Ibn Abd al-Hakam

Abu'l Qāsim ʿAbd ar-Raḥman bin ʿAbdullah bin ʿAbd al-Ḥakam bin Aʿyan al-Qurashī al-Mașrī (Egyptian Arabic: أبو القاسم عبد الرحمن بن عبد الله بن عبد الحكم بن اعين القرشي المصري‎‎), generally known simply as Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam (born : 187 A.H/ 803 A.D- died 257 A.H/ 871 A.D at al-Fustat near Cairo) was an Egyptian Muslim historian who wrote a work generally known as The Conquest of Egypt and North Africa and Spain (Arabic: فتح مصر و المغرب و الاندلس‎‎, Futūḥ mișr wa'l maghrab wa'l andalus). This work is considered one of the earliest Arabic Islamic histories to have survived to the present day.

The author's father ʿAbdullah and brother Muhammad were the leading Egyptian authorities of their time (early 9th century) on Malikite Islamic law. After the father's death, the family were persecuted by the caliph Al-Wathiq for their adherence to orthodox doctrine. Although much quoted by early traditionists and historians, they are rarely mentioned by name because of a family disgrace. In the reign of the caliph Al-Mutawakkil the historian and his brothers were accused of embezzlement of a deceased estate, imprisoned, and one of the brothers even died under torture.

ʿAbd ar-Raḥman ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam was, strictly speaking, a traditionist rather than a pure historian. He was interested mainly in historical incidents which illustrated early Muslim Arab customs which he could use to teach Islamic law. His sources were books compiled by very early traditionists and now lost, and oral sources such as his own father.

Four manuscripts survive of the author's historical work, all of them considered to derive from a single copy originally perhaps made by one of his students. Two of these are titled simply Futūḥ mișr (Arabic: فتح مصر‎‎, Conquest of Egypt), one is titled Futūḥ mișr wa akhbārahā (Arabic: فتح مصر و أخبارها‎‎, Conquest of Egypt and some account of it, i.e. of the country), and one has the fuller title given at the head of this article.

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