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Abū l-Ḥasan al-Dihqān

Metadata

Gender
Male
Dates
Active dates
1100 CE
Social role
  • Jewish community member

Description / Bio

Based in Fustat. A friend of Mukhtar b. Yaʿaqov, who sends him greetings in a letter addressed to Saʿid b. Naja. He also appears on a list of contributors to a communal collection below Yequtiʾel b. Moshe and Yefet b. Avraham. Al-Dihqān is a name of Persian origin meaning chief of a place; in Arabic, it comes to refer to a learned man. It appears in the Geniza as a nickname (al-Duhayqin) and eventually as a family name. According to al-Maqrīzī, Ittiʿāẓ, 3:165, the edict of 532 A.H. (year started 19 September 1137) forbade the use of Abū 'l-Ḥasan as a kunya among Jews and Christians. There are many Jews by this name in the Geniza.

Select bibliography

  1. S. D. Goitein and Mordechai Akiva Friedman, India traders of the middle ages : documents from the Cairo Geniza : India book (Brill, 2008), vol. 1.
Pratima Gopalakrishnan and Marina Rustow, "Abū l-Ḥasan al-Dihqān," available online through the Princeton Geniza Project at https://geniza.princeton.edu/people/abu-l-hasan-al-dihqan/, accessed June 10, 2026.
https://geniza.princeton.edu/people/abu-l-hasan-al-dihqan/