In 1243–1244, Ibn Wāṣil travelled with his relative
Manfred of Sicily. He met Manfred in Barletta. In 1264 or 1265, he moved back to Ḥamā, where he was appointed chief qāḍī. He spent most of his time writing. He was blind in old age, dying aged 93 years according to the Islamic calendar.[1]
Works
Pages from Ibn Wāṣil's commentary in verse on Ibn al-Ḥājib
Ibn Wāṣil wrote in Arabic. He wrote four works on logic, only two of which survive; four works of history; two works on poetry; and works on philosophical theology, astronomy and medicine, the last two being lost.[3]
Ibn Wāṣil belonged to the "western" school of logic associated with
Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī. In his work against logic, Ibn Taymiyya referred to Ibn Wāṣil as a "leading philosopher". His works on logic include two commentaries on the work of the Egyptian logician al-Khūnajī. The commentary on al-Khūnajī's al-Jumal fiʾl-manṭiq ('The Sum of Logic') was his most popular logical work and survives in four manuscript, including three bearing the dates AH 680 (AD 1281), 738 (1337–1338) and 746 (1345). The other commentary on al-Khūnajī does not survive.[3] Ibn Wāṣil also wrote a logical treatise, al-Risāla al-anbrūriyya ('The Imperial Treatise'), for King Manfred of Sicily.[1][3] This survives in a single manuscript from 1281 under the title Nukhbat al-fikar fī tathqīf al-naẓar. Ibn Wāṣil later revised this treatise under the title Nukhbat al-fikar fiʾl-manṭiq ('The Pick of Reflection on Logic').[3]
The first of Ibn Wāṣil's histories is Taʾrīkh al-Ṣāliḥī ('The Ṣāliḥī History'), a general history of Islam from the time of
Muḥammad to the year AH 636/637 (AD 1239/1240). It was first dedicated to Sultan al-Ṣāliḥ Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb sometime between 1244 and 1249, and then re-dedicated to al-Muʿaẓẓam Tūrānshāh after the death of al-Ṣāliḥ in 1249.[1][4] The second is Naẓm al-durar fi ʾl-ḥawādith wa ʾl-siyar, dedicated to Sultan Tūrānshāh (1249–1250).[1] The third is Mufarrij al-kurūb fī akhbār Banī Ayyūb ('The Dissipater of Anxieties on the Reports of the Ayyubids'), a history of the Ayyubids down to 1263 and his most valuable work for later historians.[1][4] It was written at Ḥamā between 1272 and 1285.[1] Although ending in 1263, it contains a reference to the battle of Benevento in 1266.[4] It survives in four incomplete manuscripts, but the complete text can be reconstructed from these.[1]
Ibn Wāṣil wrote two works on poetry. The Tajrīd al-Aghānī (or Mukhtaṣar al-Aghānī) is a summary of the 10th-century Kitāb al-aghānī, a collection of poems performed at various courts. It was commissioned by the Emir
Ibn al-Ḥājib. Two copies are known, but the work spawned a series of commentaries in the following century.[3]
Although he received a religious education, Ibn Wāṣil's interest lay in the rational sciences. His only work on religion falls in the realm of
Ibn Wāṣil al-Ḥamawī (2022). Khaled El-Rouayheb (ed.). Commentary on the Jumal on Logic. Brill.
Hirschler, Konrad (2014). "Ibn Wāṣil: An Ayyūbid Perspective on Frankish Lordships and Crusades". In Alex Mallett (ed.). Medieval Muslim Historians and the Franks in the Levant. Brill. pp. 136–160.
