Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad ibnAḥmad ibn Yūsuf al-Kātib al-Khwārizmī, also referred to as al-Balkhī or al-Kātib al-Khwārizmī,, was a 10th-century Hanafi scholar and writer. He is best known as the author of the early encyclopedia Mafātīḥ al-ʿulūm in the Arabic language.
Life
Al-Khwarizmi is a somewhat obscure figure. He was born in Balkh and lived in Nishapur. His date of birth is unknown; he was actively working and writing in the latter part of the tenth century and died in 387/997. He may have been a nephew of al-Tabari, the Persian historian. Some have described him as a "Mujaddid". For a time, he worked as a clerk in the Samanid court at Bukhara in Transoxania, where he acquired his nickname, “al-Katib’’ which literally means “the secretary” or “the scribe”. While at the Samanid court, he compiled his best-known work, Mafātīḥ al-ʿulūm , an early Islamic encyclopedia of the sciences, intended as a reference work for court officials. It was produced at the request of Abū l-Ḥasan al-ʿUtbī a vizier in the court of Amir, Nuh II. and the work is dedicated to al-Utbi which establishes a date for its completion of around 977. In Nishapur, Al-Khwarizmi wrote a number of rihla, of which only fragments survive. Locally, he achieved great fame as a leading scholar and writer. However, his reputation was eclipsed following the arrival of an aspiring young scholar and writer, Badi' al-Zaman al-Hamadani in 383/992. Hamadani composed a new form of prose that gained enormous popularity firstly in Nishapur and later across the Arabic speaking world. This innovative genre that became known as maqama. Al-Khwārizmīand Hamadani fell into competition with each other, exchanged insults and they eventually fell out.
Work
Al-Khwārizmī authored a work on Arabic grammar, Kitāb kifāyat al-Mutaḥaffiẓ . However, he is best known as the author of Mafātīḥ al-ʿulūm, an early Islamic Encyclopedia of the Sciences. A monumental work, Mafātīḥ al-ʿulūm is part lexicography and part encyclopedia. Scholars regard it as the first attempt to document the Islamic sciences. The work includes sections on mathematics, alchemy, medicine and meteorology.
Only limited selections of Mafātīḥ al-ʻulūm have been translated into English. Notable editions and translations include:
Gerlog van Volten, Kitāb Liber Mafātīḥ al-ʻulūm, Leiden, Brill, 1895 - many reprints.
Al-Khashshāb, Y. and al-ʻArīnī, B., ضبط وتحقيق الالفاظ الإستلهية التنخية الواردة فى كتاب مفاتبح العلوم للخورزم / /ليحيى الخشاب، الباز العريني. Controlling and realizing the developmental vocabulary contained in the book of Mufatih, Cairo, 1958
Bosworth, C.E.,“Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Khwārizmīon the Technical Terms of the Secretary’s Art”, Journal of the Social and Economic History of the Orient, vol. 12, pp 112-164
Bosworth, C.E.,Al-Hwarazmi on Theology and Sects: The Chapter of Kalam in the Mafatih al-Ulum,Bulletin d'études Orientales, T. 29, MÉLANGES OFFERTS A HENRI LAOUST, VOLUME PREMIER, 1977, pp 85-95 https://www.jstor.org/stable/41604610
Hajudan, H., A Persian Translation of Mafātīḥ al-ʻulūm, Tehran, 1928
