Historian
(B. 1117, Meyyafarikin [Silvan] - D.) Full name is Ahmad b. Yusuf b. Ali b.
El-Ezra and he is the member of one of
the leading families in the city where he was born. His grandfather Abu'l-Hasan
'Ali b. hand-Ezra, was the Minister of Hisinkeyf (today Hasankeyf) during the
end period of Merwanis also he was in the delegation bringing some requests of
towns people from Meyyâfârikîn to forward the Seljuk Sultan.
Although
we do not have sufficient information about his childhood of Ibnu'l Ezrak; it
is certain that he was raised differently from his peers. He was keen in
reading and travelling; and he made his first trip to Baghdad and took lessons
from famous scholars of the period. He read Tecvid and Qur'an in Baghdad next
to Abu Mansur er-Rezzâz; and he learned language and grammar from Ebu Mansûr
el-Cevâlîkî hadith from İbnu’s-Semerkandî and Kadı Ebu Bekr el-Bâkıllânî and
feraiz from Ebu’l-Muzaffer b. eş-Şehrezûrî. He was mostly interested in
history. Therefore he focused on history and read the important historical
resources that have been written up to his time; also he studied the
geographical and literary works with an interest in history.
Ibnu'l
Ezrak as visited cities such as Tabriz, Rey, Mosul, Harran, Aleppo, Hama, Homs,
Menbic, Ra'su'l-Ayn and Damascus; and understood the Islamic geography of his
time very well. He visited Georgia and worked at Georgian King Dimitri's
service in Tbilisi. Ibn'ul Ezrak had various duties throughout his life and his
first first official duty in the area was as Minister of Awqaf Meyyâfârikîn.
Then he worked as Minister of Hisnikeyf and as Damascus Foundations Minister.
His
famous work is named as Târih-i Meyyâfârikîn or Târih-i Meyyâfârikîn ve Âmid;
but its most famous name is Târihu’l-Fârikî and although it seems to be written
in order to explain the history of Meyyâfârikîn it also contains biographies of
many caliphs, sultans, emirs and viziers, scholars; therefore it is considered
as an important source. The only known
copies of this important work are in the British Museum, England. Some
researchers are of the opinion that this work should be three volumes. The
author himself often says:"this issue, we mentioned in the first part of
our book" is understood to refer to the well and the previous pages and
volumes. Târih-i Meyyâfârikîn ve Âmid is valuable as it focuses on issues not
covered by important Islamic historians such as İbnu’l-Esîr, Ebu’l-Fidâ. When
we compare the works of those historians with Târih-i Meyyâfârikîn ve Âmid; we
can see that Ibn'ul-Ezrak give the same information in shorter but more
satisfying version. İbnu’l-Ezrak is also very valuable as he refers to many
valuable sources which are among the historical works but did not reach today;
thereby making them known today.
The
chapter named Mervanis of this book was published in Cairo in 1959 by Bedevi A.
Avad; and it was translated by Emin M. Bozarslan under the name "History
of Marwanid Kurds" and published in 1975. The chapter of the work about
the Artuks was prepared as a doctoral thesis under the name "A Critical
Edition of Artuqid Secturu in Tarikh Mayyafariqin wa Amid" by Ahmet
Savran, then translated into Turkish and published by Ataturk University
Publications.
REFERENCE:
Şevket Beysanoğlu / Diyarbakırlı Fikir ve Sanat Adamları (Ankara 1996, I/9-13),
Prof. Dr. Faruk Toprak / "İbnü'l Ezrak" (İhsan Işık / Diyarbakır
Ansiklopedisi, 2013).