the Zaydī spiritual and temporal ruler of Yemen.

      Ibn Abī al-Rijāl was a scholar of some renown; most of his works are lost, however, and only their titles remain. Of special note among his surviving works is a biographical dictionary of 1,300 Zaydī leaders of Yemen and Iraq, his Maṭlaʿ al-budūr wa-majmaʿ al-buḥūr (“Rising of the Moons and Meeting of the Seas”). The Maṭlaʿ, now a standard source, is particularly important because the Zaydīs were extremely secretive about their beliefs.

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