Ibn al-Muqaffa‘

Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa
Born	Firuzabad, Fars, Iran
Died	AH 139 (756/757) or AH 142 (759/760) Basra, Abbasid Caliphate
Occupation	Author and translator

Abū Muhammad ʿAbd Allāh Rūzbih ibn Dādūya (Persian: ابو محمد عبدالله روزبه ابن دادویه‎‎), original Persian name Rōzbih pūr-i Dādōē روزبه پور دادویه, known as Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ (Arabic: ابن المقفع‎‎), (died c. 756/759), was an ethnic Persian translator, author and thinker who wrote in the Arabic language.

Ibn al-Muqaffa, though a resident of Basra, was originally from the town of Goor (or Gur, Firuzabad, Fars) in the Iranian province of Fars and was born to a family of local notables. His father had been a state official in charge of taxes under the Umayyads, and after being accused and convicted of embezzling some of the money entrusted to him, was punished by the ruler by having his hand crushed, hence the name Muqaffa (shrivelled hand). Ibn al-Muqaffa served in sectarial posts under the Umayyad governors of Shapur and Kirman. Unlike his other colleagues, he escaped persecution at the hands of Abbasids after their overthrow of the Umayyad dynasty. He later returned to Basra and served as a secretary under Isa ibn Ali and Sulayman ibn Ali, the uncles of the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur. After their brother Abdallah ibn Ali made an abortive bid for the throne, they asked Ibn al-Muqaffa to write a letter to the Caliph to not to retaliate against his uncle and pardon him. The language of the letter offended al-Mansur who wished to be rid of Ibn al-Muqaffa. He was executed around 756 or 759 AD by the governor of Basra. A defense of Manichaean dualism and a few lines of prose written in imitation of the Quran have been ascribed to him. Whether authentic or not, and despite his conversion to Islam, these texts contributed to his posthumous reputation as a heretic.

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