Qudama ibn Ja'far · Islam Museum

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Depth

At a glance

Roles: writer
Counted among: Sunni
Era: Abbasid Fragmentation
Region: Levant & Iraq
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Life in time

The Early Abbasid Caliphate · Abbasid Fragmentation · The Buyid, Fatimid and Seljuk Era Contemporaries: Ibn al-Akhram · Ibn al-A'rabi, Ahmad ibn Muhammad · Khaythama ibn Sulayman al-Atrabulusi · Al-Mundhir al-Balluti · Al-Isma'ili, Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Ibrahim

Place in the story

ScholarTradition

Roles are dated and sourced; the museum describes the act and attributes the judgement.

Overview

Abu al-Faraj Qudama ibn Ja'far, a writer and critic. His grandfather was a Christian who embraced Islam, and his father was a scribe. ¹

The encyclopedia says he was born in 275 AH (888 CE) and died in 337 AH (948 CE). ¹

People and things also explored

al-Tanahmir: the Himyaritic speech remnant· Arab naming of children after plants· The delegation of Banu Tamim and the boasting contest· Ka'b ibn Zuhayr's pardon and recitation of Banat Su'ad· Khuza'a's appeal to Medina· Salim ibn Umayr's mission to kill Abu Afak· Umayr ibn Adi al-Khatmi's mission to kill Asma' bint Marwan· The killing of Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf

Sources

Mawsu'at A'lam al-Ulama' wa-l-Adaba' al-Arab wa-l-Muslimin — Dar al-Jil / ALECSO

Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Qudama ibn Ja'far”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/qudama-ibn-jafar/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-16.

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People

Prophets, companions, scholars, rulers, scientists, poets, travelers: women and men who shaped the story. Related

al-Tanahmir: the Himyaritic speech remnant

Al-Hamdani's register of the peninsula's tongues records that the highland Himyar and Ja'da keep 'something of tanahmir' — Himyaritic speech — eliding consonants: 'bi-bn Ma'am' for 'bi-bn al-'amm', 'simmi'' for 'isma''. He counts Kinda and Hamdan the most eloquent of the south, says Mahra's speech resembles the 'ajam's, and names Nahj, Abyan and Dathina the purest — the earliest detailed witness to Old Himyaritic surviving on fourth-century tongues.