محمد بن زياد الأعرابي

Overview

Muhammad ibn Ziyad al-A'rabi, a philologist. Al-Suyuti mentions him in a report involving the caliph al-Ma'mun. ¹

The daughters of Tariq

Al-Ma'mun asked him about "the daughters of Tariq" in the verses of Hind bint Utba, and he did not know her lineage. Al-Ma'mun explained that she meant the star, and claimed kinship with it for her beauty. Muhammad said: "A useful point, Commander of the Faithful." Al-Ma'mun then gave him an amber piece that he had been turning in his hand, and he sold it for five thousand dirhams. ¹

The year of his death and the details of his lineage need an additional source.

Bayt al-Hikma — the House of Wisdom

The House of Wisdom at Baghdad, the greatest library whose report survives from the first Abbasid age: al-Rashid laid its nucleus and al-Ma'mun enlarged and strengthened it. Al-Rashid put Yuhanna ibn Masawayh over the translation of the ancient medical books found in Byzantine lands with skilled scribes writing before him; Abu Sahl al-Fadl ibn Nawbakht rendered Persian wisdom-books into Arabic in its khizana, and Allan al-Shu'ubi copied for al-Rashid, al-Ma'mun and the Barmakids. Al-Ma'mun widened it, sending to the Byzantine emperor for the ancient sciences an embassy of al-Hajjaj ibn Matar, Ibn al-Bitriq and Salm the master of the House, and making Sahl ibn Harun keeper of its treasuries — though its precise organisation and site remain wrapped in obscurity.

محمد بن زياد الأعرابي

At a glance

Overview

The daughters of Tariq

Connections

People and things also explored

Sources

People

Bayt al-Hikma — the House of Wisdom