Mohammed al-Baydhaq

Moroccan historian

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Abu Bakr Mohammed ibn Ali al Sanhaji al-Baydhaq (Arabic: أبو بكر محمد بن علي الصنهاجي البيذق) (died after 1164) was a Moroccan historian mainly known as a companion of Ibn Tumart and chronicler of the Almohads. Al-Baydhaq (meaning pawn) was his nickname, because he was small in stature. He was from the tribe of Senhaja.

The title of his main work is: Al moqtabass min kitabi al anssab fi maärifati al ashab (written ca. 1150).^[1] It is the most important source on the period. Written in Classical Arabic, Berber words, names and sayings are used throughout the text, making it an important work for scholars of the medieval Berber language.

References

^ Al-Baydhaq (Abû Bakr ibn 'Alî al-Sinhâdjî), Histoire des Almohades, texte et traduction É. Lévi-Provençal, « Documents inédits d'histoire almohade », Paris, Geuthner, 1928, includes Kitab al-Muwahiddin, i.e. the chronicles of the Almohads, letters and sermons by Ibn Tumart and Abd al-Mumin and Ibn Tumart's biography from the first person perspective of al-Baydhaq.

Akhbār al-Mahdī Ibn Tūmart wa-bidāyat dawlat al-Muwaḥḥidīn (or. text in Arabic) ed. Al-Ribā, 1971
Ed. in Algeria as: Kitāb Akhbār al-Mahdī ibn Tūmart (Algiers: al-Mu’assasa al-Waṭaniyya li-l-Kitāb, 1982)