Back to People

(Ibn) Najīb al-Dawla

Metadata

Gender
Male
Social role
State official

Description / Bio

Ali b. Ibrahim b. Najib al-Dawla (d. 519/1128) was a Fatimid state official who was formerly the secretary (kātib) of al-Afdal and was sent to Yemen to be at the service of the Sulayhid empress, a vassal of the Fatimids, Arwa bt. Aḥmad, also known known as al-Ḥurra al-Malika. Some sources report that he remained loyal for a few years but ultimately tried to undermine her authority and restrict her powers. She reportedly sent him back to Cairo in a wooden cage and he was thrown overboard and drowned on the journey. The fact that Ibn Najīb al-Dawla is known not by his own laqab but by his father’s may indicate that his father was an important official.

Select bibliography

  1. Marina Rustow, "A Letter from a Fatimid Official Recycled by ʿAlī b. Sulaymān for Qirqisānī Extracts: rnl Yevr.-Arab. i 1986," in Religious and Intellectual Diversity in the Islamicate World and Beyond Volume I: Essays in Honor of Sarah Stroumsa (Leiden: Brill, 2024), 50-71.
Yusuf Umrethwala, "(Ibn) Najīb al-Dawla," available online through the Princeton Geniza Project at https://geniza.princeton.edu/people/ibn-najib-al-dawla/, accessed January 20, 2025.
https://geniza.princeton.edu/people/ibn-najib-al-dawla/