Ibn abd al-Malik al-Marrakushi or al-Murrakushi (Full name: Abu abd Allah Muhammed ibn Muhammed ibn abd al-Malik al-Marrakushi Arabic: أبو عبد الله محمد بن محمد بن عبد الملك المراكشي ) (b. 5 July 1237 – September 1303) was a Moroccan Arab scholar, historian, judge and biographer. He is the author of the famous book 'Ad-Dayl wa Takmila', a nine-volume biographical encyclopaedia of notable people from Morocco and al-Andalus.

Life

Born into a notable family of prestigious Arab lineage in Marrakech,^[1] hence the nisba, al-Marrakushi. In 1300, Ibn Abd al-Malik left Marrakech following the court of the Marinid King Abu Yaqub Yusuf an-Nasr and settled in Mansourah, where the Marinids were besieging Tlemcen in an attempt to oust the Abd al-Wadid dynasty. He seems to have died there three years later in September 1303, despite reports of him being at Aghmat only three months earlier.^[2] He had a son who settled in Málaga where he became a close friend of Ibn al-Khatib. The latter based much of his biographical book Al-Ihata on the works of Ibn abd al-Malik.^[2]

Work

• Ad-Dayl wa Takmila (الذيل والتكملة) ('Appendix and Supplement'); Ibn abd al-Malik's biographical dictionary and life's work completed months before his death. His intention to complete the biographical dictionaries of Ibn Bashkuwāl and Ibn al-Faraḍī resulted in this surpassing sequel.^[2] Of the nine original, approx., 700 page volumes, four volumes survive intact—vols. 1, 5, 6, 8. Two more survive in part—vols. 2 and 4. The work is rich in detail. Some inaccurate renderings in name pronunciation arise from the Arabic writing system.^[2][3][4][5]

Al-Dhayl wa-al-takmilah : li-kitābay al-Mawṣūl wa-al-Ṣilah (الذيل والتكملة لكتابي الموصول والصلة)^[6]