Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad

Who was Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad?

Bahā' ad-Dīn Yusuf ibn Rafi ibn Shaddād was a 12th-century Muslim jurist and scholar, a Kurdish historian of great note, notable for writing a biography of Saladin whom he knew well.

Ibn Shaddād was born in Mosul on 10 Ramadan 539 AH, where he studied the Qur'an, hadith, and Muslim law before moving to the Nizamiyya madrasa in Baghdad where he rapidly became mu'id. About 1173, he returned to Mosul as mudarris. In 1188, returning from Hajj, ibn Shaddād was summoned by Saladin who had read and been impressed by his writings. He was "permanently enrolled" in the service of Saladin, who appointed him qadi al-'askar. In this capacity, he was an eye witness at the Siege of Acre and the Battle of Arsuf and provided "a vivid chronicle of the Third Crusade". Saladin and ibn Shaddād soon became close friends and the sultan appointed him to several high administrative and judicial offices. Ibn Shaddād remained an intimate and trusted friend of Saladin, "seldom absent for any length of time", as well as one of his main advisers, for the rest of the sultan's life. After Saladin's death, ibn Shaddād was appointed qadi of Aleppo. He died in Aleppo on 14 Safar 632 AH, aged 89 years.