Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Kindi


Abu Umar Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Kindi was a prominent Arab historian.

Biography

A descendant of the tribe of Banu Kindah, al-Kindi was born in Egypt to the Tujib clan. Although few details of his life are known, he is reported to have received an education on the Quran and hadith under Ali ibn al-Hasan ibn Qudayd and Abu Abd al-Rhaman al-Nasa'i, and was later a transmitter of hadith himself. As a faqih he belonged to the Hanafi school of jurisprudence. He died in Fustat in 961 and was succeeded in his literary work by his son Umar.
Al-Kindi is chiefly famous for his two surviving works, Tasmiyat Wulat Misr and Al-Qudat, which together represent a key source of Egyptian provincial history and its political and legal institutions during the early Islamic era. Rulers, which provides an account of the governors of Egypt appointed by the caliphs and the major events that took place during their administrations, covers the period from the Islamic conquest in 641 until the death of Muhammad ibn Tughj al-Ikhshid in 946, with a supplemental continuation by an unknown author extending to the coming of the Fatimids in 969. Judges is dedicated to the succession of Egyptian qadis from 661 until 861, with two continuations that extend to the mid-eleventh century. Both works represent an early example of provincial historiography and have been used extensively by later authors.
The two works are preserved in a manuscript held by the British Museum. An edited version was published under the title The Governors and Judges of Egypt by Rhuvon Guest in 1912.

List of works

Another surviving work, the "Virtues of Egypt" is sometimes attributed to al-Kindi, but is believed to have instead been produced by his son Umar.