Abu'l-Fida

Abu al-Fida (Arabic: أبو الفداء‎; or Abul-Fida' al-Ḥamawi or Abul Fida Ismail Hamvi, fully Abu Al-fida' Isma'il Ibn 'ali ibn Mahmud Al-malik Al-mu'ayyad 'imad Ad-din; also transliterated Abulfeda, Abu Alfida, etc.; November 1273 – October 27, 1331) was a Kurdishhistorian, geographer and local governor of Hama. He was a prince of the Ayyubid dynasty and the author of The memoirs of a Syrian prince: Abu'l-Fidāʼ, Sultan of Ḥamāh. The crater Abulfeda on the Moon, is named after him.

Life

Abu'l-Fida was born in Damascus, where his father Malik ul-Afdal, brother of emir Al-Mansur Muhammad II of Hama, had fled from the Mongols.

In his boyhood he devoted himself to the study of the Qur'an and the sciences, but from his twelfth year onward, he was almost constantly engaged in military expeditions, chiefly against the crusaders.

In 1285 he was present at the assault of a stronghold of the Knights of St. John, and took part in the sieges of Tripoli, Acre and Qal'at ar-Rum. In 1298 he entered the service of the Mamluk Sultan Malik al-Nasir and after twelve years was invested by him with the governorship of Hama. In 1312 he became prince with the title Malik us-Salhn, and in 1320 received the hereditary rank of sultan with the title Malik ul-Mu'ayyad.