Book Review: Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-‘Imād al-Kātib alAsfahānī. Nusrat al-fatrah wa ‘usrat al-fitrah. ed. Issam Mustafa Okleh. 2 vols. London: Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation, Centre for the Study of Islamic Manuscripts, 2019. pp. 443, 598. ISBN: 978-1-78814-533-6

Abstract

‘Imād al-Dīn al-Isfahānī belonged to a distinguished family of the 6th/12th centuries, members of which held high positions in the Seljuk government such as clerk and vizier. After his primary education in al-Ray and al-Kāshān, ‘Imād al-Dīn went to Baghdād and studied under several scholars at al-Nizāmiyah in Baghdād (534/1139). After his education at al-Nizāmiyah, he came back to al-Isfahān in 543 (1119) and then six years later returned to Baghdād. After his second arrival in the ‘Abbāsīd capital, ‘Imād al-Dīn was appointed as a nāib of vizier by Ibn al-Hubayra in Wāsit. After the suspicious death of Ibn al-Hubayra (559/1164), he remained in custody for a time, and later went to Damascus and served as a kātib and mushrif of Dīvān al-Inshā in the Zangī and Ayyūbīd administrations. But after the death of Salah al-Dīn, ‘Imād al-Dīn fell out of favor with the authorities and went to live in Egypt for approximately a year. Finally, he returned to Damascus and died there on 1 Ramadan 597 (5 June 1201). This study aims to introduce and evaluate the new publication of Nusrat al-fatrah wa ‘usrat al-fitrah, which has been in writing so far, by ‘Imād al-Dīn al-Isfahānī, who was one of the leading historians and scholars of his period.