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Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ

Metadata

Gender
Male
Active dates
1055 – 1091 CE
Social role
Other
Other names
Abū Abdallāh
Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ṣāʾigh

Description / Bio

Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ was a Palermitan shipowner and merchant who had business ties with the Geniza merchants in the circle of Nahray b. Nissim, transporting their money, letters and other goods across the Mediterranean. Gil suggests his family were Jewish converts to Islam and perhaps came to Sicily from Andalusia. He was also the last known ruler of Muslim Palermo before the city surrendered to the Normans in 1072.

Life events

  1. Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ's rise to power in Palermo ()

    Bodl. MS heb. d 76/59 (PGPID 2573), T-S Misc.28.235 (PGPID 6060)

  2. Zakkār b. ʿAmmār becomes nagid of the Sicilian Jews ()

    Bodl. MS heb. d 76/59 (PGPID 2573), T-S Misc.28.235 (PGPID 6060)

  3. al-Shidda al-ʿUẓma ()

    al-Shidda al-ʿUẓma (the Great Calamity), a term coined by the Mamlūk historian al-Maqrīzī (d. 1442), refers to the catastrophic period in Egypt linked with a series of low Niles, famines, and civil war. Historians often refer to this period as the worst famine recorded in the history of Egypt and the most underdocumented period of Fatimid history.

    T-S 10J10.2 (PGPID 35184), ENA NS 16.28 (PGPID 11714), T-S 8J19.27 (PGPID 7670), CUL Or.1080 J17 (PGPID 4476)

Marina Rustow and Ksenia Ryzhova, "Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ," available online through the Princeton Geniza Project at https://geniza.princeton.edu/people/ibn-al-baba/, accessed December 21, 2024.
https://geniza.princeton.edu/people/ibn-al-baba/