İbn Nübâte

10th Century scholar and orator. B. 946 in Meyyafarikin (Silvan), Diyarbakir. He is from the Huzak village of Meyyafarikin; so he is also referred as Huzaki. Ibn Nubate was famous with his orations; and it is understood that he was from an important family back then as he, his sons and grandsons were orators and judges in the city. 250 years after Ibn Nubate; Egyptian Ayyubi Sultan el-Malikul Kamil has sent his men to Meyyafarikin in 1232 and called his grandson Celaleddin b. Nubate to Egypt as diwan clerk.  Also, famous poet Ibn Nubate el-Misri (1366) is one of the grandsons of Ibn Nubate.

He started to serve for Hamdani Ruler Seyfuddevle in Aleppo after his education (944-967). Seyfuddevle was in war with the Byzantine.  Ibn Nubate encouraged the people to fight against the Byzantine with his orations. Seyfuddevle was a great commander and statesman; he also brought many scholars together in his palace where they argued with each other. Ibn Nubate also participated in these discussions; meeting with other scholars, poets and authors. One of the important figures he met was the famous poet Ebu’t-Tayyib el-Mütenebbî. They were very close friends; Mutenebbi read more than half of his Diwan to him. It seems that his duty as an orator continued for a while after the death of Seyfuddevle. He died in 984 at his birth place Meyyafarik and he was buried in there.

He was a great speaker, orator and a strong believer. There were many epics written for him. According to one of those; after reading his el-Hutbetü’l-menamiyye (dream hutbe), he saw Prophet Mohammad in his dream and Mohammad told him: "Come closer you gretest orator", he repeated his khutbah, the Mohammad kissed his face and spit in his mouth. Ibn Nubate woke up and told the story to the people around him; and as the people who witnessed this explain, he had an enlightenment and goodness after that. It is stated that Ibn Nubate did not want to lose the flavor and smell in his mouth to due Mohammad's spit; so he did not eat anything and passed away. This epic is important as it shows us the position of Ibn Nubate in the eyes of vast public.

Only some orations are left from this great author. The orations that came so far were compiled with the orations of his son Ebu Tahir Muhammed b. Abdurrahim and his grandson Ebu'l Ferec Tahir in 1233.

These orations are perfect literature works and they were examined by several scholars, criticized and annotations were written about those.

Ibn Ebi’l-Hadîd (d. 656/1358) Şerhu Nehci’l-Belâğa (I/24, II/93, V/151-152, VII/211-216, XI/162, XIII/114) İbnu’l-Esîr el-Meselü’s-Sâir (I/278, 363-364, III/204-205), Yakut el-Hamevî, Mucemü’l-Udebâ (XIII/53) all mention about his works.  Also, the Great ıslamic Scholars Tacüddin İbn Ebi’l-Yümn b. Hasan el-Kindî (d. 613/1216), Ebu’l-Bekâ Abdullah b. Hüseyin el-Ukberî (d. 616/1219), Muvaffakuddin Abdüllatif el-Bağdâdî (d. 629/1231), Osman b. Yusuf el-Kalyûbî (d. 644/1246) (Keşfu’z-zunûn, I/714), Abdurrahman b. İbrahim el-Bârizî (d. 683/1294), eş-Şeyh Tahir el-Cezâirî (d.1920) have written annotations but only eş-Şeyh Tahir el-Cezâirî's annotation was published. (Beirut 1311/1893) (pls look Brockelmann, Târîhu’l-edebi’l-arabî, II, 108-110).

His orations were mostly about the love of prophet, preparation for Armageddon, obeying the religious and moral rules and Jihad and his scripts can be found in almost all of the libraries. They were published several times in Cairo (1302/1884) and in Beirut (1308/1890, 1310/1892, 1311/1893 and 1312/1894)

REFERENCE: Prof. Dr. Hulusi Kılıç / “Ortaçağ’da Diyarbakır Alimleri” (Haçlı Seferlerinin 900üncü Yıldönümünde Uluslararası Selahaddin-i Eyyubi Sempozyumu 23-24 1996 (1997) - "İbn Nübâte" (İhsan Işık / Diyarbakır Ansiklopedisi, 2013) – Geçmişten Günümüze Diyarbakırlı İlim Adamları Yazarlar ve Sanatçılar (2014) - Resimli ve Metin Örnekli Türkiye Edebiyatçılar ve Kültür Adamları Ansiklopedisi (V. 12, 2015).